Scaling Scrum: Overcoming Challenges with the Scaled Professional Scrum Course
As someone who has navigated the complexities of scaling Scrum, I can tell you that the journey is both rewarding and fraught with challenges. The Scaled Professional Scrum (SPS) course is designed to equip you with the skills necessary to tackle these challenges head-on. In this post, I want to share my insights and experiences from this hands-on, activity-based course, which has proven invaluable for teams looking to expand their Scrum practices.
The Need for Scaling
Even after achieving success with Scrum, many teams find themselves constrained by the volume of work they can handle and the value they can deliver. This is where scaling becomes essential. When you scale, you’re not just adding more teams; you’re creating a cohesive unit of Scrum teams working collaboratively on the same product. However, this transition is not without its hurdles.
Common Challenges in Scaling
When scaling Scrum, teams often encounter several common challenges:
- Cross-Team Dependencies: As teams grow, so do the interdependencies between them. Managing these dependencies effectively is crucial for maintaining momentum.
- Self-Management: Ensuring that teams remain self-managing while coordinating with others can be a delicate balance.
- Transparency and Accountability: With more teams involved, maintaining transparency and accountability becomes increasingly complex.
Many organisations turn to heavyweight scaling methodologies in an attempt to address these issues. However, I’ve seen firsthand how this can lead to added overhead that distracts teams from the core principles and benefits of Scrum.
The Nexus Framework
The SPS course builds on the Nexus framework, which is specifically designed to help teams scale effectively without losing sight of Scrum’s essence. Throughout the course, we explore complementary practices and techniques that have been proven to help teams overcome the challenges of scaling.
Interactive Learning Experience
One of the standout features of the SPS course is its interactive, activity-based format. Delivered over half-day sessions via Microsoft Teams and Mural, students engage in a simulated scaled product development project. This hands-on approach allows participants to apply what they learn in real-time, fostering a deeper understanding of how to launch, structure, organise, and manage large agile projects using Scrum.
By the end of the course, students leave with a comprehensive toolbox of techniques for identifying and overcoming common scaling challenges. We present over 50 practices that can be immediately applied to your work, ensuring that you’re not just learning theory but gaining practical skills that can drive real change.
Continued Learning and Support
To maximise the learning opportunity, we provide additional reading, writing, and watching activities between sessions. This ensures that the classroom experience is complemented by ongoing engagement with the material. After the course, students gain access to a community of peers and continued support from trainers through office hours and quarterly catch-ups.
Certification and Beyond
As part of the course, students receive a password to take the globally recognised SPS certification exam. If you don’t pass on your first attempt within 14 days, we offer a second chance as part of our commitment to validated learning. Additionally, participants benefit from a 30-minute learning review, a one-hour coaching session, and a 30% discount on future courses.
Conclusion
Scaling Scrum is a journey that requires dedication, knowledge, and the right tools. The Scaled Professional Scrum course provides all of this and more, empowering teams to overcome the challenges of scaling while staying true to the agile principles that drive success. If you’re ready to take your Scrum practice to the next level, I encourage you to consider this course. Together, we can navigate the complexities of scaling and unlock the full potential of your teams.
The scaled professional scrum is a hands-on activity-based course where students develop a collection of skills that can be applied to overcome challenges when scaling scrum. Even after achieving success with scrum, teams are still limited by the amount of work they can do and the value they can create. They need to expand or scale to groups of scrum teams working together on the same product.
With doing so, they encounter common challenges with cross-team dependencies, self-management, transparency, and accountability. When introducing heavyweight scaling methodologies, teams often find that the added overhead slows them down and distracts them from the essence and benefits of scrum. The scaled professional scrum with nexus class builds on the nexus framework by introducing complementary practices and techniques proven to help teams at scale.
The course also includes a free attempt at the globally recognized scaled professional scrum certification exam. Our training is delivered as an interactive activity-based course over half-day sessions using Microsoft Teams and Mural. Students work together in a nexus to organise and simulate a scaled product development project.
Throughout this case study-based class, common challenges in scaling are presented and more than 50 practices for overcoming them are revealed. Students will develop an understanding of how to launch, structure, organise, and manage a large agile project using scrum. They will leave the class with a toolbox of techniques for identifying and overcoming common scaling challenges.
Between each of the daily sessions, we provide additional reading, writing, and watching activities to maximise the learning opportunity and complement the classroom experience. After the conclusion of the class, we provide access to a community of peers and continued access to the trainer through office hours, quarterly catch-ups, and constant engagement to maximise validated learning.
All students are provided with a password to take the SPS assessment, and if they take it within 14 days and are unsuccessful, they will be granted a second attempt as part of our validated learning experience. We provide a 30-minute learning review, a one-hour coaching session, and access to future courses at a 30% discount.
The Scaled Professional Scrum is a hands-on, activity-based course where students develop a collection of skills that can be applied to overcome challenges when scaling Scrum.
Even after achieving success with Scrum, teams are still limited by the amount of work they can do and the value they can create. They need to expand, or scale, to a group of Scrum Teams working together on the same product. When doing so, they often encounter common challenges with cross-team dependencies, self-management, transparency and accountability.
When introducing heavy-weight scaling methodologies, teams often find that the added overhead slows down the teams and distracts from the essence and benefits of Scrum. Instead, the Nexus Framework minimally extended the Scrum Framework to include ways that help solve the dependency and collaboration challenges of cross-team work. Since Nexus enhances the foundational elements of Scrum, it reinforces the benefits of Scrum while also being familiar to those that have used Scrum.
The Scaled Professional Scrum™ (SPS) with Nexus course builds on the Nexus framework by introducing complementary practices and techniques proven to help teams scale. The course also includes a free attempt at the globally recognized Scaled Professional Scrum (SPS) certification exam.
Our training is delivered as an interactive, activity-based course over half-day sessions using Microsoft Teams and Mural. Students work together in a Nexus to organize and simulate a scaled product development project. This case study-based class presents common challenges in scaling and more than fifty practices for overcoming them are revealed. Students will develop an understanding of how to launch, structure, organize, and manage a large Agile project using Scrum. They will leave the class with a toolbox of techniques for identifying and overcoming common scaling challenges. Between sessions, we provide additional reading, writing, and watching activities to maximise the learning opportunities and complement the classroom experience.
After the conclusion of the class, we provide access to a community of peers and continued access to the trainer through office hours, quarterly catchups, and constant engagement. To maximise validated learning, all students are given a password to take the SPS assessment, and if they take it within 14 days and are unsuccessful, they will be granted a second attempt. As part of our validated learning experience, we provide a 30-minute learning review, a 1h coaching session, and access to future courses at a 30% discount on future classes.
