Comparison of Agile scaling frameworks

Abstract

21st century software development approaches, such as Agile has benefitted small initiatives with a single team building software in their ability to respond to change, reduce product delivery schedules, reduce product cost, increase product quality, and Increase employee morale. The industry has begun to question what the benefits and challenges could be if we use those same practices at scale for large Initiatives with multiple teams. There have been multiple studies on the benefits of Agile at Scale including quality, productivity, and shorter time to market. Over the last two decades dozens of Scaling frameworks have been created. However, given the large number of frameworks available, how do companies choose the right scaling framework? In this paper we review what the difference between the frameworks are by comparing their core principles. This paper began by analyzing results Digital.ai's 16th Annual state of Agile Survey which identifies the 10 most utilized frameworks according to their respondents. The paper presents a detailed analysis of the principles to assess the degree of differences among the frameworks and determine based on this which framework is the best for large scale organizations to choose.