ComparisonScaling Software Development - ZeroBlockers vs Scrum@Scale: Which scaling framework is better for you?

There is no one-size-fits-all framework for scaling software development. Each framework overcomes the complexities of scaling in different ways. We have compiled an overview of the key features and approaches of the Scrum@Scale framework and ZeroBlockers to help you select the best framework for you.

ZeroBlockers vs Scrum@Scale: Approach

ScrollEffectivenessEfficiencyScalability
Scrum@Scale
ZeroBlockers

Feature comparison

ZeroBlockers

Scaling with empowered autonomous teams

Efficiency

Controlling complexity

Complexity and dependencies increase as companies scale.

Dependencies and blockers need to be removed as they always slow down delivery.
Reducing Code Conflicts

Code merge conflicts increase as more teams operate on the same code base.

Each Stream team has a completely independent code base so code merge conflicts do not occur.

Scrum@Scale

Scale Scrum using Scrum of Scrums.

Efficiency

Controlling complexity

Complexity and dependencies increase as companies scale.

Scale Scrum with Scrum of Scrums, Executive Action Teams and Chief Product Owners.
Reducing Code Conflicts

Code merge conflicts increase as more teams operate on the same code base.

Code merge impacts are minimised through continuous integration.

Core Differences

Efficiency

Controlling complexity

Complexity and dependencies increase as companies scale.

Managing dependencies versus removing them.
Reducing Code Conflicts

Code merge conflicts increase as more teams operate on the same code base.

Managing code conflicts versus removing them.

Both frameworks identify dependencies and blockers as the cause of the slowdown in delivery as companies scale.

Scrum@Scale addresses this challenge by introducing a new team, The Scrum of Scrums, to manage and limit the impact of the dependencies. There is a lot of effort in upfront Scrum of Scrums planning to identify and avoid dependencies.

The ZeroBlockers approach stems from the belief that you cannot manage dependencies. The overhead involved continually increases and the teams end up being blocked anyway. The blocking dependencies must be removed to improve efficiency.

Feature comparison

ZeroBlockers

Scaling with empowered autonomous teams

Effectiveness

Solution Autonomy

Layers of sign off for solutions prevent teams from iterating quickly based on customer feedback.

Teams decide on what features to build based on customer research and business objectives.
Solution Validation

Most features fail to deliver the expected business outcomes. How can teams adapt as they deliver?

Teams identify the assumptions behind their solutions and devise experiments to validate them before committing to building the feature.
Accountability

What are the key KPIs that teams are measured on?

Accountable for outcomes: The achievement of the Product Objectives.

Scrum@Scale

Scale Scrum using Scrum of Scrums.

Effectiveness

Solution Autonomy

Layers of sign off for solutions prevent teams from iterating quickly based on customer feedback.

Solutions are decided by the PO. Teams have autonomy on how to deliver but not what to deliver.
Solution Validation

Most features fail to deliver the expected business outcomes. How can teams adapt as they deliver?

Stakeholder review meetings after each sprint to validate output.
Accountability

What are the key KPIs that teams are measured on?

Accountable for outputs. The delivery of the sprint stories.

Core Differences

Effectiveness

Solution Autonomy

Layers of sign off for solutions prevent teams from iterating quickly based on customer feedback.

Separation between Product (thinkers) and Delivery (doers) versus empowered teams.
Solution Validation

Most features fail to deliver the expected business outcomes. How can teams adapt as they deliver?

Solutions are verified by stakeholders versus solutions are validated by customers.
Accountability

What are the key KPIs that teams are measured on?

Measuring outputs (work done) versus measuring outcomes (impact of work).

Scrum@Scale uses a single Scrum of Scrums product backlog across multiple Scrum teams. The Chief PO is responsible for defining the features and prioritising them accordingly. The Scrum@Scale Guide recommends prioritisation based on value creation, risk mitigation, and internal dependencies. The challenge is that since the Chief PO is defining the solutions the team is only accountable for building the solution and not the effectiveness of the solution.

ZeroBlockers believes that you cannot know how customers will react to new features until they have them in their hands. It is not fair to ask a business person to specify the outcome of a feature because we don't know. We all have ideas that sound great but few of them work. Therefore solution evaluation and iteration are integral parts of the process. The core metric is whether customers change their behaviour as a result of the feature.

Feature comparison

ZeroBlockers

Scaling with empowered autonomous teams

Sustainability

Technical Debt

Technical debt can make software delivery unsustainable unless it is continuously paid down.

Teams own code and are responsible for maintaining its quality.
Continuous Improvement

There are always improvements that can be made. How do we ensure that teams are always improving?

Teams have a clear vision of what good looks like. Zero blockers from idea to software.
Burnout Prevention

Team motivation is critical for ensuring that momentum is maintained.

Giving people autonomy over the way they solve problems reduces burnout.

Scrum@Scale

Scale Scrum using Scrum of Scrums.

Sustainability

Technical Debt

Technical debt can make software delivery unsustainable unless it is continuously paid down.

PO can prioritise technical debt reduction stories.
Continuous Improvement

There are always improvements that can be made. How do we ensure that teams are always improving?

Team and Scrum of Scrums Retrospectives with prioritised items being placed in the backlog.
Burnout Prevention

Team motivation is critical for ensuring that momentum is maintained.

Promotes a sustainable pace to avoid overloading teams and regular retrospectives to identify issues.

Core Differences

Sustainability

Technical Debt

Technical debt can make software delivery unsustainable unless it is continuously paid down.

Periodic improvement of shared code versus continuous maintenance of owned code.
Continuous Improvement

There are always improvements that can be made. How do we ensure that teams are always improving?

Managers decide on improvements versus teams decide on improvements.
Burnout Prevention

Team motivation is critical for ensuring that momentum is maintained.

Tackle symptoms of burnout versus tackle the cause of burnout.

Shared code is subject to the tragedy of the commons. Each team has a tight deadline so they need to cut corners at the end. While Scrum@Scale advocates adding technical debt reduction items to the backlog based on team and Scrum of Scrums retrospectives it is difficult to fix all of the issues given the incentive to produce debt in every sprint. That is why in ZeroBlockers each team owns their own code. They are responsible for ensuring the health of their code so they can work sustainably.

There are a million ways we can change how we work but not all of them are improvements. Even though managers have a lot of experience comparing improvements can lead to battles of opinions unless there is a clear vision. ZeroBlockers has a vision of having zero blockers in the flow of work so teams now have a target to aim towards and something to use to compare alternative options for improvement. You'd be surprised how much time this saves.

Burnout isn't caused by challenging targets or high workloads. It is caused by being held to targets that you can't control such as an unrealistic deadline that was imposed on you. By giving teams autonomy over the way they achieve the product goals you are putting them in control. We can still set challenging stretch targets but, once teams can control how they achieve the targets, this can energise rather than cause burnout.

ZeroBlockers vs Scrum@Scale: Team

How much of the solution is the Scrum@Scale team responsible for?

  • Research

    Generative research to uncover customer problems.

  • Ideation

    Generating multiple solutions for each customer opportunity.

  • Design

    Prototyping solutions and iterating on feedback.

  • Delivery

    Building the solution iteratively and releasing the working software.

Feature comparison

ZeroBlockers

Scaling with empowered autonomous teams

Team Level

Roles

The roles involved in creating the products.

UX Researcher
Designer
Developers
Business SMEs as needed
Events

The key activities that teams perform while building the product.

Ad-hoc
Customer Interviews
Ideation
Solution Evaluation
User Story Mapping

Daily
Retrospective

Weekly
Weekly Business Review
1-on1's

Scrum@Scale

Scale Scrum using Scrum of Scrums.

Team Level

Roles

The roles involved in creating the products.

Product Owner
Scrum Master
Feature Team
Events

The key activities that teams perform while building the product.

Daily
Daily Standup

Sprint (~2 weeks)
Sprint Planning
Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective

Core Differences

Team Level

Roles

The roles involved in creating the products.

Manager who assigns priorities versus team who uncovers priorities
Events

The key activities that teams perform while building the product.

Building features versus researching, validating and building solutions

Scrum@Scale follows a traditional Scrum approach at the team level with a PO defining what is to be built and the team building it.

The ZeroBlockers approach is that we don't know exactly what customers want so the team needs to uncover the best solutions to build. This means that the team needs to do research, ideate on potential solutions, evaluate them using experiments and then build the winning ideas iteratively so the team can continue to improve the solution over time.

ZeroBlockers vs Scrum@Scale: Product/Program Level

Feature comparison

ZeroBlockers

Scaling with empowered autonomous teams

Product/Program Level

Name

The name the framework gives to the team grouping level.

Product Team
Roles

The roles involved in organising multiple teams.

Product Lead

Technical Functional Leads
(Research, Design, Dev)

Business Functional Leads
(Marketing, Operations, Customer Service)
Events

The key activities that teams perform while organising multiple teams.

Weekly
Weekly Business Review(s)
Product Review
1-on-1's

Monthly
Retrospective

Ad hoc
Event Storming

Quarterly
Quarterly Goal Meetings
Quarterly Strategic Reviews

Scrum@Scale

Scale Scrum using Scrum of Scrums.

Product/Program Level

Name

The name the framework gives to the team grouping level.

Scrum of Scrums / Scrum of Scrum of Scrums
Roles

The roles involved in organising multiple teams.

Scrum of Scrums Master
Chief Product Owner
Events

The key activities that teams perform while organising multiple teams.

Daily
Scrum of Scrums Daily Scrum

Sprint (~2 weeks)
Scrum of Scrums Sprint Planning
Scrum of Scrums Sprint Review
Scrum of Scrums Sprint Retrospective
MetaScrum

Ad hoc
Scrum of Scrums Product Backlog Refinement

Core Differences

Product/Program Level

Name

The name the framework gives to the team grouping level.

Roles

The roles involved in organising multiple teams.

Delivery managers versus business managers
Events

The key activities that teams perform while organising multiple teams.

Monitoring delivery progress versus monitoring business outcomes

In Scrum@Scale scaling is achieved by breaking a large product into multiple Scrum of Scrums. The Chief Product Owner works together with the POs to define the scope of work for each Scrum of Scrums. Managers shift from making detailed decisions about how teams operate to enabling teams to be self-managing and self-organising.

The ZeroBlockers approach is similar to Scrum@Scale in that it splits up a Product into different areas to reduce complexity and managers are to help teams be more self-managed. However ZeroBlockers goes another step in that teams have autonomy over their backlog, architecture and path to production. This frees up the Product Team to focus more on the strategy and validating that the initiatives being worked on by the Stream Teams are achieving the desired business goals.

ZeroBlockers vs Scrum@Scale: Portfolio

Feature comparison

ZeroBlockers

Scaling with empowered autonomous teams

Portfolio Level

Name

The name the framework gives to the portfolio level.

Product / Ecosystem Team
Roles

The roles involved in managing a portfolio.

Product (VP+)
Design (VP+)
Marketing (VP+)
Technology (VP+)
Operations (VP+)
Customer Service (VP+)
Events

The key activities that teams perform while managing a portfolio.

Weekly
Weekly Business Review(s)
1-on-1's

Monthly
Retrospective

Ad hoc
Product Funding

Quarterly
Quarterly Goal Meetings
Quarterly Strategic Reviews

Scrum@Scale

Scale Scrum using Scrum of Scrums.

Portfolio Level

Name

The name the framework gives to the portfolio level.

Executive Action Team
Roles

The roles involved in managing a portfolio.

EAT Product Owner
EAT Scrum Master
Business Stakeholders
Events

The key activities that teams perform while managing a portfolio.

Sprint (~2 weeks)
EAT MetaScrum

Ad hoc
Strategic Planning

Core Differences

Portfolio Level

Name

The name the framework gives to the portfolio level.

Roles

The roles involved in managing a portfolio.

IT management versus business management
Events

The key activities that teams perform while managing a portfolio.

Assuming value will be delivered versus continually validating value is being delivered

Both frameworks scale the product/program level approach to the portfolio level. The same challenge as described at Product Level apply here as well. By empowering teams to identify their own solutions they can be more innovative, respond quicker and be held accountable for outcomes. The Portfolio team can focus more on strategic goals and validating the effectiveness of the Teams.

ZeroBlockers vs Scrum@Scale: Implementation

Feature comparison

ZeroBlockers

Scaling with empowered autonomous teams

Implementation

Buy In

The people you need committed to ensure a successful roll-out.

Considerable changes are required across the business so buy-in is required at a senior level in IT, marketing, customer service and more.
Training

The training and certification required for a successful implementation.

ZeroBlockers provides a range of training and certifications for each role.
Community & Support

The support available for implementing the framework.

Large and growing community with documentation and resources.

Scrum@Scale

Scale Scrum using Scrum of Scrums.

Implementation

Buy In

The people you need committed to ensure a successful roll-out.

Considerable changes are required within the IT department so buy-in from senior IT leadership is required.
Training

The training and certification required for a successful implementation.

Scrum@Scale provides a range of training and certifications for each role.
Community & Support

The support available for implementing the framework.

There is a large and active community at Scrum.org with industry tools and resources.

Core Differences

Implementation

Buy In

The people you need committed to ensure a successful roll-out.

IT buy-in versus whole business buy-in
Training

The training and certification required for a successful implementation.

Similar between frameworks
Community & Support

The support available for implementing the framework.

Similar between frameworks

Scrum@Scale builds on the Scrum operating model which is already in place in many organisations. This, coupled with the fact that the changes involved in implementing Scrum@Scale are largely limited to the IT department, makes implementation easier compared to ZeroBlockers.

ZeroBlockers involves changes across the business - because software is integral to our products today - not something just tacked on. This means you need more buy-in to get started. But you can start small - one product, one value stream. With over 10 years of UXDX content and case studies, there is also a large body of resources to assist in the rollout of the framework. It might be tougher to implement but it will deliver better outcomes.

3 advantages of ZeroBlockers over Scrum@Scale

01

More effective products: Giving teams autonomy over the solutions they build means they can evaluate alternatives and pivot based on real customer feedback.

02

Quicker software delivery: Separating teams into independent value streams removes code dependencies and other blockers which lets them deliver faster.

03

Accountable teams: By giving teams solution autonomy and code independence, they are able to innovate on better products and be accountable for the outcomes.

Compare ZeroBlockers with other scaling frameworks

SAFe

Integrating lean and agile principles into a structured and modular approach for large-scale, complex software development projects.

Compare

LeSS Huge

LeSS Huge builds on Scrum, focusing on coordinating multiple teams while maintaining simplicity and lean principles.

Compare

Nexus+

Building on Scrum, Nexus+ integrates additional teams and roles to manage dependencies and coordination in larger scaled Scrum environments.

Compare

DAD

A hybrid agile approach that combines elements from Scrum, Lean, and other methodologies, offering a comprehensive guide for complex, enterprise-scale projects.

Compare

Spotify Model

Instead of Scrum, the model focuses on autonomous, cross-functional teams (squads), with a strong emphasis on culture and networked structure, rather than formal hierarchical control.

Compare

ZeroBlockers Docs

Teams, processes, practices, artifacts and more...

We're busy putting the final touches on our ZeroBlockers guide. The guide will provide a comprehensive overview to the ZeroBlockers framework, including detailed descriptions of the key processes, practices and artifacts produced by each of the five core ZeroBlockers team types.

Subscribe for updates on when the guide will be available (we're targeting the end of July.)

ZeroBlockers giude screenshot