LeSS
Also known as: Large Scale Scrum
Larman and Vodde's approach to scaling Scrum with minimal added structure.
Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) was developed by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde from their consulting work at telecommunications and other technology companies in the early 2000s, presented in Scaling Lean & Agile Development (2008) and Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development (2010). LeSS deliberately positions itself in opposition to SAFe's heavyweight approach, arguing that scaling Scrum should mean less, not more — fewer roles, fewer artifacts, fewer ceremonies — with the framework essentially extending Scrum to multiple teams working on a single product without adding new roles or processes. LeSS comes in two configurations: basic LeSS (up to 8 teams of 8 people working on the same product) and LeSS Huge (more than 8 teams, organized into Requirement Areas). The framework retains Scrum's single Product Owner, single Product Backlog, and single Definition of Done across all teams, with synchronized Sprints and joint events. LeSS has a substantially smaller commercial footprint than SAFe but is more aligned with the original Agile Manifesto's spirit, and is preferred by many agile-purist consultants and practitioners.
Core components
- Single Product Owner across all teams
- Single Product Backlog
- Single Definition of Done
- Synchronized Sprints
- Joint Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective
- Two configurations: basic LeSS (up to 8 teams), LeSS Huge (with Requirement Areas)
- Component teams discouraged in favor of feature teams
- LeSS Principles (10 principles including transparency, more with less, whole product focus, customer-centric, continuous improvement toward perfection)
- No new roles beyond Scrum
Primary use case
Scaling Scrum for organizations developing single complex products with multiple teams; alternative to SAFe for organizations preferring lighter-weight scaling; LeSS adoption is concentrated in technology product companies rather than large enterprises with regulatory burden; basis for LeSS Company certification through The LeSS Company; foundation for some Scrum.org Professional Scrum approaches.
Common criticisms
- 'Less' in LeSS works in technology product companies but can leave large enterprises with insufficient structure for cross-product coordination, regulatory compliance, and portfolio management — domains that SAFe addresses (perhaps over-addresses)
- single Product Owner across many teams is genuinely difficult in practice — most large products have product management capacity that exceeds one person
- feature teams (cross-functional, end-to-end accountability) require organizational changes most enterprises resist
- commercial ecosystem is small, limiting available training and consulting
- LeSS Huge is less well-specified than basic LeSS
- works best in mature agile cultures and struggles in command-and-control environments where SAFe's structure is more familiar.
Lineage
- Child of
- Scrum
- Siblings
- Scrum, SAFe, Spotify Model
- Derived from
- Scrum