Analysing large-Scale scrum practices with respect to quality requirements challenges

Published empirical research using agile practitioners’ perceptions indicated several important Quality Requirements (QRs) challenges experienced in agile large-scale distributed projects. It also indicated that a popular solution approach to those challenges is to inject some heavyweight practices into agile, for example adding documentation or roles of authorities for QRs. At the same time, agile methodologists proposed several scaled agile frameworks to specifically serve agile organizations working on large and distributed projects. How do these frameworks address QRs? Do they put forward any heavyweight practices as a solution to QRs challenges, or do they invent new agile practices fully aligned with the values of the Agile Manifesto? Currently, very little is known about the extent to which the QRs issues are accounted for in the design of these frameworks as proposed by agile methodologists. This paper attempts to narrow this gap of knowledge. It analyses Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), a prominent scaled framework, from the perspective of QRs engineering and the Agile Manifesto’s values. To this end, we first applied the 4-Dimensional Analytical Tool to evaluate the degree of agility of the practices of the LeSS framework. We then analysed these practices and evaluated their applicability to mitigate the QRs challenges reported in previous work.