When many Scrum Teams are working on the same product, should all of their increments be integrated every Sprint?

When multiple Scrum Teams work on a single product, they must integrate their work to create one single, usable, and "Done" Increment by the end of the Sprint. This is fundamental to maintaining transparency, one of the three pillars of Scrum. An un-integrated Increment is not a true representation of the product's current state. This lack of integration obscures progress and prevents the Product Owner and stakeholders from accurately inspecting the Increment during the Sprint Review. Without a fully integrated Increment, meaningful feedback cannot be gathered, and future adaptations to the Product Backlog may be based on flawed assumptions.

A. Yes, but only for Scrum Teams whose work has dependencies. This is incorrect because all teams contribute to a single product. Integration is required to ensure a coherent and valuable product Increment, regardless of direct dependencies.
C. No, each Scrum Team stands alone. This is false. When working on the same product, teams share a single Product Goal, Product Backlog, and Product Owner, and must collaborate to produce a single integrated Increment.
D. No, that is far too hard and must be done in a hardening Sprint. This describes an anti-pattern. Deferring integration to a "hardening Sprint" introduces risk, delays feedback, and violates the core Scrum principle of producing a potentially releasable Increment every Sprint.

1. The Scrum Guide (2020):

Page 9

"The Increment": "The moment a Product Backlog item meets the Definition of Done

an Increment is born... Multiple Increments may be created within a Sprint. The sum of the Increments is presented at the Sprint Review thus supporting empiricism. ... Work cannot be considered part of an Increment unless it meets the Definition of Done." When multiple teams work on one product

their collective "Definition of Done" must include integration to create a single

usable sum of Increments.

2. The Nexus Guide (January 2021): (The official Scrum.org guide for scaling Scrum with multiple teams)

Page 5

"Nexus Artifacts": "At least once every Sprint

a Nexus produces and delivers a common Integrated Increment... The Integrated Increment is the sum of all integrated work completed by a Nexus. The Integrated Increment must be usable and potentially releasable... It is inspected at the Sprint Review." This explicitly states the requirement for a single

integrated Increment from all teams.

3. Schwaber

K.

& Sutherland

J. (2020). The Scrum Guide.

Page 5

"Scrum Theory": "Scrum combines four formal events for inspection and adaptation... These events work because they implement the empirical Scrum pillars of transparency

inspection

and adaptation." An un-integrated Increment is not transparent

which breaks the empirical process control that is the foundation of Scrum.