Today, many businesses are practicing agility in order to remain competitive. Agile methodologies help companies deliver products that align with customers’ ever-changing needs, but what that looks like in practice varies widely among teams and companies. With so many Agile frameworks to choose from, it can be difficult to determine which approach best supports your business goals.
In this article, we’ll be taking a deeper look at two common Agile frameworks: Scrum and Kanban. Though both frameworks share similar principles, the delivery timelines, prioritizations, and roles and responsibilities vary between them. We’ll help you understand the differences between Scrum vs Kanban so you can decide which framework is best for your team.
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a lightweight Agile framework that helps teams address complex problems while efficiently delivering high-quality products that delight customers.
The Scrum framework focuses on empirical process control that’s based on three core pillars:
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Transparency. People need visibility into the development process at every stage in order to make effective decisions that drive initiatives forward. Teams can ensure everyone works together toward a common goal by using a shared empirical language and holding regular Scrum meetings.
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Inspection. To keep work on track, teams regularly inspect what is being created and how (without interrupting the flow of work).
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Adaptation. It’s impossible to predict every requirement or scenario, so when plans deviate, teams should adapt their processes or product as soon as possible. Scrum provides opportunities to adapt at the end of every iteration to prevent wasted efforts and streamline productivity.
Scrum roles and responsibilities
There are three primary Scrum roles and responsibilities:
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Product owner: The product owner is the sole person responsible for managing the product backlog and maximizing the value of the final product.
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Scrum master: The Scrum master is responsible for implementing Scrum and ensuring the team understands Scrum theory and practices. The person in this role acts as a coach and advisor to the team while facilitating communication and collaboration.
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Development team: The developers make up the rest of the team. They are responsible for executing the work to create a usable increment at the end of each sprint. Developers work together to plan the sprint, ensure quality, adapt as needed, and hold each other accountable.
What is Kanban?
Kanban is a methodology designed to work with the systems and processes you already have to help manage (and reduce) work in progress, increase efficiency, and streamline productivity without getting overworked. Kanban is less time-bound than Scrum, focusing instead on visualizing work to maximize flow and shorten the time it takes to finish initiatives. The methodology also focuses on balancing workloads in order to reduce bottlenecks.
Kanban is driven by a few core principles:
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Start with what you currently do. Kanban is a flexible framework that can be blended with the processes and methodologies you’re already using in a non-disruptive way. The framework recognizes the value of current processes while highlighting opportunities to improve over time.
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Pursue incremental, evolutionary change. Kanban is designed to meet minimal resistance. Sweeping changes are discouraged because they are disruptive and can cause fear and uncertainty.
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Encourage acts of leadership at all levels. Insights and feedback from all employees are valued to drive collaboration and continuous improvement.
Kanban roles and responsibilities
Kanban has no required roles, but there are two roles that you may consider formalizing in your implementation of the framework:
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Service Delivery Manager (SDM): This person ensures that work items flow efficiently while facilitating continuous improvement.
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Service Request Manager (SRM): This person orders and prioritizes work items and improves corporate governance within processes.
Scrum practices
There are five basic types of Scrum meetings and events:
1. Sprint planning
The first step of Scrum is laying out the work that will be done during a sprint. The entire team collaborates to plan the sprint with the product owner acting as the point person to ensure all participants are prepared for the discussion.
2. Sprint
The sprint itself is when the work mapped out during the planning phase is performed. Sprints are short increments of work lasting one to four weeks. Once a sprint ends, the next sprint begins. Sprints create consistency in development phases and ensure that teams can predictably meet product goals while allowing for adaptation as needed.
3. Daily Scrum
The daily Scrum (also known as daily standup) is a 15-minute meeting for the team to inspect progress toward the sprint goal and adapt the sprint backlog as necessary. By holding a daily Scrum, teams can more effectively organize, plan, and execute work that is aligned with product goals while improving team communication and problem-solving.
4. Sprint review
At the end of the sprint, the team holds a sprint review to inspect the outcome of the sprint and determine next steps. This is an opportunity for the Scrum team and stakeholders to review what has been accomplished, outline any changes, and adjust the product backlog to address new opportunities.
5. Sprint retrospective
The sprint retrospective concludes the sprint. The purpose is to identify opportunities to improve quality and effectiveness by evaluating how the sprint went. This includes assessing individuals, processes, tools, interactions, assumptions, and the team’s definition of done. The team considers what went well, what could be improved, and what they will do differently in the next sprint.
Kanban practices
Kanban follows six key practices:
1. Visualize the flow of work
Kanban uses physical cards or virtual software to create Kanban boards, which visualize work in progress, work that’s been completed, and work yet to be started. The board represents your workflow’s current state, including its risks and specifications.
2. Limit work in progress (WIP)
Kanban encourages your team to focus first on the tasks at hand before adding new work. This practice ensures that the team only works on tasks for which they have the capacity.
3. Manage flow
One of the main goals of Kanban is to streamline workflows. Prioritize managing work, not people, by focusing on the flow of tasks and understanding the processes to ensure work is moving smoothly.
4. Make process policies explicit
Processes should be clearly defined, published, and shared to increase understanding and buy-in across your team or organization. Visually diagram these policies and guidelines for managing the flow of work to improve self-organization and drive alignment.
5. Implement feedback loops
Feedback is crucial for identifying issues and opportunities for continual improvement. Implement regular reviews with both your team and customers to gather valuable feedback and incorporate insights into your workflow.
6. Improve continually
Collaboratively implement changes based on evidence and regularly review your systems and processes to ensure continuous improvement.
What is a Scrum board?
A Scrum board is a visualization tool used to track work in short, incremental sprints. Typically, the board is divided into horizontal lanes or vertical columns that the team can use to track the progress of agreed-upon work to be completed in the sprint.
Scrum boards can be virtual or physical. Either way, they often include these columns:
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To do: The prioritized backlog of work items planned for the current sprint
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In progress: The list of tasks that have been started
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In test: Completed tasks that are being tested for verification
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Done: Tasks that have been completed and verified by testing
Before a sprint ends, the goal is to move all tasks to the “Done” column.
There is no set format for creating a Scrum board, as it is often left up to teams to decide how to present the necessary information. You can add or remove lanes and columns to suit your needs.
