KANBAN vs SCRUM: Which Fits Your Team Best?

In the fast-paced world of software development, teams are constantly searching for methodologies that can enhance efficiency, flexibility, and productivity. Kanban and Scrum are two popular approaches that have distinct philosophies, processes, and outcomes. This article provides a high-level comparison of these methodologies and aims to help leaders and teams decide which approach best suits their needs.

Kanban

Kanban is a lean methodology that emphasizes continuous delivery without overburdening the development team. It is highly flexible and focuses on managing work by balancing demands with available capacity and improving the handling of bottlenecks. Key Principles

• Visualize Work: Use a Kanban board to represent work at various stages of the process.
• Limit Work in Progress (WIP): Cap the number of tasks to prevent team overload.
• Flow Management: Monitor and optimize the flow of work to reduce cycle times.
• Continuous Improvement: Regularly analyze and improve the process for better efficiency and quality.

Typical Use Cases

• Teams that require flexibility in prioritizing and reprioritizing work based on evolving business needs.
• Environments where work demand fluctuates or is unpredictable.
• Projects that aim for continuous delivery with minimal bottlenecks.

Preconditions

• Mature and constantly prioritized backlog
• Work, broken down into small valuable chunks (usually max 1 week of work)
• Focus on cycle time and continue delivery and improvements

Scrum

Scrum framework is a form of Agile development methodology. Sprints are fixed-length iterations, usually 2-3 weeks, during which a specific set of work must be completed and made ready for review. Key Principles

• Time-boxed Iterations: Work is divided into sprints, with each sprint having a predefined duration.
• Sprint Planning: Teams plan the work to be done in each sprint, often with set goals and deliverables.
• Scrum Events: Regular events such as daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives facilitate planning, coordination, and continuous improvement.
• Cross-functional Teams: Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional, with all the skills necessary to complete the work.

Typical Use Cases

• Projects that benefit from regular intervals of work with clear goals and deliverables.
• Teams that need a structured framework to manage complex development tasks.
• Environments where stakeholders require regular updates and iterations of the product.

Preconditions

• Deliverables on work packages, predefined with clear goals
• Ability to break down the work in sprints
• Environment, allowing for work in isolation for 2 weeks
• Focus on sprint velocity

Comparison

Pros / Cons

What’s best suits my team

There isn’t a single answer to this question. It depends on what stage your product development is and, how mature your backlog is, how comfortable are engineers dealing with ambiguity, and how requirements are communicated from stakeholders.??

Kanban provides greater flexibility and is suited for projects requiring continuous delivery and adaptability. It is especially useful, when needs to deal with constant reactiveness from production. Sprints, as part of the Scrum framework, offer a structured approach with regular intervals of deliverables. In our environment, Kanban will give you more flexibility to deal with unexpected changes, while working on initiatives. It unlocks the mindset need of a plan for 2 weeks ahead, instead, work and deliver as soon as the deliverable is ready. When Kanban is applied long enough with proper maturity of work breakdown and cycle time measures, it gives better predictability for time to market. However, in my practice, I often find that no process by book suits the teams. I prefer to take what works for my teams from both worlds and create our own “Scrumban” process.