What is the right Agile for you? A comparison between Scrum, OpenAgile, and Kanban…

Agile has now become a movement in many industries and the question of which practice to use is really a question of what you are trying to change. This article will highlight the differences between 3 main agile practices; Scrum, OpenAgile, and Kanban so you may decide what will take your organization to the next level of lean.

Let’s begin with the concept of lean. Agile is a derivative of lean, which is the continuous delivery of customer value, continuous learning, and the elimination of waste. This is the first key aspect in understanding what set of tools to deploy to your organization. If you take a birds eye view of the 3 practices, you will find a common theme; lean. It is important to note that whatever set of tools you choose, it is with the theme of lean driving the path, so what are your deciding variables?

Below you will find summaries of each practice and questions that will guide you through the self-realization of what will work for your organization. Remember, choosing a practice to deploy to your organization should be an invite, not a mandate…

Scrum:

Oh Scrum, how disruptive you are. And that’s the main intention. Do you need to get a working product out to production with very little time? The organization of teams into Scrums maybe your best bet. Organizing into Scrum is relatively simple but mastering it is difficult. It comes with a set of rules, time boxes, and 3 main roles; Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team that should deliver a potentially shippable product in defined intervals no longer than 1 month. The Product Owner is responsible for prioritizing deliverables in order to maximize the products value while the Scrum Master is the coach of the Scrum team and ensures the team is supported and is truly applying the practices, rules, and values of Scrum. Finally, the Development Team consists of skilled individuals who are responsible for the delivery of the prioritized items decided on by the Product Owner. The values of Scrum are commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect. All things not unfamiliar in the professional world but carry some heavy responsibility which make it unsuitable for full blown release beyond product development.

A common Srcum board

OpenAgile:

The key concept of OpenAgile is its applicability. It can be leveraged for more than just product development and used for project and operations but do you have the maturity in your organization to adopt it? It is often used to bridge into Kanban when you do not have enough time to fully go into Kanban but want to adhere to most of the guiding principles. There are three foundations that are required in the use of OpenAgile; truthfulness, consultive decision-making, and the learning circle. There is only one key role in OpenAgile and that is the Team Member but has paths of service should the self-organizing team require such those being the process facilitator who is the team’s guide through OpenAgile and growth facilitator who can decide on the business drivers. Continuous improvement and growth is the final important aspect of OpenAgile. It is open source meaning it can grow very naturally and thus warrants an open level of leadership support.

A common OpenAgile Cycle Board

Kanban:

The highest and most enlightened level of enterprise Agility. The real question with Kanban is what you are trying to achieve and whether you can afford the time to get to it properly? This is a difficult pill for most organizations to swallow and thus requires the most maturity. Like OpenAgile, Kanban offers a framework for the delivery of products, project, and operations but with the ultimate aspiration of delivering a service through continuous flow. There are no defined roles, other than the “team” and all members are equally responsible for delivery of agreed tasks. This requires a level of maturity that is supported through HR planning for the availability of skill sets, and a performance structure around team delivery as well as executive support for the team to get velocity through team flow. The heart of Kanban is the limitation of work in progress and the empowerment of the team to produce continuous delivery at their discretion by taking work when capacity allows it. The kanban board shows the work to be scheduled, work in progress, and done which allows for the most organic uninterrupted flow of work but requires a level of maturity where the team can acknowledge their abilities and are allowed to work within them. 

A common Kanban board:

Below you will find a summary of each Agile approach: