What’s Your Agile Type- Kanban or Scrum?

When an organization decides to transform into agile the next question they face which they feel is challenging is which agile methodology they should transform into. What system of agile will be best for their organization? Being new to agile many feel confused while choosing their methodology as they have doubts about what if after being way ahead of the transformation we learn that we chose the wrong methodology. Many organizations even go with two different methodologies in agile at the same time. The most used agile methodologies are Scrum and Kanban, being not fully aware of their benefits, disadvantages, and how and where they work organizations go with the approach where they cannot reap the maximum benefits of agile. In today’s article, we will go through what Kanban and scrum are, what are their benefits, and when and where they should be used to employ their advantages.

Kanban and scrum are two different strategies to approach agile development and project management system. Both Kanban and scrum are the development methodologies used in agile with short increments and continuous improvement to complete a project, the difference is in their process of achieving it.

What is Kanban?

Kanban is mostly the visual system for managing work which is mainly focused on delivering the project or task in most short time possible. It visualizes the process and works passing through the process to identify the bottleneck and remove them for a smooth and easy flow of the process. Kanban itself means signboard in Japanese, even the Kanban method’s main point is writing down the task on the board and moving to other columns once completed progress. The three main concepts in Kanban are

Definition of workflow- It defines units and tasks on the boards and where they are moving, what start and finishes mean, and the time should be taken for completion of certain tasks.

Work in progress limits- It defines many tasks that should be taken in particular criteria columns for avoiding the bottleneck.

Kaizen- It means a mindset of trying continuously to improve the managers as well as team members to better the process.

There are no specific roles in Kanban. The tools consist in Kanban are Jira, Kanbanize, Swiftkanban, Trello and Asana etc.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is an agile methodology that helps in delivering business value in the shortest time possible by splitting the project into small tasks. The project is divided into small one to three-week development cycles known as sprints. The scrum team is mostly focused on self-management and self-organization to deliver a quality solution. The scrum is based on main three pillars that are

Adaptation- Scrum is more adaptive to change ensuring an easy adaptation for project changing directions.

Transparency- It helps in building trust among team members as every project-related detail is known to everyone along with their reasons.

Inspection- Team members and stakeholders ensure a culture of improvement is established within teams by regular inspection of project consistency.

Now let’s see when to use Kanban or Scrum so that their most benefits can be utilized.

Scrum consists of some specific roles such as scrum master, product owners, and development teams. Tools in scrum are Jira, Axosoft, Vivifyscrum, Target process etcetera.

When to use Kanban?

As we have discussed Kanban is to improve visibility, increase productivity and develop a culture of continuous improvement. So Kanban can be used to gain these benefits. Mostly Kanban can be used along with other agile frameworks. Many companies who are using scrum are also using Kanban along with it to get extra benefits and improve their process and reduce the time of delivery.

When to use Scrum?

Scrum is so fitted in solving complex problems and projects where frequent changes are observed. But it also provides lower cost, higher productivity, faster delivery, and higher quality. So it is wise to use scrum in projects where continuous or frequent changes are observed or in a project where space is required to adapt to feedback or face complex problems.

Using Kanban and Scrum

The teams or organization who feels that both Kanban and scrum are fitted and can derive benefit from them can go for scrumban. That is the combination of Kanban and scrum where they can use implement practices as per their requirement from both of the systems.

While going agile make sure to see deeper into your requirements and which framework suits your organization or team-best and derives maximum possible benefits from agile.

We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium and large organization across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients, move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting human centric approach to business agility. Embracing the change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitor.

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