Scrum and Kanban
When to use scrum and when to use kanban
from ScrumAlliance
Work Cycle
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Iterations. Scrum has sprints within which the team follows the plan-do-check-act (PCDA) cycle. - Complex, iterative work, like new product or feature development, may be better done with scrum. |
- Continuous flow. In a kanban work cycle, as soon as one thing finishes, the team takes another thing up. - Kanban is better for continuous flow work like support and services. |
Work In Progress
WIP
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - WIP limits are set by the scrum team for every sprint, and new work is picked up only after all the work is completed. - If teams need a sense of accomplishment / completion / closure, use scrum. |
- WIP limit is ongoing. As soon as some work finishes, pickup new work. - If teams keep working on one thing after another, use kanban. |
Inspect and Adapt
(Empericism)
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Every sprint is an opportunity to inspect and adapt. Work cycles through multiple sprints for improvisation, if needed. - If the work continuously evolves and needs improvisation, use scrum. |
- No specific mechanism to inspect and adapt. Work flows in one direction. - If the work is a one-time effort, and doesn't require inspection and adaptation, use kanban. |
Transparency
(Empericism)
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Artifacts in scrum include the product backlog, sprint backlog, an increment. Respectively provide requirements, implementation, and deliverables transparency. - If requirements need to be tracked separately from tracking the work in progress, use scrum. |
- No specific artifacts for transparency. Kanban board provides some transparency. Many teams use product backlog (from scrum) in combination with kanban boards. - If only implementation needs to be tracked, use kanban. |
Planning
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Specific events for planning the sprint and the day — sprint planning and daily scrum. - Use scrum if disciplined planning at regular intervals is required. |
- No specific artifacts for transparency. Kanban board provides some transparency. Many teams use product backlog (from scrum) in combination with kanban boards. - If only implementation needs to be tracked, use kanban. |
Responsibility
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Accountabilities in scrum develop responsibility focus e.g. product owner for business, developers for domain, and scrum master for impediments. - If teams need individuals focused on these responsibilities, use scrum. |
- There are no accountabilities like product owner, developers, etc. in kanban. It assumes a group of individuals working on tasks. - If the team is simply a group of individuals with some expertise, use kanban. |
Client/Customer
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Scrum has active stakeholder and customer involvement — at least once a sprint during a sprint review event. - If the work is innovative, creative, or new and requires stakeholder and customer feedback/engagement, use scrum. |
- Kanban does not provide a way to engage stakeholders or customers. Many teams adopt a once-a-month “sprint review” approach. - If the work is mostly daily routine and does not require frequent stakeholder engagement use kanban. |
Modification/Changes
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Changes during the sprint are strongly discouraged. | - Allows for changes to be made to a project mid-stream, allowing for iterations and continuous improvement prior to the completion of a project. |
Measurement of Productivity
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Measures production using velocity through sprints. Each sprint is laid out back-to-back and/or concurrently so that each additional sprint relies on the success of the one before it. | - Measures production using “cycle time,” or the amount of time it takes to complete one full piece of a project from beginning to end. |
Best Applications
| Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|
| - Best for teams with stable priorities that may not change as much over time. | - Best for projects with widely-varying priorities. |
Resources
www.planview.com
www.scrumalliance.com
deck
By Dana Diotte
deck
- 12
