Kanban vs Scrum: A Detailed Guide on Choosing the Right Agile Framework

Kanban vs Scrum A Detailed Guide on Choosing the Right Agile Framework
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Introduction

Scrum and Kanban are two of the most popular frameworks in agile, which have revolutionized the way teams deliver projects. Both the frameworks emphasise on collaboration, flexibility, adaptability and continuous development, but both of these frameworks take different approaches to achieve these objectives.

While Scrum and Kanban are the two most used frameworks of Agile, they cannot be used without understanding the project nature. There have been a lot of instances where frameworks have been used without considering the deciding factors and projects have become chaotic. The choice between Scrum and Kanban comes directly from the type of project being worked upon and how the requirement/ backlog created for it and the nature of the team. Even if there are a lot of content on what scrum or kanban is, there are a few questions which come up  before we decide which one to use, where and when and also,

  • What exactly is Scrum and Kanban?
  • How do they both function?
  • Components of both Scrum and Kanban?
  • Key scrum vs kanban differences
  • When to use Scrum or Kanban?
  • What are the differences between scrum board vs kanban board

Well, if you have had these questions and are looking for answers, you have landed on the right page. This blog aims at clarifying all the above mentioned points.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is the most used and  a structured agile framework that operates on time-boxed cycles/cadences called sprints. These sprints can be of varied lengths ranging from 1 week to 4 weeks depending on the nature of the projects. Here, the teams work toward a defined goal which can be the project’s objective, and the sprint goal which is the goal for a particular sprint e.g. delivery of a feature in the entire project. It was initially designed to be used for software development but is now applicable across various domains.

Scrum is ideally implemented or used  for teams/projects where the backlogs are  well defined and a part of the backlog can be planned and delivered as increments Eg: New product development

Here are the core components of Scrum:

  • Sprints – A sprint typically lasts 1–4 weeks depending on the project’s demand. Each sprint focuses on delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) in each increment
  • Roles – A scrum team includes three primary roles
    • Product Owner: The product owner is responsible for maximizing the outcome of the work. He/she works with the customers and stakeholders and guides the development team on what needs to be developed. He/she is the one who owns the product and hence rejects or accepts the completed MVP delivered at the end of the sprint/ Product owner owns the backlog and makes sure that the team working on the development of the product understands what needs to be done
    • Scrum Master: The main work of a scrum master is to maximize the efficiency of the team. He/ she does so by coordinating with the Product Owner regarding the requirements, coaching, and guiding the development team members. He/she protects the team in case they are overburdened with work. The Scrum master is responsible for facilitating the process and removing impediments
    • Development Team: The development team consists of coders, testers, and DevOps, whose main work is to convert the requirement to a working product i.e. delivering the product
  • Artifacts –
    • Product Backlog: It’s a list of all the work items that need to be built/ completed to deliver a product. This list is evolving in nature and is organized in high to low priority of each task
    • Sprint Backlog: The sprint backlog has all the tasks the Scrum team needs to complete in a particular sprint. These tasks are pulled from the top of the product backlog (high-priority work items) by the development team by consulting and discussing with the Product Owner. All the tasks on the sprint backlog are the ones that the team commits for delivery in the sprint and develops to create MVP
    • Product Increment: It is the result of completed tasks in the sprint. It is the output of each sprint and provides a releasable/working version of the product also called MVP. This feature/ version is demoed to the product owner and customers for their feedback
  • Ceremonies – There are 4 mandatory ceremonies and 1 optional ceremony which happens in every sprint.
    • Sprint Planning: It is done on the 1st day of the sprint. The team defines the sprint goals and finalizes sprint backlog items. Sprint planning should not happen for more than 4 hours for a 2-week sprint.
    • Daily Standup: The scrum team (consisting of the Product Owner, Development team, and scrum master) meets every day to sync, understand the progress, and plan for the day’s work while discussing any impediments or blockers. Daily standup happens for 15 mins in a day.
    • Sprint Grooming/ Backlog Refinement: Optional ceremony where the scrum team meets on the 5th or 6th day of the sprint to groom the tasks that the team is expected to pick in the next sprint. The idea here is to understand the upcoming work and work on getting clarifications while the team still has time to pick up in the next sprint or remove any impediments.
    • Sprint Review: This is the 4th ceremony in scrum and the aim is for the development team to showcase completed work in the sprint. Sprint review lasts for not more than 2 hours for a 2-week sprint.
    • Sprint Retrospective: The sprint ends with sprint retrospection. In this ceremony, the team identifies areas for improvement by discussing how the sprint went and how it can be improved in terms of process or work. Sprint retrospective is timeboxed at 2 hours for a 2-week sprint.

What is Kanban?

Kanban, is the second most used agile framework, which was derived from lean manufacturing principles which was meant to focus on visualizing workflows, limiting work-in-progress (WIP), and optimizing cycle times. Unlike Scrum, Kanban is a flow-based framework and does not have specific roles nor does it follow any time-boxed cycles.

Kanban is mostly used where there is continuous inflow of work and output of delivery needed. Where teams cannot / do not have a stable backlog and cannot plan an increment Eg: UAT, Support etc

Core Components of Kanban:

  1. Kanban Board: To visualise the work a team has, kanban uses a visual tool displaying tasks across workflow stages like  To Do, In Progress, Done
  2. Work-In-Progress (WIP) Limits: Kanban advocates to have WIP limits or cap the number of tasks in progress to avoid bottlenecks and keep the flow of work continuous
  3. Pull-Based System: Teams following the Kanban framework are expected to pull tasks into an in-progress state when their capacity becomes available
  4. Continuous Delivery: Teams following Kanban, aim at delivering continuously which enables teams to release work as soon as it’s completed

Kanban vs Scrum : Comparison Table

As we have learnt in the above sections, both Scrum and Kanban are implemented to bring in agility within teams/projects. However, they are chosen based on certain parameters. Let’s take a look at how they compare with certain key aspects of the project.

Aspect Scrum Kanban
Iterations Scrum has fixed-length sprints which may vary from 1–4 weeks depending on how fast the team wants feedback from the customer. Kanban has a continuous flow of tasks with no fixed length of iteration.
Roles Scrum has fixed and well-defined roles like –  Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team. There are no specific roles in Kanban; everyone in a Kanban team contributes.
Backlog The team has a product backlog that contains all the tasks that need to be completed to deliver the project. The team pulls work from this product backlog in every sprint and calls it sprint backlog which contains limited tasks based on team’s capacity to deliver in 1 sprint. There is no sprint backlog in Kanban. The tasks are added to the board and team members pull the top priority work in the product backlog once they are done with the current task.
Board Style In scrum, the board is maintained for a sprint and tracked. The tasks are tracked based on sprints. In Kanban, the workflow visualization is done with basic 3 columns – To-do, In-progress, and Done. There are WIP limits in Kanban ensuring efficiency. These columns can be optimised/customised based on the flow of work
Flexibility Once the sprint backlog is decided and the sprint is started, there is minimum room for changes. Kanban is highly flexible because of lack of timeboxed iterations
Application Scrum applies to the teams where the backlog is defined and there is a continuous/ predictable workflow. E.g. Software development. Kanban is applicable for teams where the work is dynamic and has variable workloads. E.g. bug fixing or production issues.

Kanban vs Scrum: Key Differences

All agile frameworks when implemented bring in agility. However, they could be different in their application, execution and the way they are structured. Let’s understand the key differences between Scrum and Kanban

Feature Scrum Kanban
Workflow Type Sprint-based, where the work (called sprint backlog) is derived from the product backlog. It’s continuous and flow based
Adaptability Feedback can be obtained after end of the sprint to pivot Real-time feedback can be obtained as and when a piece of work is complete
Delivery Model Scrum follows an Incremental delivery model In Kanban, work is delivered continuously.
Metrics To understand the quality and efficiency of the work, scum uses metrics like velocity, burndown / burn-up charts, lead time, cycle time, escaped defects, etc Kanban uses metrics like cycle time, lead time, throughput, cycle time histogram, and blocker clustering. etc.
Scope of Work The scope is prioritized and fixed at the start of the sprint and measured at the end of a sprint In kanban, the scope is dynamic and may evolve/priotised every day

Scrum Board vs Kanban Board

Both scrum and kanban boards are tools for tracking/monitoring and visualising the work in hand. On a functional level, when comparing Kanban vs scrum, Kanban focuses on task flow and WIP while Jira Scrum Board tracks sprint progress.

Aspect Scrum Board Kanban Board
Use Case A scrum board is used when the backlog or total scope of the project is defined. Kanban board is used when the backlog or total scope is not defined and changes dynamically.
Purpose The purpose of the Scrum board is to manage sprint-specific tasks. The Kanban board is used to Visualize workflow and limit WIP
Delivery The focus is on delivering a small part/chunk of usable and testable working items. Here, the focus is on the continuous delivery of tasks.
Columns Scum boards consist of  sprint backlog stages like To do, In progress, Engineering complete, QA approval, Done Workflow stages (To Do, In Progress, Complete)
Reset Cycle Scrum boards are reset at the end of each sprint. Kanban boards are used throughout the lifecycle of the project.
Flexibility Scrum boards have a set number of tasks in a sprint and have strict deadlines. Kanban boards are more flexible with tasks and timing, allowing for reprioritization, reassignment, and updates

When to Use Kanban vs Scrum?

Depending on the type of project a team is working on, the maturity of the team and the systems available in the organization, teams can decide which of the frameworks they want to use. Here are a few points you can consider while deciding when to use agile Kanban vs scrum board for your team.

Use Scrum When –

  • The work for your project/ team comes from one source and the scope of the project is defined.
  • The project requires structured planning with clear goals.
  • Teams need to work and deliver incrementally and hence improve the product incrementally after receiving the customer’s feedback.
  • Timelines and deliverables are fixed
  • Teams are rather new to Agile and need discipline

Use Kanban When –

  • The work is dynamic and the requirements change frequently
  • Teams are supposed to handle operational tasks like support or maintenance
  • Continuous delivery is of utmost priority
  • Team’s agile maturity is high

Benefits of Knowing Scrum Vs Kanban approaches

Benefits of Knowing Scrum Vs Kanban approaches

  • Make informed decisions in choosing the right framework for their project to increase efficiency.
  • Aligning the team’s workflow with the project
  • Improve collaboration and communication
  • Yields desirable results and leads to overall team satisfaction
  • Reduces the chance of just following a framework without getting the actual needs of the project

Pro Tip: For hybrid needs, one can use Scrumban, which blends the structured approach of Scrum with Kanban’s flexibility. It is perfect for teams that require structure but also wish to adjust to dynamic workflows because it is made to assist teams in utilizing the advantages of both frameworks while minimizing their drawbacks. It is ideal for teams transitioning from Scrum to Kanban or vice versa and is best for teams looking for flexibility while retaining some structured processes

Tools Comparison: Kanban vs Scrum

The success of your projects also depends on the tools used to apply Agile approaches whether Scrum or Kanban. Tools are important for collaboration among team members, tracking progress, and visualizing workflows. There are many well-known tools that complement Scrum and Kanban. Let’s explore them as we move forward.

In Jira, Scrum and Kanban both place a strong emphasis on openness, cooperation, and ongoing development. Teams benefit from the appropriate tools:

  • Effectively visualize workflows.
  • Monitor important metrics such as sprint velocity, cycle time, and lead time.
  • Oversee assignments and promote dialogue.
  • Adjust to shifting team dynamics and priorities.

Here is a list of some of the best tools one can use for the implementation of Kanban as well as Scrum –

  • Jira – Jira is a powerful Agile project management tool supporting both Scrum and Kanban, enabling teams to plan sprints, track progress, manage workflows, and visualize tasks for efficient collaboration and delivery
  • AzureDevops – Azure DevOps is a cloud-based platform supporting Scrum and Kanban, providing agile planning, CI/CD, work item tracking, dashboards, and collaboration tools to streamline software development and project management
  • Asana – Asana is a versatile project management tool that supports Scrum and Kanban, enabling teams to plan sprints, track tasks, manage workflows, and collaborate efficiently with boards, timelines, and automation features
  • Trello – Trello is a visual project management tool supporting Scrum and Kanban, helping teams organize tasks, track progress, and collaborate using customizable boards, lists, and cards for efficient workflow management
  • Businessmap – Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize) is an Agile project management tool supporting Scrum and Kanban, offering workflow automation, analytics, and visualization to help teams optimize processes, track progress, and improve efficiency

Factors to consider while choosing a tool

Deciding on the tool for your organization depends on the needs of the team, the complexity of workflow, and the budget of the organization. Simpler tools like Trello serve smaller teams with less demanding needs, while Jira offers extensive features for both Kanban as well as Scrum. If the nature of work is such that the teams would work on Kanban only, then Businessmap (formerly known as Kanbanize) can also be a great choice.

  • Team Size: If your team size is small, tools like Trello, Asana, etc. can be a good option, while larger teams might require more powerful tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, etc.
  • Project Complexity: If your team is working on complex projects that require a lot of customizations and modifications in the project management tool, then Jira and Azure DevOps are two examples of advanced features tools that are available in the market. Also, because of their popularity and wide acceptance across the industries, there are a lot of third-party plugins available to get customized outcomes.
  • Budget: Most of the premium tools available in the market might be too expensive for small businesses, especially when the organizations are just discovering various tools in the market and are not sure about which tool to finalize. In such a scenario, they can opt for free instances that are available for most of the tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, Trello, etc. but they might not offer all the features in their trial versions.
  • Integration Requirements: If your team is seeking CI/CD pipelines or other tools and not just ticket tools to track the progress, platforms like Azure DevOps would be a great option.
  • Usability: If your team is new, Jira might not be the best option for you as it has a bit more difficult learning curve than tools like Monday.com or Trello, which are more accessible to beginners.
  • Customer collaboration: If you need to collaborate with the customer on a regular basis, then choosing a tool that they are familiar with might be a smarter thing to look into. But one can consider this as a reason for choosing a tool only if the team is just adapting an online ticketing tool and has not invested on anything else yet.

How Consulting Firms Can Help?

Agile transformation company like Benzne play an important role in helping companies adopt agile ways of working. Consultants are subject matter experts and generally come with a lot of ground level experience and are unbiased in their implementation.Here are a few pointers on how consulting firms can help in overcoming these challenges

How Consulting Firms Can Help

  • As Is Assessment and Strategic Roadmapping – Agile consulting firms start their implementation journey with an assessment to understand the current team’s maturity and practices. Based on the assessment, they create a tailored customized roadmap to align with the problem statement or goals
  • Framework Agnostic, Outcome Driven Transformation – Consultants are SMEs who have knowledge of various frameworks. They design and recommend framework implementation based on need rather than just applying one framework because of organizational norms. They cater to solving a problem with best suited framework with agility in mind versus adopting agile for the sake of it
  • Education/Awareness and Education – Consulting firms provide training and programs to train teams and stakeholders with Agile principles, practices, and frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP). Training sessions may include workshops, seminars, and hands-on exercises to reinforce learning based on the need
  • Coaching and Handholding – Agile consultants work closely with teams and leadership to guide them through the Agile transformation process. They provide ongoing support, feedback, and guidance on implementing Agile practices, resolving challenges, and adapting to change.
  • Unbiased, Outside-In Perspective – Consultants are generally contract based and the contracts are usually outcome driven. Their experience having worked with multiple companies enables them to overcome challenges/resistance with a lot more ease and help organizations with insights with their experience.
  • Metrics and Milestone Based Transformations – Consultants contracts are usually for a shooter duration and outcome driven. And usually there are intermediate milestones and KPIs based on the roadmap more like a checkpoint. This enables the transformation to be faster and effective.

Conclusion

Both Kanban and Scrum are powerful frameworks within Agile. Depending on the nature or requirement of the project, workflow, and amount of feedback required from the customer, subject matter experts or agile coaches can help identify which one to pick out of Kanban and Scrum or even out of the other available frameworks under the Agile framework umbrella.

If the requirements are not certain and they continue to change, like in production issues or support-related projects, Kanban is the framework that would best help you. Also if visualizing the workflow and continuous improvement is the key concern, you should Kanban.

Whereas, if the scope of the project is defined and the requirements do not change frequently, meaning the work is pulled from a big pool of requirements, Scrum would suit your team the best. Also, if the motive is to increase predictability, and provide structure to project management while incorporating the feedback received from customers, for continuous improvement Scum would serve that purpose better. It’s important to understand the project requirements and final outcome expected from the implementation to ensure the correct framework is picked for the team and organization

There are several teams who use Scrum as their default framework even though it is not solving their needs and become chaotic and start blaming the process.The key idea here is to identify the needs of the project and implement the right framework. Reach out to us at Benzne agile software development consulting if you need any support in your agile transformation journey. With this our blog on “Kanban vs Scrum : A Detailed Guide to Choosing the Right Agile Framework” comes to an end and we sincerely hope that it helped getting a perspective. Please write to us on “consult@benzne.com” for feedback and suggestions or transformation.

Frequently Asked Questions About Kanban Vs Scrum

1. What is the difference between Kanban vs Scrum boards?

Let’s understand the difference between the scrum board vs the kanban board below.

A kanban board is implemented to facilitate task flow and visualize the workflow. A Kanban board includes 3 columns – To Do, In Progress, and Done. There is constant inflow or work in Kanban, with no definite scope of the project/backlog to be completed. Work keeps happening as it surfaces e.g. a team working on production issues. There is a concept of work in progress (WIP) limit to avoid getting into a situation where a lot of work is in “In Progress” status resulting in the team getting overwhelmed with the work that has started but not completed yet.

A Scrum board on the other hand is implemented to deliver a predetermined goal iteratively. Here the teams have a Product backlog, which contains the tasks to be completed to meet the project’s actual scope. The teams pick prioritized work from this product backlog and add it to the sprint backlog, which they aim to complete in an iteration or sprint. The board here looks similar to Kanban but may have more columns indicating the exact status of the work. E.g. “To Do”, “In development”, “QA validation”, “Deployment”, “Done”. After the sprint ends, the scrum boards for sprint – called the sprint board, are closed, and various matrices get auto-generated like sprint burndown charts, velocity charts, etc.

2. Which is better: Kanban or Scrum?

Both Scrum and Kanban are great frameworks provided they are implemented at the right place under the guidance of some coach or subject matter experts. If you are confused about when to use agile Kanban vs scrum, Kanban works best in projects where the work is dynamic in nature, there is no specific backlog of work that the team looks at and aims to complete the project. Projects with support or maintenance type of work best on Kanban whereas Scrum is best suited for projects that have definite scope to be delivered. In scrum, the project is delivered by picking and delivering small chunks of work iteratively, which may be featured. When all these small tasks/ features are delivered, the project is considered to be delivered.

3. Can Kanban and Scrum be combined?

Yes, we can create a hybrid framework in Agile by combining Scrum and Kanban. It’s called SCRUMBAN. Since Scrum is too rigid or structured and Kanban is too flexible, SCRUMBAN uses Scrum’s structure and incorporates Kanban’s flexibility. It finds the middle ground between Scrum and Kanban with moderate rules unlike strict rules in Scrum and very flexible rules in Kanban. Here, team members pull their work and choose their tasks but there are limits on Work in progress. There is no specific limitation on the number of team members, There are no roles, it follows sprint iterations with continuity but does not clear the board at the end of sprint.

4. How does Jira implement Kanban and Scrum?

JIRA is a highly customizable and very sophisticated tool used for project management. Jira offers templates both for Kanban and Scrum. The tasks in JIRA are visualized as they appear on a physical board but with a lot more detail like creation date, labels, assignee, reporter, and many more. In the case of Kanban, there are options to put WIP limits. In the case of Scrum, there are separate placeholders for project backlogs, sprint backlogs, and future sprints as well. Because of the details, it captures for all the tickets, Jira can generate metrics on its own based on the activity that happens in the tool eg. sprint burndown chart, velocity chart, lead time, cycle time, release tracker, cumulative flow diagram, and many more, which help the management analyze the trends and take informed decisions to pivot and accelerate the progress of the project.

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