As posted by Al Shalloway on LinkedIn
Looking at differences between Scrum & Kanban can help us see which will work better for us.
- Scrum requires planning the sprint. You can plan in Kanban but it’s normally isn’t done.
- Scrum requires cross-functional teams. Kanban doesn’t. While making it more flexible if also may miss the opportunity for team structure improvement.
- Scrum requires starting with its roles, practices, events & artifacts. Kanban allows you to start where you are & provides a transition model for improvement.
- Scrum improves by removing impediments. Kanban improves by focusing on shortening cycle time.
Teams that don’t like to be told what to do may resist Scrum. Kanban requires more discipline from the team than Scrum.
Factors to consider when deciding which to use:
- culture– including resistance to being told what to do &attachment to roles
- nature of work being done
- ability to create cross-functional teams
Note that executives can better relate to Kanban’s focus on flow. Combined with its insistence on visibility, executives can better understand the importance of managing workload.
In few cases is one clearly superior to the other. Taking a blend of the two often makes sense. Doing this is not difficult.