The ‘Scrumban’ Party: Making Sense of the Scrum & Kanban Methodologies

In this post I’d like to explain the difference between “Scrum” and “Kanban” methodologies to help teams determine which organizational strategy is right for them.

Both techniques help teams who use the Agile methodology to improve the work process. But how can you tell which will be the best for your team? Which will bring the best results?

I will present the difference between these two methodologies by presenting two groups of people who are preparing for a dinner party. The dinner party is the desired product. The process includes the preparation of the table settings, wear and ornaments, as well as all the courses for the dinner. It will occur on a predetermined time and both teams will have the exact same time schedule to prepare.

A Scrum-Planned Dinner Party

I will start with the team that works in the Scrum methodology. They need to adhere to a certain set of rules:

1. The time frame when everything needs to be done.
2. The people involved and their roles
3. The meetings — planning, kickoff, daily, review, and retrospective.

In the case of the dinner party, the team’s time frame is already known. Let’s say they have a week. The team has a “manager” that delegates responsibilities and prepares the lists. There is also the technical person, the one who has the best cooking proficiency.

In another post, I mentioned that the meetings should serve the process (and not the other way around). The purpose is not to do meetings for the sake of meetings, but to find the best way to use these meetings and overall process to promote the project at hand. In this case; the dinner party. So let’s check which meetings are necessary to reach the best result.

The planning meeting is crucial where the team will discuss:

• The theme of the party
• The settings, tableware, and ornaments that should be used
• The courses that should be prepared
• The budget dedicated for this party
• The timeline for the preparations
• The responsibilities of each of the team members

The kickoff meeting will take place on the day of the dinner party when the team gathers to initiate the arrangements. They will review the ingredients brought, as well as the dishware and other settings. They will make sure everyone knows what to do, and set final times for the on-place preparations.

Provided it’s a very big dinner party, daily meetings could be helpful during the week leading up to the event, just to make sure all the arrangements are being done and that no issues are encountered. If there is a problem with some ingredient, for example, they could decide to replace it or find an alternative. This should not take more than 10 minutes per day, though; hopefully less.

In this case there is no need for demo–though I’m sure that the team will try the courses while preparing the food, obviously :-) And while a retrospective is not a must for a social gathering, the planners of a big dinner party would certainly want to talk about how it went and what made it successful, and when they should host the next one!

Now, let’s try to check the same process with the team that uses Kanban methodology.

The Kanban-Planned Party

One of the main differences between Scrum and Kanban is the limited time frame. When working in Kanban, there is usually no definite iteration in which you need to finalize a feature or an MVP (though there may be deadlines for tasks or milestones). But since a dinner party has to be scheduled, we’ll assume the planners embracing the Kanban methodology, should finish all tasks within a week too.

There are also no defined role expectations when using the Kanban approach. The team may coordinate responsibilities of each of the team members, but the methodology itself is driven by lists of specific tasks; the first person who finishes his task will be able to take the next one from the list and continue with it, and so on.

To start, the Kanban team (just like its Scrum counterpart) will perform a planning meeting where the team will discuss:

• The theme of the party
• The settings, tableware, and ornaments that should be used
• The courses that should be prepared
• The budget dedicated for this party
• The timeline for the preparations
• The responsibilities of each of the team members

You are currently wondering, so what is the difference? In both teams they held the same meeting and reached the same conclusions.

Well, not exactly.

The result of the planning meeting of the Scrum team will be several lists where each will be under the responsibility of a certain team member. In the case of the Kanban team, the result will be one list. The entire team is responsible for that list and each can and will take tasks from it, upon finishing the ones he is currently doing.

Another difference between Scrum and Kanban methodologies is the amount of meetings that take place in the process and the omission of some. For example, there are no daily meetings when using the Kanban methodology–there is just the task list. However, it would be beneficial for the team members to discuss with each other on alternatives and challenges they encounter during the preparation process.

The same goes for the other types of meetings. None of them is a defined part of the Kanban process, but they can be part of it if the team decides they should meet.

A ‘Scrumban’ Solution?

In both methodologies, the process is cohesive. The entire team, no matter which team, can check the current work in progress. They can rearrange the work load and discuss the work in progress. In both cases, the meetings and discussions enhance the flow as well as the team work. In the Kanban methodology, however, the individual’s responsibilities are emphasized in comparison to the Scrum methodology.

No matter which method the team chooses, the result should be maximized. A perfect celebration of food and fun!

To summarize, according to Scrum guru Jeff Sutherland, Scrum definition is “a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.”

The fundamental principle of Scrum is to minimize a product in order to be able to issue a result within a very short time. This way, you optimize the time for reaching the market process and guarantee impressive results. The roles and meetings are only a factor that enables the process to stay within the time frame.

You can find more information about Scrum in Jeff Sutherland’s Scrum Guide.

Kanban is a scheduling system of visual management aimed at just-in-time delivery excluding team overloading. The team still follows three basic columns of what’s in process, what was done, and what is still to be done.

There are four fundamental Kanban principles:

1. Visualize work to increase communication and collaboration.
2. Limit work in progress to avoid an endless chain of non-prioritized open tasks.
3. Measure and optimize the flow, collect metrics, predict future problems.
4. Aim for continuous improvement as the result of analysis.

It is recommended to perform a planning meeting at the beginning of the iteration to determine a definite number of tasks to be done in this iteration, set priorities, and delegate responsibilities.

As mentioned before, meetings are more or less optional from then on. Kickoff can be done if there is a new feature that is under the responsibility of more than one team member. In this case, gather the relevant members and explain the feature. The same refers to review meetings as well. These are relevant only for the members who were engaged in the same feature and should get together to demonstrate it.

There are no actual daily stand-ups. Yet, the team must communicate when encountering a blockage to each other.

Retrospective is recommended, though not a necessity. If you are working in closed iterations, get together after each one. Discuss the challenges you encountered and offer options on how to get better for the next iteration. If you are working on a list of tasks that has no definite purpose, you can renounce this meeting.

Ultimately, I titled this post “the Scrumban party” because I believe that there is no one, definite way that fits all teams at all situations. At Kin, for example, are currently trying the Scrum methodology but only in a preliminary stage.

In both methodologies, the most important thing is communication. So communicate and find the best method to have fun and reach your aspired goal. My recommendation: pick a “party,” then the right plan approach to meet it.

Cheers.