Global Accreditation Body for Scrum and Agile Certifications

Articles

Scrum with Kanban Transformation

Posted by SCRUMstudy® on June 27, 2024

Categories: SBOK® Guide

Scrum with Kanban Transformation

Scrum with Kanban transformation integrates the structured framework of Scrum with the visual and flow-oriented principles of Kanban. This hybrid approach enhances Scrum's iterative development with Kanban's focus on continuous delivery and efficiency. By incorporating Kanban's visualization of work and limiting work in progress, teams can improve workflow, reduce bottlenecks, and achieve more predictable and streamlined project delivery while maintaining the structured roles and ceremonies of Scrum.

Scrum with Kanban, an emerging trend in Agile project management, integrates Kanban's visual workflow management with Scrum's structured framework, enhancing flexibility and efficiency. This hybrid approach helps teams manage work-in-progress limits, visualize tasks, and improve process flow without altering Scrum’s core principles. By combining these methodologies, organizations can adapt more dynamically to changes, streamline processes, and achieve continuous delivery, ultimately fostering greater productivity and collaboration within teams.

Before we discuss how Scrum and Kanban are integrated in the Scrumban process, will have a quick look at some of the salient features of scrum and Kanban.
Implementing Scrum means:

  • Breaking the entire organization into cross-functional several teams.
  • Breaking down the entire project into small chunks of well-defined deliverables.
  • Listing the chunks in terms of priority and estimating the amount of work required to complete each one of them.
  • Splitting time into short periods (iterations) where market-ready code is presented.
  • Working on the release plan based on the review and feedback after the iteration.
  • Enhancing the process with the help of retrospection after the iteration.

Speaking of the workflow in scrum, the team plans and decides on the work that it will be completed in the upcoming sprint. Once decided, the sprint activities are finalized and are finished within the sprint duration, clearing the queue.

Now we will look at the features of Kanban:

  • Breaking down work into items, writing each item on a card and then sticking it on a wall.
  • Using designated columns to show the placement of each item in the workflow.
  • Limiting the work in progress by allocating clear limits on the number of items that may be in progress at each workflow level.
  • Measuring the time needed to complete an item and trying to the lead time as predictable as possible.

When it comes to the Kanban workflow, the limit on work in progress enables the team to change items in queues whenever it is needed. There’s no clearing the queue, and there is a continuous flow of work.

How are Scrum and Kanban integrated as Scrumban?

Scrumban blends the principles of Scrum with the tools of Kanban for enhanced process efficiency. While originally rooted in different methodologies, the mechanics of Scrum and Kanban seamlessly complement each other. By incorporating concepts like Work In Progress (WIP) limits and visual workflows, Scrumban facilitates continuous process enhancement. Unlike traditional Scrum, where iteration planning fills predetermined slots, Scrumban adapts by filling vacant slots with iteration planning as needed, reducing the overhead of planning sessions. Essentially, Scrumban embodies the practicality of Scrum with the cultural ethos of Kanban.

Integrating the two agile processes leads to several advantages in terms of quality, just-in-time delivery, short lead time, continuous improvement (also known as Kaizen in Kanban terminology), reducing waste and overall process improvement.

Though Scrumban is a relatively new approach in agile, it is gaining quite a lot of popularity and attention from industries that have to cater to both development and maintenance work.
Here are some areas where Scrumban can be implanted in order to achieve success:

  • Projects related to maintenance
  • Projects that require event -driven work
  • Projects that are prone to programming errors
  • Teams created to mainly work on developing new products