Choosing which methodology is more useful to implement on your team can be as challenging as choosing which Star Wars movie is the best one. Kanban and Scrum have proven to be great frameworks for all kinds of teams (remote, non-remote, or hybrid) to work with if used the right way. Both have different approaches to help teams organize and overall work in the same direction. But which one is better? What are the advantages of Kanban, and what are the advantages of Scrum? Let’s dive deep into analyzing the Kanban vs. Scrum methodology.
What is Kanban?
Kanban is a workflow management method invented by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota looking for ways to improve Toyota’s manufacturing process. This methodology aims to visualize work and maximize its efficiency. Although it was first created for the manufacturing industry, nowadays, it’s used across different types of industries. Teams using this method focus on reducing the time it takes to make a project from start to finish.
For those wondering, Kanban (Japanese word) means billboard or signboard.
Kanban attains to the six principles below:
1. Visualize the workflow
Observing the current workflow helps visualize how tasks are progressing or the roadblocks that need to be solved to move forward.
2. Limit work in progress
This principle’s objective is for teams to complete their current work before moving to the next task.
3. Manage flow
This principle defends the anti-micromanaging movement. Managing the workflow means managing the work but not the people. Teams should focus mainly on managing the work processes and finding ways to improve and make that work faster.
4. Make process policies explicit
Every member of the team should be aware of what are the policies, rules, and guidelines. That way, misunderstandings and conflicts within the group are avoided, and teams cooperate because everyone knows what to do.
5. Feedback loops
Feedback loops are an essential part of Kanban. They consist of short daily meetings in which members of the team tell others what they did the previous day and what their plans are for today. This way, team members are aware of what everyone is doing or if they need help with something.
6. Improve collaboratively
One of the ultimate goals Kanban has it to help teams construct a fast and solid system to deliver projects. Teams that understand their goals, workflow, and processes are more likely to solve problems efficiently and work together to improve continually. It all relies on making stronger, faster, and united teams by changing their perception of working on a project collaboratively.
Implementing the Kanban Methodology
Kanban’s aim to visualize projects takes place through a board. Kanban boards include cards, which are an essential component. Each Kanban card represents a single work item that moves through diverse stages of the project. Besides cards, the board also has columns, WIP (Work in Progress) limits, commitment point, and delivery point.
Kanban’s board might be either physical or virtual. Some onsite companies use whiteboards and put post-its on it. Other teams use different types of boards, but overall, they all look like this:
If you are wondering why to choose Kanban, it depends on how your team works. But overall, Kanban is an excellent methodology for remote teams. Although on remote means you can’t have a physical board, you can have a virtual one. With platforms such as Trello, you can adapt it to the Kanban model. For example, we use a Trello board in our content marketing team that helps us organize and visualize our current tasks and the upcoming tasks better.
Kanban Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Focuses on continuous delivery | Teams can overcomplicate the board |
| Increases productivity and efficiency | Lack of time might be a problem (there are no timeframes in each phase) |
| Reduces the time cycle of the process | Lack of documentation |
| Easy methodology to implement | When team members don’t respect the WIP limits, they might work on too many things at once. |
| Flexible methodology | |
| Improves the delivery flow |
What is Scrum?
Scrum is an Agile framework that has the purpose of helping teams develop and deliver complex products. It was first implemented in software development, but it has been used in other fields as well. The term Scrum comes from rugby, where a scrum consists of a formation of players. It emphasizes teamwork.
Scrum encourages teams to self-organize and collaborate while working on a project. And to continuously seek improvement by reflecting on their wins and losses.
How Does Scrum Work?
The Scrum framework has a process with several elements that guide the team to complete their project. First, it’s important to understand that a team works in a series of iterations called sprints. A sprint is a time-boxed period in which a Scrum team works to complete determining work objectives. Each sprint (or iteration) consists of:
1) Sprint planning
It’s a team meeting where all the members plan and decide what to complete in the sprint. The final objective of the sprint planning is for development teams to answer:
What work can be done in this sprint? How to execute the chosen work?
Teams focus on these specific aspects for the sprints to be clear for each member of the team:
- What: The owner of the product describes what the goal of the sprint is.
- How: The development team plans the work necessary to achieve the sprint goal and create your dream app.
- Who: Sprint plannings involve both the product owner and the development team. The product owner defines the goal they seek, and the team deciphers if they can or can’t deliver that goal.
- Inputs: Teams start analyzing the product backlog as this provides a list of things that could potentially be part of the current sprint.
- Outputs: The team should describe at the end of the sprint planning meeting the goal of the sprint, and how they will start working towards that goal.
2) Daily stand-ups
Like the feedback loops in Kanban, a daily stand-up means a short meeting where each member of the team shares:
1) In what tasks they worked the day before
2) What’s their plan for today
3) If they are having any difficulty
The standup’s objective is for the team to sync and be aware of what team mate is up to and to see a wider picture of how the sprint is evolving.
3) Sprint demo
It consists of a sprint review where the finished product backlog items are shown. Each member of the team demonstrates with informal demos, the work they’ve done for the sprint. In this meeting, usually, members give feedback, ask questions, and make proposals to try new features.
4) Sprint retrospective
A final review of what worked and what didn’t to improve the upcoming sprints. The meeting aims for the team to reflect on the past sprint, identify the strengths and weaknesses, and clarify what aspects they should improve for the upcoming sprint.
Roles in Scrum
Unlike Kanban, Scrum does differentiate roles during the sprint’s processes. There are three basic roles:
- Product owner: Determines what needs to be done and sets priorities taking into account the product backlog and the customer’s behavior.
- Scrum master: Controls the scrum process and the due dates.
- Scrum team: Several individuals working together and determining the best approaches to deliver and achieve the objectives placed during the sprint planning.
Scrum Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| It’s collaborative | It involves many meetings |
| Makes large projects easier by dividing them into sprints | If a member quits the team, it affects negatively in the development process |
| Continues feedback that helps improving future products | It has no deadline which can lead to endlessly changing or adding features to products |
| By working on sprints, teams can catch mistakes before release | It’s a very strict methodology |
| Budget-friendly and get fast results | It’s mostly suitable for small teams |
| It’s easier for teams to make changes |
What is the Difference Between Scrum and Kanban
We’ve seen what each methodology is about, its advantages and disadvantages, and how they work on teams. Both are different methodologies that work effectively, depending on your team’s objectives.
On the infographic below are the main differences that might help you decide why to choose one over the other:
Who Wins the Battle: Kanban or Scrum?
When analyzing Scrum vs. Kanban, you’ll see there is no winner. Both methodologies can help teams to finish projects and reach the desired results successfully. It depends on how well the methods are implemented but mostly what your objectives are. Nowadays, some teams are even working with both methodologies calling it: Scrumban, a framework that combines the best features of both. We do recommend before deciding to analyze the projects you need to finish, as well as to know well how your team works.
