Scrum vs Kanban

Scrum vs. Kanban
Migrating from Scrum to Kanban
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About Dimitri Ponomareff
Dimitri Ponomareff (www.linkedin.com/in/dimka5) is a Coach.
Whether it's a sports team, software products or entire
organizations, Dimitri has that ability to relate and energize people.
He is consistently recognized as a very passionate and successful
change agent, with an overwhelming capacity to motivate and
mobilize teams on their path to continuous improvements. He is a
master facilitator, as well as a captivating speaker with consistent,
positive feedback regarding his ability to engage an audience.
www.torak.com
As a certified Coach, Project Manager and Facilitator of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People",
Dimitri brings a full spectrum of knowledge in his delivery of methodologies. Through teaching by
example, he is able to build teams of people who understand where to focus their work to generate the
most value.
He has coached and provided tailor-made services and training for a multitude of organizations. The
short list includes, American Express, Charles Schwab, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley,
Choice Hotels International, JDA Software, LifeLock, First Solar, Mayo Clinic and Phoenix
Children's Hospital. Dimitri enjoys his work, and does everything to ensure he shares his knowledge
with others who seek it.

Agenda
● Kanban overview
○ Visualizing the work
○ Making the Process explicit
○ Continuously improving the Flow
● Scrum vs. Kanban
○ Starting with Scrum, evolving to Kanban
○ Diagnosing a Scrum team
○ Scrum time-boxed challenges
● Kanban (When & How)
○ Ideal environments for Kanban
○ Kanban JIT Backlog
○ Estimates (or not) with Kanban - calculating Cycle Time
○ Release planning
● Blending Scrum & Kanban
○ Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
○ Scrum + Kanban implementations
○ Kanban board examples
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Kanban
1. Visualize the workflow
Kanban literally means "signboard" or "billboard"
2. Limit Work In Process (WIP)
use a pull system - establish and respect your ideal capacity
3. Manage Flow
monitor, measure and report the flow of work through each state
4. Make Process Policies Explicit
describe the process accurately in order to improve it
5. Improve Collaboratively
using models & the scientific empirical method to implement continuous, incremental and
evolutionary changes
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Toyota’s Kanban System
Philosophy of complete elimination of waste
"Just-in-Time" means making "only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed."
Source: http://www.toyota-global.com/company/vision_philosophy/
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Kanban Board - Start
a
b
to do in process done
Start with a simple task board with 3 columns: to do, in process and done.
Each card represent a work item in the current scope. Names can be
associated with the cards.
The key is to setup an easy way to visualize the work, and create an area for
social interactions.
c
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a
b
b
a
A problem with such a simplistic board, is the lack of rules and the concept
of time-boxing.
A typical problem is accumulating too much work in progress (WIP).
Kanban is more than just adding work items on a board, it's also applying a
PULL process.
a
b a
b a
cc
c
a
c
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a
b
b
a
A problem with such a simplistic board, is the lack of rules and the concept
of time-boxing.
A typical problem is accumulating too much work in progress (WIP).
Kanban is more than just adding work items on a board, it's also applying a
PULL process.
a
b a
b a
cc
c
a
To truly embrace Kanban, we must regulate the volume of cards on the
board. This can easily be accomplished by identifying clear thresholds
associated to better defined stages of work (columns).
Another improvement is to set a multi-tasking limit per user (2) and using
late binding of tasks to owners. Note that not all team members must have 2
tasks with their names, this is a maximum of 2.
b
c
a
ready
a
c
c
52
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Kanban Board - Mechanics
b
c
a
ready
a
c to do in process done
b
c
a
ready
a
c to do in process done
b
c
a
ready
a
c
a
1. Team member A completes
a card and moves it to the
"done" column.
2. Team member A pulls a new
card from the "ready" column
and starts working on it by
placing it in the "in process"
column. 3. The team responds to the
pull event and selects the next
priority card by moving it to the
"ready" column.
2
5
5
5
2
2
2
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Kanban Board - Flow
Now that we have established our team capacity and we have a pull
system, we can streamline the ideal flow.
b
c
ready
a
c
b
to do specify done
b
c
ready
a
c
b
execute
2 5 2 2 3
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Kanban Board - Flow
Now that we have established our team capacity and we have a pull
system, we can streamline the ideal flow.
a
backlog specify done
b
ready
a
c
b
complete execute
c
b
c
ready
a
c
b
to do specify done
b
c
ready
a
c
b
execute
2 5 2 2 3
28 3 2
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Roles
Scrum Overview
Product
Backlog
(prioritized)
Sprint
Backlog
Sprint
Planning
Sprint
Retrospective
Sprint
Review
Daily
Scrum
Product
Increment
Sprint
Task
Board
Sprint
Burndown
ScrumMaster
Product Owner
Team
Stakeholders
Users
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What Kanban likes about Scrum
Roles
Product
Backlog
(prioritized)
Sprint
Backlog
Sprint
Planning
Sprint
Retrospective
Sprint
Review
Daily
Scrum
Product
Increment
Sprint
Task
Board
Sprint
Burndown
ScrumMaster
Product Owner
Team
Stakeholders
Users
www.torak.com

Kanban with Scrum - or Scrumban
Roles
Backlog
(JIT)
Retrospective
Daily
Stand
Up
Continuous
Increments
Kanban
Board
Team
Stakeholders
Users
ReviewPlanning
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Scrum vs. Kanban
Scrum Kanban
Board / Artifacts board, backlogs, burn-downs board only
Ceremonies daily scrum, sprint planning, sprint
review, sprint retrospective
daily scrum, review/retrospective on set
frequency and planning ongoing
Iterations yes (sprints) no (continuous flow)
Estimation yes no (similar size)
Teams must be cross-functional can be specialized
Roles Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team Team + needed roles
Teamwork collaborative as needed by task swarming to achieve goals
WIP controlled by sprint content controlled by workflow state
Changes should wait for the next sprint added as needed on the board (to do)
Product Backlog list of prioritized and estimated stories just in time cards
Impediments dealt with immediately avoided
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Scrum vs. Kanban
Sprint Day 1 Mid-Sprint Sprint Last Day
Any Day
Kanban
Scrum
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Diagnosing a Scrum team
3 Roles
● Team - Is the team 5-9 people? Is it cross-functional or specialized?
● ScrumMaster - Is there a real ScrumMaster or someone acting in the role?
● Product Owner - Who actually writes the stories? Is the Product Owner truly
available?
4 Ceremonies
● Daily Scrum - Is it under 15 minutes? Does the entire team attend?
● Planning - Is it collaborative? Is it often the same tasks/estimates?
● Review - Do stories often carry over from sprint to sprint?
● Retrospective - Is it taking place every sprint? Is the team raising concerns
with Scrum?
A few artifacts
● Product Backlog - Is it mostly maintenance/operational work?
● Sprint Burndown - Are we burning story points or tasks?
● Task board - Has the board evolved passed the 4 typical Scrum columns?
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Scrum time-boxed challenges
● Time-boxes force stories to be smaller for the sole purpose of
"fitting" into the sprint length
● Breaking down stories require unnatural breakpoints create
difficulties for deployment and testing of the work
● Too small of stories are no longer valuable and are not
potentially shippable product increment at the end of the sprint
● Increased dependencies between stories, which requires more
coordination to plan the work
● Increased testing due to the need to test (and retest) many
small incomplete stories that are difficult to test and require
more scaffolding efforts
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Ideal environments for Kanban
● If Scrum is challenged by workflow issues, resources and
processes
● Event driven work
○ help-desk/support
○ hardening/packaging phases
● Projects with frequent and unexpected user stories or
programming errors
● Maintenance projects or sunsetting products
● Around Scrum teams focused on new product development
○ work preceding sprint development (R&D, procurement)
○ work following sprint development (system testing, release and
deployment)
● Facilitating improvement communities across the organization
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Backlog
Kanban JIT Backlog
● extend board to include story creation/elaboration
● avoid creating/analyzing too many stories and having duplicates, reduce waste
● assure the necessary level of analysis before starting development
● the backlog should be event-driven with an order point
● prioritization-on-demand - the ideal work planning process should always
provide the team with best thing to work on next, no more and no less
2 5 2
Elaboration Development Testing Deploy
1
Done
8

Queue
Estimating (or not) in Kanban
● No need to estimate at the card level, each card is "similar size"
● Cards don't need to get broken down to tasks with estimates, the work is
known by the team and they will swarm to figure it out
● Simply calculate the average Cycle Time for cards to get through the board
○ Done Date - Start Date = Cycle Time
2 4 2
Elaboration Development Testing Deploy
1
Done
12 days
24 days

Agile Release Planning
week 1 week 2 week 8week 7week 6week 5week 4week 3
Kanban team
releasing every 2
weeks like Scrum
sprint 1 sprint 3sprint 2 sprint 4
Scrum team
releasing every
sprint
Kanban team
releasing every
week
Kanban team
release when
ready/needed
planning review & decision to release retrospective

Scrum + Kanban
Scrum KanbanScrumScrum
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Yearly Release (or very long ones)
Some organization choose to release only once a year. Although not ideal in Agile because it removes the
advantages of going to market as soon as something is ready, this scenario requires that you get it right
the first time / the only time you release that year!
When new features are planned at the beginning of the year, the team(s) will benefit from working in a
structured environment with time boxes and discipline with regular ceremonies (Scrum).
The challenge will be at the end when other groups join the effort to prepare the release of this work. The
coordination and possible issues that arise will benefit from switching all efforts to hardening the release
(no new development) and following a clear process (Kanban).
Scrum Kanban

Scrum + Kanban
SOA Environments
In Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environments, building/maintaining services is a specialty and
requires a certain type of developer. Since there are rarely enough SOA developers to be on every
development team/project and there is a need to centralize work on services, the SOA development is a
specialized process that received demands from multiple teams/areas. The key is to funnel all requests.
The visual nature of Kanban is ideal for SOA because it forces to respect their WIP limits and all the work
across the various areas is clearly visible to organize and prioritize. Also SOA requires experts and that is
the huge difference between Scrum (cross-functional) and Kanban (specialized).
Scrum Kanban
Team 2Team 1 Team 3
SOA
Team
service A
service B service C
service D service E service F

Scrum + Kanban
Applications vs. Infrastructure
Scrum and Kanban are both Agile methodologies. The key is that they share the same values and
principles, and therefore the basis to improve behaviors to reach common organizational goals.
Scrum tends to take the organization by storm in the spirit of increasing efficiencies, but if the IT groups are
not also Agile, Scrum hits a wall. Scrum teams have roles/ceremonies that align the business and
development sides, but once this is achieved there is another technical component (IT), which cannot be
left at the end. The goal is to find common grounds to streamline the work across the organization. IT
doesn't have the need/luxury of the Scrum roles, they need clear Agile processes (Kanban).
Team 2
Team 3
Team 5
Network
Team
Scrum Kanban
DBA
Team
Release
Team
Support
Team
Security
Team
Team 1
Team 4

Kanban for Portfolio Management
Queue In Process Release Done
Concept Scope Development Testing
Project
Team #1
Project
Team #2
Project
Team #3
6 5 2

Kanban for Architecture
Queue In Process Release Done
ModelingAnalysis Development Testing
Service
#1
Service
#2
Service
#3
6
5
2

Backlog In Process Done
Production
Release
Dev Support
Project A
Project B
Analysis
Specify Execute
Kanban for IT
8 3 6

Kanban for Support with multiple clients
Backlog
In Process
DoneSpecify Publish
Estimate
C1
C4C3
C2
Design Code Test Package
New Analysis Development Done
Production
Issues
3 2 3 42

Kanban for Marketing
Priorities In Design Done3rd PartyIdeas Release
Web Event
COM PR
ValidateReviewSpecify Execute 2438

Kanban for Sales
Queue Create RFP Review Done
RFP Ready In Progress Complete
Sales
Team #1
Sales
Team #2
Sales
Team #3
26 5

Agile Coaching, Staffing and Training.
Learn more at www.torak.com
Learn more at www.AgileTestingFramework.com

Resources and References
● Scrumban - Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development
by Corey Ladas
● Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both by Henrik Kniberg, Mattias
Skarin
● Wikipedia - Scrum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28development%29#Scrum-ban
● Toyota
○ Just-in-Time — Philosophy of complete elimination of waste
○ TPS (Toyota Production System) or "kanban system"
○ http://www.toyota-global.com/company/vision_philosophy/

This presentation was inspired by the work of many people and we have done our very best to attribute all
authors of texts and images, and recognize any copyrights. If you think that anything in this presentation
should be changed, added or removed, please contact us.
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Scrum vs Kanban

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