Q 249. Scrumban is an Agile development methodology that is a hybrid of Scrum and Kanban. What are the key benefits that large Agile teams can derive by combining both methodologies?

 

 

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Scrumban is an evolved agile methodology, in which work is organized in small iterations and monitored with help of a visual board, with combination of tools of scrum and Kanban boards. 

The main charactersitics of scrumban in comparision to Scrum  are:
-The iterations(sprints) of scrum are  not pre-fixed, but as needed , a kind of replaced by continuous flow system as in Kanban.
-The teams involved  may be specialized rather than cross functional teams of Scrum.  Specialized team obviates the need of a Scrum master, who controls Scrum.
- Task limits- Limited by work in progress(WIP), rather than sprint in Scrum.
- Tasks are taken up by the team members in a pull system, rather than preassigned tasks to team.
- Boards, backlogs and burn downs of Scrum are replaced by Boards only.

-The Performance metrics in Scrumban included  lead and cycle time,  average Cycle time, rather than burndown Chart in Scrum.
- Planned meetings are not mandatory, rather on demand and optional meetings are conducted.
-Sprint planning is not required and replaced by on demand and bucket planning.
- Prioritization of work is carried out by priority columns, rather than backlog refining in Scrum.
- New tasks and changes may be added in a live iteration, which is not allowed in Scrum.

The key benefits of Scrumban are:-

-Quality oriented
-Just in time is facilitated
- Event driven and caters to the requirement
- Continuous improvement(Kaizen) is facilitated
-Waste is minimized by eliminating non value added things
 -Overall process improvement, as and when needed
- Workflow issues and  resource issues  of Scrum get sorted out
 -Ideal for maintenance projects
 -Ideal for projects with unexpected user stories and programming errors.

 

 

 

Image Source: www.kanbanize.com

 

 

Agile development methodology is a process where the product or the service is build up in an incremental and iterative manner. This methodology is successful because of following reasons

1. It breaks the total work into smaller units - called sprints

2. Frequent review of the progress of the work on smaller units - called scrum

 

Sprints are supposed to be closed within a specific time frame and because these are short duration projects, the review and decision making has to be swift. This is where scrum gets introduced. Scrum is a daily team huddle where the progress of the sprint is reviewed and course corrections are done (if required).

 

Kanban on the other hand is a signal from the downstream process to the upstream process to give them work.

 

Scrumban - is the combination of Scrum and Kanban and thereby it utilizes the benefits of both scrum and kanban.

 

The key benefits of using Scrumban in a software development are

1. Changing customer requirements could be managed well

2. The flow of the sprints is made visible using kanban which makes it easier for the team to understand their priorities and deliverables

3. Reduced chances of a deliverable getting missed

4. Better management of backlog items

Let us see some definitions for Scrum and Kanban from the official site of Scrum guide and few other good sites for Kanban

 

Scrum: It is a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. 
 

Kanban: Kanban (whose meaning is signboard or billboard in Japanese) originally was used as a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing (JIT) used to improve manufacturing efficiency by limiting supplies and resources to what was needed for the immediate task.

 

As Kanban usage is spread across industries, it has become ubiquitous. 

 

From an agile perspective, Kanban is a continuous workflow management method designed to help in visualizing the process and the actual work passing through that process
 

ScrumBan :
Wiki definition: Scrumban is an Agile management methodology describing hybrids of Scrum and Kanban and was originally designed as a way to transition from Scrum to
Kanban. 

 

Before we go into details of the why we need ScrumBan, let us see some fundamental characteristics of Scrum and Kanban and where they are stand with each other and how combining their characteristics (ScrumBan) could be beneficial

 

Salient features of Scrum:
1. Scrum is based on Empiricism which relies on Transparency, Inspection and adaptation
2. Scrum uses inspect and adapt techniques to find if any deviation is there from the required levels of expectation. If there is a deviation, then the relevant team needs to adapt to doing the course correction
3. Scrum is a prescriptive framework. It tells what to do and does not tell the 'how' part and leaves the implementation to its users   
4. Scrum is a process framework that has some well defined rules and time-boxed events and few roles. The Container event   called 'Sprint' is also time-boxed. 
5. Scrum is transparent and as a result it ensures work completion by having a definition for that (using 'Definition of Done'- a key aspect)

 

Salient features of Kanban:
1. Visualization of the workflow 
2. WIP Limit - which will limit the team to work only items which are in progress and thereby avoid overburdening
3. Workflow management - By having a smooth workflow and ensuring minimal average cycle 
4. Continuous Process improvement -  Review the effectiveness of the defined Processes and update them wherever required    
5. Continuous Feedback and collaboration mechanism - Have a proper feedback system (like daily scrum call or scrum of scrum call) to provide the knowledge gained in the system and with respect to collaboration, share the views with everyone.   

 

Scrum	Kanban
Every Sprint will have a specific goal	Here primary goal is to achieve continuous flow
There are pre-defined clear cut roles (Development Team, Scrum Master and Product Owner)	There are no such clear cut roles
It runs on Empiricism	It dwells on Visual workflow and WIP limit
Velocity is a key metric	Cycle Time is a key metric
WIP Limit is not a mandatory	It operates on WIP Limit

 

Why do we need ScrumBan or what are the benefits of ScrumBan:

Let us now see as how ScrumBan could benefit large Agile teams .

 

Scrum being a prescriptive framework does not provide/tell any answers to some of the problems that a team which practices Scrum might face.

Eg: In the case of an IT team, the team might have issue with a junior developer who lacks technical knowledge and he is not productive and this is hampering the team's overall delivery. Imagine the team is wondering how to resolve that . In such a case if the project is being run in Extremme programming(another Agile way of doing a project) then it would have team members of the project to do pair programming and do automation as part of its manifesto. But Scrum is lenient and does not emphasize anything like that. 

 

Remember the fact that as scrum does not tell about the 'how' part, we have the liberty to use anything without breaking the rules that govern the scrum framework. This is where a  technique like Kanban can be used inside the Scrum framework to leverage its process improvement benefits. So let us see as how using the hybrid version, ScrumBan - the combination of Scrum and Kanban, we can get the benefits

 

Benefits:

1. Using Scrum aspect will ensure that system is capable of addressing robust changes , where changes(requirements) are captured in with a proper priority plan

2. Using Scrum events which helps in inspecting and adapting the work, the progress of the work items can be measured and the status of each item can be identified as per that . That will identify the potential bottlenecks . This could point to the workflow movement in the Kanban board and can inform the probable risks / impediments to the customer management  

3. Using Scrum Retrospective event in conjunction with Kanban effectively ensures that not only process for workflow improvement but also for process for tools, people, technology can be improved   

4. Using Kanban's WIP limit can result in taking limited amount of work items (usually in the form of user stories for a typical IT Scrum project :-) ) and ensuring that you are on achieving to complete your items without overburdening yourselves and complete it on the time-boxed duration. WIP limit gives an opportunity to stay focussed as a team to complete the items that we pick (as a team) and then proceed to the subsequent items and then complete the iteration. It ensures that the planned goal/objective for that iteration(Sprint) is achieved.    
 
5. For day-to day operations/maintenance activities, WIP limit in conjunction with Daily Scrum call can be quite effective[as daily scrum will be useful to see work progress and reassess the situation every 24 hours and WIP limit will set the work item limitation for working on that day]

Conclusion:
Agile as a way of project management has evolved a lot since its origin. The fact is that it has incorporated lot of lean principles into its scheme of things which is good news for all of its practitioners. ScrumBan is one such technique. This is not the only one though . SAFe is one framework which is being used at Enterprise level by large organisations.

 

SAFe provides a clean structure having at Team level, Program level and Portfolio level and is highly lean oriented in its approach. So i personally feel that based on an organisation's size and its feasibility to operate in a given technique (in every sense) and its passion, knowledge and willingness to change itself to the technique, these techniques are being practised upon by those organisations.   

 

References:

https://kanbanize.com/blog/kanban-vs-scrum-infographic/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrumban

https://www.guru99.com/scrum-vs-kanban.html

https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html(For Scrum Definition)

Benchmark Six Sigma Expert View by Venugopal R

Both Srum and Kanban are agile methodologies, popularly used for Project Management. Although their context is often referred with respect to Software development, the methods are applicable for any type of project management. Scrum originated in the software world, whereas Kanban originated long ago as part of the Toyota Production System. While these two methods exhibit similarities, there are differences in the way they are organized and administered.

 

“Scrumban” is a hybrid structure evolved by Corey Ladas that leverages the best of both methodologies. To understand Scrumban, we will first have a quick look at Scrum and Kanban methods independently and their differences.

 

The Scrum method works with a well defined organization structure. It has a Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers and Testers. The Product Owner represents the customer and will decide the priorities for the items, also known as ‘user stories’ to be worked upon.  Product Owner mentors the team with respect to the Product requirements. The Product owner liaisons between the customer and the development team. The Scrum Master is an experienced facilitator who organizes the meetings and helps team to overcome hurdles. The Developers develop the codes and Testers test the functionality in the required environments.

 

The entire team is self organized and they work on the stories listed under the ‘Product Backlog’. The ‘user stories’ are moved from the Backlog list and they get into the stages within the Development phase, viz. 'To do', 'Doing' and 'Done'. Afterwards, the ‘user stories’ will move to the similar 3 stages within the Testing phase.

 

The entire cycle of this activity for a user story is known as a ‘Sprint’ and usually set for a time frame of 2-3 weeks. There are certain meetings that are conducted as part of the Sprint cycle viz. Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review and Retrospective meetings. In case any change requirement comes up during the Sprint, it will be accommodated only after the Sprint cycle is completed.

 

Kanban focuses on continuous delivery, with a demand based supply. The team comprises of developers and testers with an Agile coach. The Kanban board also contains the Backlogs, user stories, the 3 stages during development and testing; quite similar to the Scrum method. While the Scrum employs a ‘time-box’ method based on Sprint cycles, Kanban works with continous flow, keeping minimum work-in-progress depending on the team’s capacity. If there is an accumulation of work in any of the stages up to the permitted capacity, other team members can pitch-in and clear the bottle neck. Kanban model is flexible to accommodate any change during the development stages. The delivery performance is measured as the lead time taken from the time the request is placed until go-live.

 

Few evident benefits of Kanban over Scrum are greater flexibility and continuous flow.

 

Now let us look at ‘Scrumban’ which is actually an enhancement of Scrum towards Kanban methodology.

 

Some of the key features of Scrumban are:

1. It incorporates the visual workflow based on Kanban
2. Uses daily Scrum – Project team meets in front of Kanban board and discusses jobs done yesterday, to be done today and any obstacles to be addressed
3. The job is pulled, as in Kanban and not assigned as in Scrum Sprints. The work is pulled by the member, and it gives higher ownership for the pulled task. For this purpose, additional columns are created on the Kanban board and limits are set for certain stages.
4. Clear WIP (Work In Progress) limits are applied as in Kanban to prevent excessive accumulation of work at any stage. This will necessitate a “Pull” approach and prevent stagnation of work at a stage.
5. Specific roles, by way of structured team as in scrum are not defined. More collaborative working is encouraged.
6. Use of specialized team members – depending on the the requirements of the tasks, the required subject matter experts are pulled into the team
7. Due to the ‘Pull’ approach, the Sprint Planning meeting will be based on trigger, rather than ‘once a fortnight’ as per traditional Scrum approach.

The below table gives a typical Srumban visual workflow display. It may be noticed that the dark blocks indicate the limitations set for the stages represented by those columns.

 

The flexibility and pull features of Srumban makes it a better structure to be adopted when the development and testing teams have dual responsibilities of handling new developments as well as ongoing requests.

Responses from Shashikant, Natwarlal and R Rajesh are all appropriate.

 

R Rajesh has explained Kanban, Scrum individually followed by their differences, has explained why Scrumban was needed and what are the benefits. This detailed and organized effort makes him the winner for this "Scrumban" question.  

 

Please review the response by Benchmark Expert, Venugopal as well.