{"id":81,"date":"2009-12-14T22:32:15","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T22:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2018-04-12T01:14:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T05:14:29","slug":"kanbandwagon-kanban-vs-scrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/kanbandwagon-kanban-vs-scrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanbandwagon? Kanban vs Scrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am almost jumping on the Kanban bandwagon, but not quite. \u00a0I don’t really like to be on any “bandwagon” because when you are you seem to get stuck in a rut and don’t see the next improvement that is coming along.<\/p>\n

What is Kanban?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me give you the simple simple and you can look up what other people have to say about the details.<\/p>\n

The simple simple is this: \u00a0Kanban is a pull model where you are strictly controlling work in progress (WIP), by limiting the amount of work that can be in each phase of development. \u00a0It eliminates the needs for time boxing and committed sprints and replaces it with just in time priorities and time in queue instead of\u00a0velocity.<\/p>\n

Is it still agile? In my opinion yes and even more so. \u00a0Is it still Scrum? Only in some of the principles, but really it’s a different animal.<\/p>\n

Here are some good links to people who have written about Kanban:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.agilemanagement.net\/Articles\/Weblog\/KanbaninAction.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.infoq.com\/articles\/hiranabe-lean-agile-kanban<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/leanandkanban.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Excellent presentation here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Why Kanban?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reason I am starting to move in this direction and away from Scrum is mainly that very few people can actually get Scrum working. \u00a0Let me list out some of the most\u00a0important\u00a0issues I have been seeing:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Missing top level buy-in. \u00a0(Scrum pretty much requires this since you have to have the business commit to an iteration and commit to what it means to be a chicken.)<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Planning meetings take up time and provide no real value. \u00a0Estimation provides a value for planning releases and figuring out what work can get done but itself does not actually provide a tangible value.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. This is related to 1, but the business likes to be able to change\u00a0priorities\u00a0more frequently than 1 sprint. \u00a0(In general I have seen this to be true)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In some ways I am starting to wonder if Scrum is like training wheels. \u00a0It takes a large amount of dedication and attention to rules to make it work, and if you are missing the top level buy in, you can pretty much forget about it.<\/p>\n

    I am seeing Kanban as taking the good things that we learned doing Scrum and applying them in a less restrictive sense. \u00a0I am really liking the idea of focusing on controlling work in progress versus controlling time in which work is done. \u00a0There is a subtle difference here, but I think it is important. \u00a0I am recognizing there are many things in Scrum that we are doing that are not really adding bottom line value and most of these issues really rely on the time boxing aspect of Scrum. \u00a0If you take away the time box, but keep the idea of working on items in priority, limiting the number of items you are working on at a time, and the agile development methods which are used in Scrum you get pretty close to Kanban already.<\/p>\n

    Am I 100% sold on Kanban yet? \u00a0No, but neither was I on Scrum. \u00a0I really think the best approach may lie somewhere in between a Kanban + XP<\/a> type of process. \u00a0See my post on pair programming<\/a>. \u00a0Perhaps I’ll get a chance to try this out. \u00a0I already bring a large amount of XP to my Scrum, because XP has very good software construction practices.<\/p>\n

    So if you get a chance, take a look at Kanban. \u00a0I really like what David Starr<\/a> has been posting here<\/a> and here<\/a> about Agile not being Scrum. \u00a0It is very true.<\/p>\n

    Kanban is also used in the manufacturing industry to determine what to produce, when to produce it, and how much to produce. The Kanban efforts are then synced up with a logistics company, such as\u00a0LeSaint Logistics<\/span><\/span><\/a>, to streamline the entire lean production process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I am almost jumping on the Kanban bandwagon, but not quite. \u00a0I don’t really like to be on any “bandwagon” because when you are you seem to get stuck in a rut and don’t see the next improvement that is coming along. What is Kanban? Let me give you the simple simple and you can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11287,1136966,31679,46805],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agile","category-kanban","category-process-improvement","category-scrum"],"yoast_head":"\nKanbandwagon? 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