Difference Between Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban
In developing any software project, project management is the key and over the areas, many management tools have come into the picture. Agile, scrum and kanban are few examples of project management tools which are being widely adopted by many teams. In this article, we will be concentrating on these three popular terms which are widely associated with project management in one way or the other. Agile is a broader methodology to describe project management which splits the larger complex projects into smaller tasks that can be managed easily and ultimately the complex requirement is met. Both scrum and kanban are separate project management methodologies under the umbrella of agile.
Head to Head Comparison between Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban (Infographics)
Below are the top 6 comparisons between Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban:
Key differences between Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban
Let us discuss some key differences between Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban in the following points:
- Agile is project handling methodology that follows continuous iteration for the development and testing efforts in software development life cycle SDLC. Agile breaks the complex into smaller builds or iterations
- Scrum is an agile process that makes sure that tasks are delivered with utmost focus. This makes sure that all the business value is met and that too in the shortest time. Scrum make sure that a major task is split and handled with properly with all it sprint network like planning, reviewing backlog refinement, etc.
- Kanban is a better visualizing tool whose primary focus is to attain maximum efficiency. Similar to scrum kanban also encourages breaking the requirement into manageable chunks.
- Scrum is heavily schedule focused and it expects that all the sprint tasks get completed in the specified time frame which can be of 2-4 weeks time frame. Each task is given a pointer basing on the complexity and all the team members involved in pointing the story.
- Kanban is less dependent on time boxes or iterations. Kanban thou is an iterative method, continuous improvement is expected in an evolutionary way and work is completed. The main focus of kanban is to achieve maximum efficiency.
- Scrum follows the sprint of two to four weeks and once the sprint is closed the board is cleared off and the next sprint is planned and the board is filled with stories to be taken in the coming sprint.
- Unlike this kanban, the board does not require to be reset after the iteration task is completed. The board continues until the project is completed. This makes sure that associates have a task always on the board that needs to be completed
Comparison Table of Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban
The table below summarizes the comparisons between Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban:
| Feature | Agile | Scrum | Kanban |
| Development and Management | Agile is a development methodology based on the iterative and incremental model. | Scrum is one of the agile implementations where incremental development or testing tasks are delivered during the specified time the frame which can be of two to four weeks. | Kanban is also one of the agile implementations where work is organized in such a way that maximum efficiency is achieved. Here also, work or requirement is divided into manageable chunks. |
| Wok Boards | A work board is where requirements in the form of chunks or tasks displayed for managing and better tracking. Jira Software is used in Agile and it provides boards for better tracking. | A dedicated scrum board is present where there are stories that are form requirements that need to handled are logged. Some will be a backlog and some will in the Active sprint.
This board helps in better scheduling the task on priority and monitoring the work in progress. After the retrospective meeting, the present workboard is cleared and it is prepared for the next items or requirements that need to be taken care of in the next sprint. |
This board is for managing and containing all the work in progress tasks. There is also a kanban backlog on the board. In kanban board rather than planning the iteration, it is made sure that there continuous tasks on the board for the associates to work on. On Kanban board columns are labeled to keep track of the workflow. This also makes sure the maximum number of stories is allowed on each column. Unlike scrum board which needs to be cleared Kanban boards do not require to be reset until the project completes. |
| Scheduling | In agile, requirements are scheduled based on the methodology you are following whether its scrum or kanban. | Scrum-based methodology places a huge emphasis on schedule. It tries to make sure all the work that is committed to sprint gets completed by the end of the sprint. Any impediments are logged and handled efficiently by the team. Scrum iterative process make sure that we have a good estimate of work and depending on that delivery is scheduled. | Kanban does not have any particular time boxes for its efforts. More emphasis on the efficiency is given and it makes sure at any time frame there is a task available for the associates to work upon. Kanban is also iterative with continual improvement with evolutionary fashion. |
| Roles and Responsibilities | Agile process development requirement is handled by the project management is chosen. Which can be either scrum or kanban. | On scrum methodology, there are three roles with divided responsibilities. We have scrum master to host the meeting and getting all the things requested by team members, Product owner who is a primary stakeholder to the requirement that the team is doing and finally, there is a Scrum team consisting of development and testing members handling all the implementations on the schedule. | On the Kanban board, no set of predefined roles are defined. There can be a project manager or supervisor who can be coordinating the tasks. The role is theoretically evolved basing on the requirement of the tasks and hence efficiency is prominent for kanban. A kanban team is not cross-functional and here a team of specialist and another separate team which can be handling other general tasks can be working on different aspects of the same kanban requirement. |
Conclusion
Both scrum and kanban are supposedly powerful tools in the agile process of SDLC. Both of these tools vastly improve project management with high-quality outputs. The choice of option is purely dependent on the requirement and organization. If you think that quality with better scheduling I required then you can opt for the scrum and if the main consideration is quality with efficiency then you can opt kanban.
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