Updated May 2, 2023
Difference Between Scrum vs Kanban
The following article provides an outline for Scrum vs Kanban. The frameworks that are needed to adhere to the Agile principle and get the work done are known as kanban and scrum. Agile is a methodology followed in project management and product development which is a structured and iterative approach. Recognizing the volatility of the project development provides the methodology for the self-organizing team to organize and handle any change without affecting the other aspects of the project. In today’s world, there is no way for product development to continue for years or months in recent times; rather, it is very important to get things corrected. Kanban is used for visualizing the work and maximizing the flow of the work, making it more efficient and productive.
Kanban focuses on reducing the time for a project from beginning to end. This is accomplished by following the kanban board and by the successive improvement of the workflow. Scrum teams mainly focus on developing the software through a set of intervals called Sprints. This is to achieve a learning loop for quickly gathering and integrating customer feedback. The scrum team organizes regular scrum meetings to adopt specific roles and create special artifacts to increase productivity.
Head to Head Comparison Between Scrum vs Kanban (Infographics)
Below is the top 17 comparison between Scrum vs Kanban:
Key Differences Between Scrum vs Kanban
Below are the key differences between scrum vs kanban:
- Cadence: Scrum has regular fixed-length sprints ranges for two weeks, while kanban has a continuous flow and has no fixed time of completion.
- Release methodology: Scrum has a release methodology at the end of each sprint, while kanban has no such timeline and follows the continuous delivery methodology.
- Roles: Scrum team consists of product owner, scrum master, development team while there are no specified roles in kanban.
- Key metrics: Velocity is the key metrics for scrum, while Lead time, cycle time, WIP are the key metrics for Kanban.
- Change philosophy: In scrum team is not allowed to make any changes during the sprint, while in kanban, changes are allowed at any time.
Scrum vs Kanban Comparison table
Following is the comparison table between scrum vs kanban:
| Sr. No | Scrum | Kanban |
| 1 | Planning is one of the most stressed things in the scrum. The timing of all the events, including start and end, is well defined at the beginning only, also at the end of the scrum proper retrospection. Besides, it is also ensured in the meetings that the full team is aware of all its responsibilities along with the next steps, priorities, and learnings from previous sprints. | Kanban allows change at any time during the life cycle. There are no strict governing rules regarding changes that are applied. Here things can change frequently. |
| 2 | It mainly focuses on time measurement during sprints to track the progress of the team. | It focuses on the graph for getting the impression of the progress of the team. |
| 3 | It doesn’t focus on the team’s commitment rather, it focuses on the sprint goal and forecast. | It focuses on the time boxing and forecast. |
| 4 | As it stresses on the planning to estimate is very important in the scrum. | It doesn’t have such an estimation methodology to follow. |
| 5 | All the individuals in the team are assigned some responsibilities. | There is no assignment of roles to each individual; thus its much flexible in terms of individual responsibilities. |
| 6 | The sprint duration is fixed, varying from 2 weeks to 1 month. | Cycle time is used to measure it in Kanban, and it is not based on duration as in scrum. |
| 7 | The commitment of a specific amount of work is needed by the team. | It is not necessary for Kanban and is optional for the teams. |
| 8 | The cross-functional team is important in the scrum as they can resolve any roadblock that may arise in software development. | Kanban also requires specialized teams. |
| 9 | Adding additional items to an ongoing iteration is not possible. | Provided there is additional capacity, it is always easy to add new items. |
| 10 | Any sprint backlog has to be owned by only a specific team. | Kanban board can be shared by multiple teams. |
| 11 | Each sprint addresses a deliverable that must be completed and ready for review by the end of the sprint. | The deliverables are delivered continuously on a need basis; thus, the testing and review process goes in parallel. |
| 12 | All the team members get a specific role – scrum master finalizes timelines, product owner sets objectives, team members perform the development. | There is no such team as scrum, and it is up to the team members to collaborate and work together. |
| 13 | Scrum is designed to shift from the traditional model to an agile scrum model to be implemented in the project. | Any big change in the project is not encouraged by Kanban. |
| 14 | Scrum involves the effort from the entire team to collaborate and complete the work to deliver a quality product. | The reduction of time cycles is the most important consideration of success in Kanban, and hence the team works on reducing the time needed to complete the entire process. |
| 15 | Scrum prefers experienced professionals over inexperienced ones as it may face challenges to complete the work on time. | There are no specific timeframes allocated to the tasks, so the team members do not have any idea of time consumption in every phase. |
| 16 | It is used for projects with wide variations in priorities. | It is used for projects with staples priorities. |
| 17 | Large projects can be divided into easily manageable sprints. | It is suitable for small teams. |
Conclusion
Scrum is an Agile process that allows teams to focus on delivering business values in the shortest time, while the convention is mainly used as a visual system for managing software development work. Scrum is majorly used for focusing on the backlog, while Kanban focuses on the dashboard. In scrum, the scrum master acts as the mediator. Kanban makes every team member a leader and makes them share the different responsibilities among them. Kanban encourages the increment of continuous improvement, productivity, and efficiency. Scrum is used for time-bound iteration. Kanban is used for planning different duration for individual iteration.
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