Discover the power of integrating Scrum and Kanban for enhanced value delivery in your team.
3 Kanban Core Practices and 3 Ways to Integrate Them
When it comes to Agile practices, the goal is to create an environment that encourages constant improvement, superior effectiveness, and value delivery. Two champions in this field, Scrum and Kanban, have proven their worth in teams across various industries. This blog explores how combining the strengths of these two ways of working can empower your Scrum Team’s performance to reach new and unstoppable heights.
Before diving in, it’s important to understand the differing identities of Scrum and Kanban. While Scrum revolves around fixed-length iterations or sprints, providing a structured approach for teams to work on their product backlog, Kanban focuses on visualizing work and limiting work-in-progress, continuous workflow improvement. Integrating these three core Kanban practices can lead to a robust Scrum and Kanban framework that optimizes your team’s ability to deliver value.
Three Core Kanban Practices:
1. Visualize the Workflow
The first core practice of Kanban systems, a key element of the ‘Scrum with Kanban’ framework, is visualizing the workflow. Using a Kanban board, all active work items can be transparently displayed, making it easy for the team to see what’s being worked on, who’s working on it, and what’s up next. This transparency reduces the potential for miscommunication and confusion, building a clear understanding of the current state of work.
To implement this practice, organize your Scrum board into various stages reflecting your workflow (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Testing, Done). Ensure all team members understand the board’s layout and policies, promoting active participation and ownership of tasks.
2. Limit Work in Progress (WIP)
The second Kanban practice that can enhance your Scrum team’s performance is limiting work-in-progress. This practice minimizes the risk of task saturation and burnout, as the team focuses on fewer work items at a time. It encourages completing ongoing work items before new ones are started, promoting a steady and efficient workflow.
A common way to limit WIP is to set a maximum number of items that can be in a given stage on your Scrum/ Kanban board at once. This encourages the team to focus on completing tasks and helps highlight bottlenecks where tasks get stuck or slowed down, leading to a quicker resolution.
3. Measure, Manage and Improve Flow
The third core Kanban practice is the measurement and management of workflow. This practice involves tracking how quickly tasks move through the workflow and identifying areas of slowdown or stagnation. Key Kanban metrics used in this practice include cycle time (from work item start to done) and days item aging (from when work begins on a task, incremented daily until the item completes).
Measuring these metrics allows your Scrum team to gain valuable insights into its performance and identify areas for improvement. Furthermore, tracking these metrics over time can highlight trends and patterns, providing predictive capabilities for future work.
Empowering Your Team with Kanban Practices
As highlighted by Medium, Scrum is purposefully incomplete, ready to welcome other tools into its framework. So how does Kanban fit in? Here are some ways to ensure the move toward Scrum and Kanban is seamless within your team.
Start with What You Do Now
The Kanban principle of ‘start with what you do now’ is a useful beginning point—there’s no need to make a seismic shift in your Scrum team’s practices. Instead, begin by understanding your team’s current workflow and identifying potential bottlenecks or areas of inefficiency. This knowledge will guide the implementation of specific Kanban practices that will best serve your team’s unique needs.
Respect the Current Roles, Responsibilities & Job Titles
Respect for the existing processes and roles is fundamental in Kanban, focusing on enhancing your current system. With respect to existing roles and responsibilities, Kanban can be introduced smoothly without creating discord or resistance within the team.
Encourage Leadership at All Levels
Kanban promotes a leadership culture, irrespective of hierarchy, empowering everyone on the Scrum team to take charge of their work, make decisions, and contribute to improvements in workflow and processes. This sense of ownership and involvement can greatly improve the team’s motivation and productivity.
Harnessing the Combined Power of Scrum and Kanban
The power of blending Scrum and Kanban lies in combining the structure and iterative approach of Scrum with Kanban’s transparency and flow optimization. Instead of choosing Kanban vs Scrum, or vice versa, merge Kanban practices into your Scrum processes to improve effectiveness, transparency, and value delivery.
Adopting the three aforementioned Kanban core practices enables your Scrum team to manage its workload better, minimize bottlenecks, and enhance performance. Remember, successfully implementing these practices requires the entire team’s understanding and commitment, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and learning.
If you want to leverage the power of Scrum and Kanban, consider enrolling in our Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK) training course. Our training program provides a deep dive into how Kanban practices can be incorporated into the Scrum framework without causing disruption, helping teams deliver superior value. For more information, explore our course offerings here.
Takeaway
Adopting Kanban best practices into your Scrum framework can significantly improve productivity, value delivery, and team morale. As you continue your journey towards Agile excellence, let Scrum and Kanban be your guiding lights, illuminating the path to optimized workflows and enhanced value delivery.
Be The Exception; Success with Digital Transformations is the exception, not the rule. Practices to help you shine.
