A blend of Scrum and Kanban, the Agile development technique known as Scrumban is a combination of the two. Scrumban was developed to fulfill the requirements of teams who sought to reduce the amount of work that was done in batches and use a pull-based methodology. Teams can better respond to changing stakeholder and production demands by combining Scrum and Kanban in a new way.
And in this article, we are going to explain everything you need to know about the Scrumban approach in project management!
The Definition of Scrumban #
First of all, the term ‘Scrumban’ is too obvious! Like its name, Scrumban is a hybrid between Scrum and Kanban that is used in the development of Agile software.
With the structure of Scrum and the flexibility of Kanban, Scrumban is a highly adaptable approach to workflow management. It is also possible to use Scrumban as a transition from Scrum to Kanban for teams. Kanban is a radical move for many software development teams. It’s possible for teams to learn about Kanban without having to give up the familiar structure of Scrum.
The Basics of Scrum #
In the early days of Scrum, the goal was to maximize the team’s capacity to deliver rapidly, as well as their flexibility to respond to new requirements and adapt to changing technology and market conditions. Short development cycles called sprints are used in the Scrum process and typically span between one and four weeks.
Because of this, Scrum teams tend to be small, cross-functional, and self-organizing in nature. Team members prioritize and group tasks based on their importance and relative effort before breaking them down into smaller, more manageable chunks. At the beginning of a sprint, the product owner picks all of the work that will be completed by the team.
The Basics of Kanban #
With its roots in manufacturing, Kanban is a type of visual workflow management. Lanes on a board indicate the many stages of the work process, which are represented by cards. As a team, you can utilize boards to organize your work and keep track of progress.
Using a mechanism known as WIP (work-in-progress) restrictions, they limit the number of tasks currently in process in order to keep everything organized and on track.
By tracking lead time (the average time it takes for a task to be completed) and optimizing their processes, Kanban teams can ensure their clients receive a constant, predictable flow of value.
The Basics of Scrumban #
Scrumban combines the predictability and organization of Scrum with the adaptability and continuous workflow of Kanban.
When done appropriately, Scrumban would help a team improve their operations by leveraging both the prescriptive structure of Scrum and the flexibility of Kanban.
Here are the Scrum components included in the Scrumban methodology:
- Regular iteration planning, synced with reviews and retrospectives.
- Determine how much work can be pulled into the sprint depends on the complexity and duration of the work.
- Prioritization on demand. Presents the team with the greatest item to work on next, nothing more, nothing less.
- Ensure the required level of analysis prior to beginning development.
- Organize tasks using the “ready” queue (between Backlog and Doing).
Scrumban is augmented by Kanban’s process improvement, visualization, and additional value measures. These are the Kanban elements utilized by Scrumban teams:
- Effortless operation of the pull system. Add as many items as you can to “Doing”.
- WIP limits are reached. Limits on the number of items in progress at any given time.
- Individual roles are not precisely defined
- Focus on just-in-time analysis and planning rather than batch processing for iteration planning predictions due to the short timeframes.
- Utilize process buffers and flow diagrams to identify process problems and opportunities for improvement.
- Prioritize cycle time over burndown. Burndown is predictable if cycle time is predictable.
- Use policies to clarify the transitions between processes.
How Does Scrumban Work? #
Scrumban entails applying the Kanban principles of workflow visualization and adaptable processes to the Scrum framework of a team. However, Scrumban eliminated some of the more rigorous parts of Scrum, allowing each team to establish its own approach to the project.
Here is a detailed guide on creating a Scrumban paradigm for your team.
1. Create Scrumban board #
Scrumban boards are comparable to Kanban boards. In order to keep track of the various stages of progress, it is recommended that you add as many columns to your Scrumban board as necessary. However, take care not to construct so many columns that the board becomes unreadable and cluttered.
2. Set up work-in-progress (WIP) limits #
Remember that Scrum establishes time and work constraints for each sprint. Kanban, on the other hand, emphasizes continuous workflow. You will need to determine how much work your team could handle at any one time. This limit for Scrumban is the total number of cards on the board at any given time. To prevent your staff from feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, establish a reasonable boundary.
3. Organize the team’s priorities on the board #
This stage demonstrates a further significant distinction between Scrum and Kanban (and Scrumban). With Scrum, you will assign tasks to particular members of your development team for each sprint. Under Scrumban, however, you will be responsible for determining the priority level of all tasks on the board. Your team will determine who will perform which responsibilities.
4. Estimate through planning poker cards #
A Scrum team must estimate how long each development process will take because each sprint has a fixed time constraint and the team can only work on a predefined selection of projects during each sprint. To predict the number of story points (showing time and complexity) for each assignment, they’ve developed techniques such as planning poker.
Work is continuous and unbounded in Scrumban, thus your team will not estimate story points. You will prioritize just the most important projects.
5. Schedule daily stand-up meeting #
Scrumban meetings might include quick standups allowing the team to share their plans and issues for the next day. These brief sessions are also a fantastic approach to fostering team cohesion and bonding, as your employees will spend a great deal of time focusing on specific projects and may not have many opportunities for interaction otherwise.
When to Consider the Scrumban Method? #
Scrumban can be beneficial to a team in a variety of settings. For instance:
1. To upkeep ongoing projects #
These may include undertakings that, unlike the debut of a new product, may not have a fixed completion date.
2. When teams having difficulty with Scrum #
It may occur for several reasons. For instance, the organization lacks the resources to support a Scrum environment, or the team deems Scrum’s criteria to be too stringent.
3. When a corporation seeks to give its employees more freedom in how they work #
With Scrum, the team frequently allocates each sprint’s tasks to specific persons. However, Scrumban establishes merely a wide list of projects and allows the team to select how to best utilize its resources. It improves teamwork and allows employees to find the projects that best match their abilities and interests.
FoxPlan Supports Scrumban for Your Project #
Now, we hope you understand everything about Scrumban’s approach to project management.
Scrumban is a wonderful solution for teams that require the structure of Scrum as well as the flexibility of a flow-based method, or for teams that are transitioning from Scrum to Kanban. And the good news is that FoxPlan Agile Project provides this feature for you and your team. Yes, whether you prefer Scrum, Kanban or Scrumban, we have it all!
Teams utilizing Kanban measure lead time or the average time between when work is requested and when it is completed and optimize their processes to reduce lead time in order to provide a continuous, predictable flow of customer value.
Numerous teams use Scrumban as a bridge between an immature and mature Agile methodology. So, are you and your team ready to adopt the agile approach? Sign up to FoxPlan for FREE today or contact our sales representative and experience FoxPlan in action!
