Agile: From Scrum to ScrumBan

Well, over a long period of time, Scrum and Kanban has been viewed as the strongest soldiers of Agile methodology to fix the chaos and unpredictability in the software development processes. But nowadays, a new term called ‘ScrumBan’ has created quite a stir in the world of software project management domain.

The popularity of this hybrid concept is growing by leaps and bounds with the incredible degree of success rate. ScrumBan is referred as the combination of common and best practices taken from the Agile and Lean buffet i.e. Scrum and Kanban.

Crux of Scrum This Agile methodology is focused to split the organization into small, cross-functional as well as self-organizing teams. Also, the time is divided into short fixed-length iterations. This methodology is ideal for complicated and innovative scope of work. The major attraction of this software development process is the sprint meetings that are repeated until the optimum results are obtained through it. The sprint review is important part to get a retrospective evaluation.

Crux of Kanban This methodology is utilized in order to visualize the workflow. In this process too, the work is divided into pieces, so that it becomes easily manageable. This practice allows limiting the work in progress during each workflow state. It indeed is a systematic approach when it comes to measure, visualize and follow up a project work in a system.

Go ScrumBan! Combining the best practices of Scrum and Kanban, ScrumBan has become the first choice of dedicated software development professionals. ScrumBan is an excellent blend of the prescriptive nature of Scrum to be Agile and the process improvement method of Kanban. This combination enables a software development team to continually improve the process. According to some experts, it actually is not a development process but a process that evolves a Scrum case to become more flow oriented.

Basic Principles of ScrumBan This highly successful methodology emphasizes on visualization of flow of Product Backlog items, and not just focuses on tasks. Tasks are also created but it is optional. ScrumBan also requires weekly planning to turn to be a great success. Through Kanban board, daily tracking of the software project is done. This Agile methodology aims to ensure the incremental progress and limit WIP (Work in Progress).

When can ScrumBan work wonders? The ScrumBan Agile methodology is best suited to the maintenance projects along with the frequent and unexpected user stories. It can work out well for the event-driven work too like help desk/support and hardening/packaging phases. There are times when you can experience that Scrum is challenged by the workflow issues, resources and processes. ScrumBan comes in as the rescue in such a scenario.

ScrumBan Advantages Delivers software projects of utmost quality. Ensure continuous improvement. Make sure to minimize the waste i.e. things not adding value to the valuable customers.

Kanban vs ScrumBan There is no prescribed role in Kanban and no daily meetings required. But in SrumBan, daily meetings can help to ensure continuous work flow. Review and retrospective meetings are not significant in Kanban whereas in ScrumBan it works in favor of the process improvement. In both Kanban and ScrumBan, the workflow is continuous, but ScrumBan adds limit of slots.

Scrum vs ScrumBan Scrum master certification includes board, backlogs as well as bum-downs whereas ScrumBan utilizes board only. Teams are required to be cross-functional in Scrum and in ScrumBan teams can be specialized. Work in Progress is controlled by sprint content in Scrum and it is controlled by workflow state in ScrumBan.

Conclusion Well, Agile methodology has had an amazing journey from Scrum to ScrumBan till now. Evolution of ScrumBan doesn’t mean that Scrum and Kanban doesn’t work anymore. They do! It’s just that requirements differ at times. And, where Scrum and Kanban fail to work individually, ScrumBan can make a safe landing of software development projects.

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