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Overview
Overview
Less structured than Scrum, Kanban has more of a single item pull system (Scrum pulls work in batches) with a continuous flow of work that isn’t timeboxed in the same way a Scrum sprint is. The idea with Kanban is to reduce the amount of work in progress and focus on getting one task through to completion as smoothly as possible by reducing bottlenecks. The roles and meetings found in Scrum aren’t required but some find elements of them useful to ensure alignment on a team.
Introduction
Introduction
Kanban actually came from car manufacturing, not software development. In the 1940’s, Toyota introduced “just in time” which represents a pull system. This meant that production was based on the demand for parts rather than previously where each stage of the manufacturing line just kept producing parts regardless of what was actually needed further down the line which often led to wastage. Instead, the later stages would “pull” the parts they need from the previous stage until they ran low and only at that point would that stage build more.
How can Kanban work for me?
How can Kanban work for me?
Regardless of its origin, Kanban is now an incredibly popular workflow framework that can be used for a variety of projects.
Kanban has four principles:
- Visualise your workflow using a physical or digital board
- Limit work in progress by having one focus you see to completion
- Focus on flow and how your work is progressing through each stage
- Continuous improvement through feedback loops and challenge
One of the key advantages of Kanban is that its flexibility allows it to essentially be applied on top of an existing workflow without disrupting what is already being done well. Kanban will help surface what that full workflow is and then reveal what needs to be addressed to make it more efficient. Kanban also doesn’t prescribe certain roles, responsibilities or meetings.
A great website which has more information about Kanban and the differences to Scrum can be found here.
To use the house building analogy, let’s say you’re building it using a Kanban framework. You have a ticket in progress to plaster a room, but it gets blocked by the electrician not having finished his work. Your priority is to finish plastering the room, so rather than starting to lay the carpet, you’ll find out what you can do to help the electrician get his work done so you can continue with the plastering - thus managing your work in progress (otherwise once the electrician is done you’d essentially have two tasks in progress), and reducing the lead time of your work.
One of the principles of Kanban is to limit work in progress (WIP) so often teams will choose to have limits on columns. For example, if you have a team of three builders, perhaps you say that only three things can be worked on at once. If one of them gets stuck on their job, instead of picking up another job they should ask for help from the others to get their work through to completion.
Scrumban
Scrumban
Some people choose to combine elements of Kanban and Scrum (sometimes called Scrumban); usually the meetings of Scrum are still really useful to have when doing Kanban as it keeps some common understanding with the team, the stakeholders and ensures continuous improvement and learning. One of our Agile Coaches at Holiday Extras used Scrumban when moving house and wrote a blog about the experience.
Agile Coaches
Agile Coaches
Holiday Extras currently employs three Agile Coaches who can spend time with internal teams to understand how they work. They can then suggest ways that Agile working could benefit them and help them choose the style (e.g. Scrum or Kanban) that works in order to help get the team performing at an even higher level using whatever method fits. Rather than being an integral part of a team they work with, they join for a short period of time to observe, feedback and guide the team to find even better ways of working.
Summary
Summary
If working in an Agile way sounds interesting but you’re finding it hard to see how the more process heavy Scrum might work for your team, try Kanban first. It will fit into your current workflow and just by visualising and tracking your work in progress better you can soon find what blocks you from getting work done and notice how many distractions you have to try and limit them and achieve your flow. Conversely, some teams find the structure of Scrum a good place to start before moving to the more flexible Kanban, so find what best works for you.
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