Scrum vs. Kanban vs. Scrumban – Which Train to Catch for Successful Project Completion? • Slash

The new success mantra is about offering problem-solving services to your clients. However, it is pretty impossible to provide timely solutions without managing tasks.

But since Agile and DevOps project management frameworks have been involved in the system, businesses have become faster than ever in organizing, managing, and completing tasks.

Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban are the widely recognized workflow management methods in the world of digital project management frameworks. But what are they and how to use them? The article has all your answers along with a bonus of how we use these three management frameworks at Slash.

Table of Contents

What is Scrum?

Scrum is an agile management methodology, allowing teams and organizations to identify and work on complex adaptive problems. And once the issues are addressed, Scrum permits teams to creatively and productively deliver high-quality products, such as software, to their clients.

As our CTO and Head of Delivery at Slash Alex Lossing says:

“Scrum is based on roles, ceremonies, and artifacts. Using Scrum methodologies, we first define the scope of work iteratively (repeatedly) for a sprint (duration of time).”

Benefits of Scrum

Excellent work quality
Great productivity at a low cost
Ease of incorporating with changes
Fast completion of complex projects

When to Use Scrum?

You can use the Scrum when:

Project has a long-term nature
Quick feedback is required
Stakeholders amend features frequently in a software

What is Kanban?

The word “Kanban” means a “sign” or “visual board” in the Japanese language. However, in commercial industries, such as IT, teams with an agile software development background use the “Kanban” framework to manage workflow.

Kanban helps teams define, manage, and enhance the quality of services by working on organized goals. The framework works on three basic principles:

Just In Time Delivery

Working on tasks by prioritizing them, based on a fixed delivery capacity.

Change Management Principles

Understanding the product’s current state and enhancing its features by accepting the new changes.

Service Delivery Principles

Developing products to meet customers’ expectations and needs. Also, managing the workflow through metrics, such as lead time, cycle time, and work in progress (WIP).

Likewise, Kanban has three main flows:

To Do: Prioritizing tasks that need to be completed first.
In Progress: Tasks that are already developed by the team.
Done: Tasks that are completed and delivered to the client.

However, the significant difference between Scrum is that the Kanban framework is all about focusing on the current tasks and then switching on the next one. So, it’s more like a “One At A Time” approach but by prioritizing the tasks. Also, Kanban is more visualized, using inter-connected Kanban boards and cards.

Our Principal Developer at Slash – Peter Prak, makes this difference more understandable. In his experience, “Kanban is the pulling strategy whereas Scrum is the pushing strategy.”

So, for example, if a company decides to develop software within two weeks (sprint). Then the Scrum method will make the team committed to delivering the task within the sprint. Whereas Kanban method will allow the team to divide tasks, arrange them in order, and complete the first one before shifting to the second task.

Benefits of Kanban

Enhanced efficiency
Less overburdening than Scrum
Flexibility and easy collaboration
Increased team concentration and focus
Improved visibility and productivity due to Kanban board

When to Use Kanban?

The Kanban methodology is best to be used when:

Project demands continuous changes, even within a traditional ‘scrum sprint’
Tasks are related to infrastructure management and support
Working on projects requiring high reactivity (such as production, bug and support work)

What is Scrumban?

Scrumban is the amalgamation of both Scrum and Kanban agile frameworks. While there are many versions of Scrumban, all have a similar purpose at the end of the day – allowing teams to work with flexibility and develop products according to the stakeholders’ demands without overburdening themselves.

The main aim of Scrumban is to assure continuous workflow for repeated changes in the product. Moreover, this agile framework includes on-demand planning, regular meetings, and product retrospectives.

For instance, to develop software ‘A’ using Scrumban, the team will be engaged in daily meetings to ensure the product is under process as per the clients’ requirements. In every session, the team will discuss the progress and product’s retrospectives (product at the beginning vs. product at the moment) to meet the goals in the given sprint finally.

Benefits of Scrumban

Saves time
Reduced waste
High-quality products
Just-in-time decision making
Flawless visualization due to Scrumban board

When to Use Scrumban?

You can use the Scrumban framework when:

Shifting teams from Scrum to Kanban
Applying Scrum logically appears difficult for the team
Projects (big or small) require fast and continuous modifications

How Slash Uses Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban Frameworks?

The agile culture is a part of Slash’s environment and work practice. Our company works on Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban to produce a top-notch quality software product for our clients.

“At Slash, we apply Scrum as default to our projects, as it helps us give close collaboration with our clients. On the one hand, this methodology adds transparency to our work. Whereas, on the other hand, it gives us flexibility and adaptability to develop a product with great value.” – Alex Lossing – CTO and Head of Delivery (Slash)

Lossing further adds that the Slash team switches to Kanban or Scrumban when:

The project is experimental and requires flexibility
We plan to build a quick prototype before beginning the production at a mass level
The team decides to move the project to the production and support management phase

And if talking specifically about applying Kanban at Slash, we add more columns/flows to the original three Kanban flows (To Do, In Progress, and Done), such as:

Code Review: Tasks that are ready but to be viewed by other team members.
Testing: List of tasks that needs to be tested by the developer or Quality Assurance department to make sure they meet our clients’ requirements.
PO Checking: All developed tasks that need to be checked by the client (Product Owner) to help them analyze if the product matches their expectations

“Our Kanban framework begins with the To-Do and In-Progress flows, adding Code Review, Testing, and PO Checking before we enter the Done flow. This allows us to add or change anything that is invaluable to our client and permits us to develop a successful product.” – Peter Prak– Principal Developer (Slash)

Bottom Line

While Scrum methodology is best for receiving quick feedback, the Kanban framework allows teams to focus on particular tasks on priority. And if you desire rapid project completion, you can use Scrumban, as it’s a mixture of Scrum and Kanban. We use all three agile frameworks at Slash to make project management timely, flexible, and highly productive.