The Difference Between Scrum and Kanban

Distinguish between Scrum and Kanban methodology and find out which method best fit a project. These few difference could be the answer to your question. It could also lead to a more agile process in an organization.

In the modern software development environment, often IT Professionals mentioning about ‘Scrum’ or ‘Kanban’. Both the methodology focuses on the continuous value to the customers, but have you ever wondered what would be the difference between these two and how do they function to assist the product development? This article shares a few pointers to better understand the difference between ‘Scrum’ and ‘Kanban’.

The similarities between both the methodologies would be that it uses “PULL” Systems. The PULL System is to ensure work are completed and delivered to customer in the shortest time possible. The work is obtained from product backlog – a list of all things that needs to be done within the project, and onto a ‘Sprint Process’ for processing before delivering the complete work to the customers. In the meantime, Product Backlog also uncovers bottlenecks during the process.

Now, since we know how Sprint Process come along, the differences between Scrum and Kanban method would be:

1. Process Time Limitation
Scrum method are tied to a time boxed by means of sprint. It means the entire process of the product will be on a time limit basis – eg. 1-4 weeks per project, from Sprint Planning Meeting to product development and delivering the product to customers. Whereas for Kanban, there are no time limit for each project, all the projects are ongoing on a daily basis with continuous product deliverable.

2. Role Requirement
Unlike Scrum, Kanban does not have pre-define roles required but roles are altered based on project needs. Scrum on the other hand, requires a minimum of 3 main roles which are the Product Owner, Scrum Master and a Scrum Team. They are required to attend the Sprint Planning Meeting to pick out the high priority items from product backlog.

3. Sprint Alteration
Although both Scrum and Kanban have a flexible scoping, Scrum method however does not allow prioritised items chosen from product backlog to be altered once the sprint has started. It only can be altered at the end of the sprint process. Kanban method allows scope to be modified but each stages of the sprint are limited to a number of tasks only. More than that would be put on queue while waiting for the completion of a project.

While both the method sounds almost similar, organizations who are looking into implementing either one of the methods, could also deep dive on the combination of both the methods – called Scrumban.