Videos
Kanban Social Technologies

Does Kanban integrate into a Scrum environment?

Published on
Written by Martin Hinshelwood
4 minute read
LinkedIn WhatsApp Twitter Facebook Email

Integrating Kanban with Scrum: Enhancing Your Workflow

Introduction

Kanban is not just a standalone strategy; it integrates seamlessly with various methodologies, including Scrum. This blog post explores how Kanban can complement Scrum, providing the necessary metrics and insights to answer critical questions like “When will it be done?” and “Are we on track?”

Kanban and Scrum: A Perfect Pair

Kanban can integrate with any environment, be it Scrum, Waterfall, or a custom workflow. Here’s why combining Kanban with Scrum is beneficial:

  • Enhanced Visibility: Kanban brings transparency to your workflow, making it easier to spot bottlenecks and areas for improvement.

  • Effective Metrics: Unlike Scrum, which lacks built-in metrics, Kanban provides essential data to monitor and optimize performance.

  • Continuous Improvement: The iterative nature of Kanban helps teams continuously refine their processes for better outcomes.

Why Scrum Needs Kanban

Scrum is a fantastic framework, but it has its limitations, particularly in terms of metrics. Here’s how Kanban addresses these gaps:

  • Lack of Metrics in Scrum: The Scrum Guide doesn’t specify metrics like velocity, story points, or time. Teams often use these metrics, but they can be misleading and ineffective.

  • Answering Critical Questions: Customers often ask, “When will it be done?” or “What will I get by this date?” Scrum alone doesn’t provide clear answers. Kanban’s probabilistic forecasting can help.

Key Metrics from Kanban

Kanban provides several valuable metrics that can transform your Scrum practice:

  • Cycle Time: Measures the time it takes for a work item to go from start to finish. It helps identify delays and inefficiencies.

  • Lead Time: The total time from when a request is made until it’s delivered. This metric is crucial for understanding overall delivery performance.

  • Throughput: The number of work items completed in a given period. This metric helps gauge team productivity.

  • Work in Progress (WIP) Limits: Controls the amount of work in progress to prevent bottlenecks and ensure a smooth flow.

  • Aging Work in Progress: Tracks how long work items have been in progress. It highlights potential delays and areas that need attention.

Implementing Kanban with Scrum

Here’s how to effectively integrate Kanban into your Scrum environment:

  1. Start with Metrics:

  • Collect Data: Use tools like JIRA or Azure DevOps to gather data on cycle time, lead time, throughput, and WIP.

  • Visualize: Create visual representations of your workflow and metrics using Kanban boards.

  1. Run Workshops:

  • Define Workflow: Conduct workshops to define your current workflow. This helps create a shared understanding among team members.

  • Set WIP Limits: Establish WIP limits for each stage of your workflow to manage capacity and prevent bottlenecks.

  1. Analyze and Optimize:

  • Review Metrics: Regularly review your Kanban metrics to identify trends and areas for improvement.

  • Continuous Improvement: Use the insights from your metrics to make data-driven decisions and optimize your workflow.

  1. Answer Critical Questions:
  • Probabilistic Forecasting: Apply probabilistic forecasting to provide more accurate answers to questions about delivery times and project progress.

Practical Application

For instance, during a retrospective, you might notice that certain tasks take significantly longer than others. By analyzing cycle time and aging work in progress, you can pinpoint the causes and make informed decisions to address these issues. This continuous feedback loop ensures that your processes are always improving.

Conclusion

Integrating Kanban with Scrum enhances your workflow by providing the metrics and insights necessary for continuous improvement. If your current system of work is failing you, it’s time to consider adopting a Kanban strategy. Our professional Kanban trainers and consultants are ready to help. Don’t wait. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll improve. Get in touch below.

Thanks for reading! If you found this post helpful, please like, follow, and subscribe. I always reply to comments, and if you want to chat about Kanban, agile, or DevOps, feel free to book a coffee with me through Naked Agility.

Recommended Resources:

  • Kanban Training: Check out our Pro Kanban training programs.

  • Consulting Services: Need help implementing Kanban? Our experts are here to guide you.

  • Further Reading: Explore more about Kanban and agile methodologies on our blog.

The question is, does Cban integrate with a Scrum environment? And I want to be super clear: Cban integrates with any environment, any way of working, whether you’re doing Scrum or you’re doing Waterfall or you just made up a way of working. All of these things can benefit from the application of a Cban strategy.

Right, the Scrum in particular doesn’t have any metrics. There are no metrics in Scrum. Go read the Cang guide; there is no mention of velocity, no mention of story points, no mention of time, no mention of any of those things. The only thing that’s about as close to a metric as the Scrum guide talks about is it says that the team should have discussions to understand the size of things that are in their backlog. That’s it, right? How you define that size, all of those things are up to the team. Teams generally pick things like story points and velocity, and unfortunately, those metrics have damaged our ability as an industry—building software industry in particular—to have conversations with customers, have them understand what we’re saying, and be able to actually answer the customer questions.

It is absolutely unreasonable for a customer to come to you, has given you and your team a bunch of money, and says, “When will it be done?” and you say, “We’re doing Scrum; we don’t have an answer to that question.” That is completely unreasonable, and if I was that person, I would say, “Fine, I’m not giving you any more money. I’ll go find somebody else who can answer my questions,” right?

So, Cban—a Cban strategy—enables you to actually answer those questions, right? You’re definitely not answering it with absolutes, right? Because that’s impossible. We understand the cone of uncertainty; we understand that those difficulties. But we can start to use probabilistic forecasting—a fantastic tool, probabilistic forecasting—to help us answer those questions of “When will it be done?” or “What will I get by this date?” Right? These are such important questions.

Daniel Vante, who’s one of the creators of Pro Cban, the creator of the Cban strategy, who worked with Scrum.org to create the Cban guide for Scrum teams and H Cban for Scrum teams—of course, he has a book called “When Will It Be Done?” That’s how important that question is to your business. You need to be able to answer that question: “When will it be done?” And the tools that Cban gives you, the metrics that you have to monitor, enable you to then get those answers to those questions very specifically, right?

So, does Cban integrate with a Scrum environment? I think Cban has to integrate with a Scrum environment. In fact, Scrum is not as good without a Cban strategy. For me, this is a pairing that just has to happen. If you’re doing Scrum, you should be using a Cban strategy. I don’t really have any—what would you call it?—like, “Well, maybe you should use…” No, you should be using a Cban strategy. Everybody should—for every system, in every workplace, everywhere—you should be using a Cban strategy. That’s how you understand the flow of work through your system so that you can make the optimisations, right? That’s where you get the continuous improvement from when you’re doing Scrum.

Right? You have a retrospective. How do you know what optimisations you should make? How do you have conversations about what the problem is if you’ve got no data? How do you see whether the things that you’ve decided to try actually provide any benefit or not? You need metrics, and you need data. And story points and velocity and burndown charts are completely useless to answer any of those questions. Are we on track? Are we doing well? Do we need to improve? None of those questions can be answered with burndown charts and velocity. Don’t even try; they’re a waste of time.

What you need is cycle time, you need lead time, and you need throughput. You need work item aging, and you need work in process. That’s it. Those are the metrics that you’re looking for. Those are the metrics that you need. If your current system of work is failing you, then you would benefit from creating and applying a Cban strategy. Our professional Cban trainers and consultants are ready to help. Don’t wait; the sooner you start, the sooner you will improve. Get in touch below.

Strategy Throughput Metrics and Learning Software Development Practical Techniques and Tooling Cycle Time Flow Efficiency Agile Frameworks Agile Project Management Pragmatic Thinking
LinkedIn WhatsApp Twitter Facebook Email

Connect with Martin Hinshelwood

If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.

Our Happy Clients​

We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.​

Epic Games Logo
Xceptor - Process and Data Automation Logo
Bistech Logo
Capita Secure Information Solutions Ltd Logo
Ericson Logo
Schlumberger Logo
Trayport Logo
Cognizant Microsoft Business Group (MBG) Logo
Deliotte Logo
Slicedbread Logo
YearUp.org Logo
Lean SA Logo
Lockheed Martin Logo
Healthgrades Logo
Sage Logo
Qualco Logo
Alignment Healthcare Logo
Emerson Process Management Logo
New Hampshire Supreme Court Logo
Department of Work and Pensions (UK) Logo
Nottingham County Council Logo
Royal Air Force Logo
Washington Department of Enterprise Services Logo
Ghana Police Service Logo
Lean SA Logo
Lockheed Martin Logo
Philips Logo
Jack Links Logo
Flowmaster (a Mentor Graphics Company) Logo
Teleplan Logo