Agile Derivatives: Scrum and Kanban

What is Scrum and what is Kanban, and for what types of projects are they best used?

By Lenka Davis

Why does a consulting agency for startups and small businesses need to know about the derivatives of Agile methodology such as Scrum? And Kanban? Why would a startup need to know this or the nuances of the different types? George Bernard Shaw said, “Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning.” And so this is our part 2 on how the Agile methodology fits into what you do each day.

We go into more detail about Scrum and other Agile derivatives, 

“because scrum and its derivatives are employed at least five times as often as the other techniques”

— May 2016 Harvard Business Review

From the Harvard Business Review article Embracing Agile. Agile is the basis on which all of this is formed. For a summary or a refresher of the Agile methodology read this article on Agile Project Management.

What is Scrum?

Definition of Scrum framework: a set of practices used in agile project management that emphasize daily communication and the flexible reassessment of plans that are carried out in short, iterative phases of work.

Scrum is:

• Lightweight

• Easy to understand

• Difficult to master

The Scrum Guide written by scrum creators Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, who were two of the 17 agile manifesto authors, define scrum as: 

A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.

On November 18, 2020 a new version of The Scrum Guide was released.

When I first read about Scrum I thought, “This is brilliant.” I was reading a keynote presentation on Agile that was emailed to me. I was thinking about taking a project management job where I needed to understand how Scrum software development worked. “It’s really easy to understand, just read this,” my colleague, who had this position for the past year, told me. She was right, it’s easy to understand. 

The beauty of the Scrum framework is that it works well for complex problems. The framework’s theory has three pillars which are based on “empiricism, knowledge coming from experience and making decisions based on what is observed.” The three pillars are Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation or TIA. What these pillars do is allow the team members to all have visibility to what is being built so they can inspect the product or project frequently to minimize any issues. Then the team is free and expects to adapt any changes that need to be made when they detect potentially undesirable variances or problems. The inspection process allows there to be adaptation which includes not adapting changes or features that no longer work.

“Be ready to revise any system, scrap any method, abandon any theory, if the success of the job requires it.”

— Henry Ford

Teams that work together longer become more efficient and can release more versions or deliverables in the same amount of time.

Scrum Theory

For the right-brained, this framework appeals to those that do well with scientific testing and experimentation. For the left brained, such as creative people in marketing, this framework will appeal to them because Scrum does the following:

• Keeps things known and organized (transparency)

• You get to see the process as it gets built

Designers, writers, and almost all other types of creatives and artists use their senses to perfect their craft. They have “an eye” and “an intuitive feel” for how things should look and be built. This process allows you to see or walk through webpages, parts of applications, interface and user experiences (UI/UX), layouts, customer journeys, for example, as it is being built. You can both check that it is being built correctly and that it makes sense and works.

For Scrum, the team consists of a Product Owner, Scrum Master and a Development Team. Basically the Product Owner is responsible for knowing the market and the customer, the Scrum Master keeps the team on track and eliminates bottlenecks, and the Development Team produces the deliverables. Without these roles you are not doing Scrum, but this does not mean team members can’t share roles, for instance the Scrum Master can also be on the Development Team. By the way, Scrum Master is not a Dungeons and Dragons character for those of you that play role playing games or have friends or family that do. Though it almost has the same responsibilities like one.

The product or projects are managed with two other Scrum requirements, artifacts and events (or meetings). Artifacts include Product Backlog (listing of what needs to be done), Sprint Backlog (listing of what is in the next release) and Increment (the part that is being released). Events are usually done in the order of having a Sprint Planning meeting, the development team having daily stand up or Daily Stand Up meetings and then once the sprint time period is over the team reviews the sprint before it is released in the Sprint Review. After each release the team will have a Sprint Retrospective to make any adjustments to the workflow or process.

One of my favorite features of Scrum is the Definition of Done. The team decides on what their definition of done is for their particular project. Deciding on what is Done is a great discussion because it gives the team a clear idea of what quality they expect and when the work is officially completed and delivered.

Scrum also has five scrum values. These guide the team on how to work together. The definitions of these values are:

• Commitment - people personally commit to goals

• Courage - team does right thing and work through problems

• Focus - on the work of the sprint

• Openness - team and stakeholders agree to be open to all work and it’s challenges with performing the work

• Respect - members respect each other to be capable and independent

How to get a Scrum Master Certification

1. Take the free Agile MBA class by Larry Apke from The Job Hackers

2. Sign up for the certification test on Scrum.org

3. Study, study, study!

What is Kanban?

You may have heard the term Kanban in reference to the Kanban board. As a system it is a visual work management system. In Japanese Kanban means ‘visual signal’ or sometimes is defined as a billboard or signboard. The system usually involves a kanban board with kanban cards, such as a Trello or Jira board with cards, and a Work in Progress (WIP) limit. The WIP limit is decided on by the team so they know when their team is at capacity or where they have bottlenecks. Here is a good video explanation of Kanban.

“Work items are visualized to give participants a view of progress and process, from start to finish—usually via a Kanban board”

Kanban is fundamentally four principles and six practices. It was designed for knowledge work organizations. It focuses on getting things done.

Principles:

1. Start With What You Do Now

2. Agree to Pursue Incremental, Evolutionary Change

3. Respect the Current Process, Roles & Responsibilities

4. Encourage Acts of Leadership at All Levels

Practices:

1. Visualize the Workflow

2. Limit Work in Progress

3. Manage Flow

4. Make Process Policies Explicit

5. Feedback Loops

6. Improve Collaboratively (using models & the scientific method)

Which method to use?

If you are a startup that has been using the Agile Scrum method for your software development then your adoption of the Agile methodology for your marketing or projects won’t be a big learning curve. If you are doing your own marketing or you have a marketing lead on your team, and they have not had the opportunity to use Agile then we recommend starting with the Kanban method and setting up a board. You will also want to continue to refer to the methodology as you go through your first project. For those of you who are interested in looking at the differences between the two Agile derivatives here is a great table:

You will find many articles about what type of Agile methodology to use. Some profess that you need to stick to all the items for a methodology for it to work. That is surely the case for those using Scrum since Scrum is very structured and it moves fast. Without a team using all the parts of it correctly it is bound to fall apart fast. It works great for software development. Kanban on the other hand is more fluid. It works well for those groups that have a continuous stream of work coming in and could potentially have roadblocks or bottlenecks in the workflow. Work is based on customer demand and so work is pulled through this system. Thus it is often used by marketing teams or anyone that has a workflow for customers.

To begin

1. Get your team onboard with using Agile or one of its derivative methodologies

2. Identify a lead team member to go to for all topics related to Agile

3. Sign up for free Kanban board software

4. Have each team member create their own cards

5. Set up check in meetings to keep everyone informed on all parts of the project

Thank you to the sFoundation for featuring this article in their March 2021 newsletter.

Fun Fact

The software development term ‘scrum’ was first used in a groundbreaking 1986 paper titled "The New New Product Development Game" published in Harvard Business Review. They borrowed the term from the game of rugby. The term scrum was chosen by the paper's authors because it emphasizes teamwork.

Other Resources

Scrum Master Certification: Everything You Need to Know from US News & World Report

Listen to the founders talk about how they started Atlassian on How I Built This with Guy Raz

Apps for Kanban and Scrum
Monday.com - Work Without Limits
Trello - Trello helps teams move work forward

This article first appeared on www.flytosoar.com on January 18, 2021