Navigating the agile landscape, teams often encounter two predominant methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Each offers unique advantages and can significantly impact project management and delivery. This blog aims to dissect the Scrum and Kanban frameworks, providing you with clear insights to make an informed choice. Through this exploration, readers will discover:

• Core Principles: Understand the foundational principles behind Scrum and Kanban.
• Key Differences: Identify the main differences between Scrum and Kanban in workflow, team roles, and project management.
• Workflow Visualization: Learn how each methodology approaches the visualization of work and project tracking.
• Work in Progress (WIP) Limits: Explore the concept of WIP limits in Kanban and how it contrasts with Scrum’s Sprint-based approach.
• Flexibility and Adaptability: Assess the flexibility offered by Kanban against the structured sprint framework of Scrum.
• Choosing the Right Framework: Gain insights on selecting the most suitable framework for your team’s needs based on project size, urgency, and adaptability.
• Real-World Application: Consider practical scenarios where one framework may be preferred over the other.

This comparison will arm you with the knowledge to choose between Scrum and Kanban, optimizing your team’s efficiency and project outcomes. Let’s get started!

Scrum Framework

Scrum is a framework that helps people and teams deliver value in increments. Scrum promotes collaboration and agility among team members. It focuses on incremental and iterative ways of delivering work (product increments) by incorporating feedback and continuous experimentation to solve complex problems.

Key Traits of Scrum

• It offers a structure for quickly giving customers high-quality value.
• Everyone is grouped into small teams.
• Teams complete small iterations (sprints).

Scrum Values

• Focus: We must maintain focus throughout the process to provide timely results.
• Courage: Innovation requires a lot of risk-taking, and it encourages to take risks.
• Openness: Transparency is essential for fostering teamwork and success.
• Commitment: Teams have more control over the results when they commit to a procedure.
• Respect: We learn to respect one another and what each person has to offer as we work together.

Scrum Roles

ScrumMaster

• Remove blockers
• Do not micromanage
• Keep the group away from unproductive behaviors and routines
• Make it possible for the team to work together and perform well
• Is a Servant Leader

Product Owner

• Enables communication between team members, stakeholders, and the ScrumMaster
• Defines, organizes and approves the team’s work
• Defines desired features with customers

Developers

• People who work in a team to build a product increment
• Self-sufficient and capable
• Constantly revising and improving their procedures considering lessons learnt
• Autonomous
• Individually accountable for completing their task to achieve the sprint goal
• Collaborating on each sprint’s commitments

Shared Service Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) (Optional)

We depend on subject matter experts to help us deliver our products and services (for example, technical writers or designers).

They provide current information and data to support our projects while working for various delivery teams.

Technical Program Manager (Optional)

They are involved in each cloud’s leadership team (Service, Sales, Marketing, Platform), where they frequently handle complex cloud dependency tracking and other administrative difficulties.

Functional Manager (Optional)

They can collaborate with Scrum teams. When they do, they frequently take on the role of a product owner or ScrumMaster.

Scrum Artifacts

Product Backlog

• This is our prioritized list of potential work that may be required. It does not include all work that will be completed. To the best of our knowledge, it is the only source of truth that details all the updates, revisions, and requirements that we believe must be made. 
• The product owner owns the product backlog and it is their role to prioritize the items.

Sprint Backlog

If a task is added to the product backlog, it does not guarantee completion. Teams review the product backlog just before each sprint to determine which high-priority work items they can complete in the sprint. These tasks are added to the sprint backlog.

Increments (Potentially Shippable Work)

The most crucial element is that teams provide the customer with value every sprint. This is done by concentrating on the result rather than the output.

Implementing Scrum Meetings

• Planning meetings: These occur during all phases of the project. When drawn out, it resembles a layered cake. Teams frequently meet, regardless of the project’s state, to ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the desired goal.
• Inspect and adapt meetings: Teams must apply fresh insights to the upcoming sprint. These gatherings are intended to enhance both the output and the process.

Scrum Events

• Sprint: A time-boxed event, a month or less, in which the team works on the sprint backlog items. A new sprint starts right after the previous sprint has ended.
• Sprint Planning: A planning event that helps the Scrum team finalize the items to be worked upon in the sprint. The Sprint Backlog is finalized during this event.
• Daily Scrum: A daily event that requires the Developers to check in and discuss their progress, impediments, and how close they are to hitting the sprint goal.
• Sprint Review: An event in which developers showcase their work to the scrum team and stakeholders, usually held at the end of the sprint.
• Sprint Retrospective: An event to discuss what went well in the current sprint and what are the areas of improvement.

Kanban

Kanban is different than Scrum and has four key traits:

Visualize Workflow: Each portion of the work is written on a card and hung on the wall (either physical or virtual). Agile Accelerator is a virtual wall that Salesforce employs. Each item’s position in the workflow is shown via a column-mapped workflow diagram.

Limit Work in Progress (WIP): Teams set limits on the number of work items active at once in each process stage. When they reach a limit, they collectively assist one another by overcoming obstacles to remove them.

Incremental and Evolutionary Change: Kanban allows teams to accept smaller and more frequent adjustments along the road, unlike Scrum, which is a methodology that demands significant changes in how work is done.

Includes Metrics: Lead time, also known as cycle time, is the typical amount of time it takes to complete one item. This aids teams in streamlining the procedure to minimize lead time and make it predictable. The quantity of work finished in a single time is called throughput.

Choose the Best Workflow

Are predictability and productivity for big projects a priority for your team?

• A predictable delivery will use Scrum.
• A flexible workflow will use Kanban.

How far ahead can your group schedule?

• Scrum should be used when the backlog is full of manageable subsets of larger projects.
• Kanban may be more effective for you if your team must respond to new work items quickly.

Is the new job really urgent?

• If a team’s workload is not primarily influenced by interruptions, Scrum is to be used.

How soon do you have to turn in the new work?

• The least disruptive process to utilize is Kanban if work must be completed as quickly as possible.

Use Case

Cosmo Property is moving towards an agile approach to develop its Sales and Service Cloud enhancements and would like to adopt the Scrum framework to build the product increments. A Scrum Master was onboarded to train and help the team adapt to the new

framework. How should the Scrum Master ensure the team members are aligned and a successful transition to new ways of working?

Solution: Introduce a Change Management System

Reason: A Change Management System should be set up to ensure the team gets comfortable with the new working style. A change management document can be created and circulated before introducing the new framework. Then, when the team members feel comfortable and well acquainted with the Scrum, the Scrum Master can start working with the Product Owner and Developers and plan the events of the Scrum accordingly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the choice between Scrum and Kanban hinges on your team’s specific needs, project requirements, and desired flexibility. Both frameworks offer unique advantages that can enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and improve project outcomes. Whether you lean towards the structured, iterative approach of Scrum or the continuous flow and adaptability of Kanban, the key is to align your choice with your project goals and team dynamics.

For those looking to deepen their understanding of agile methodologies and apply them in the realm of Salesforce, saasguru offers an invaluable opportunity. By joining our community on Slack, you’ll connect with a vibrant network of professionals and experts eager to share their knowledge and experiences. 

Moreover, our online Salesforce bootcamps provide hands-on training and real-world project experience, ensuring you not only learn the theoretical aspects of Scrum and Kanban but also how to apply them effectively.

Personalize your learning journey with saasguru, and take the first step towards mastering agile methodologies and transforming your career.