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What common questions or challenges did you encounter during the Scrum with Kanban Q&A sessions, and how were they addressed?

Posted by SCRUMstudy® on August 06, 2024

Categories: SBOK® Guide

A Scrum with Kanban Q&A session provides a valuable opportunity for Agile practitioners to deepen their understanding of integrating Scrum and Kanban methodologies. During these sessions, participants can ask questions and seek clarification on various aspects of blending Scrum ceremonies with Kanban principles. Topics often include visualizing workflow, managing work in progress (WIP), optimizing flow, and improving team collaboration. Experienced mentors or coaches lead the Q&A, providing insights, practical advice, and real-world examples to address participants' queries. These sessions foster interactive learning, enabling participants to gain new perspectives, share experiences, and overcome implementation challenges. Ultimately, Scrum with Kanban Q&A sessions empower practitioners to optimize their Agile practices and drive continuous improvement within their teams and organizations

Scrum with Kanban Network refers to a community of practitioners and organizations that combine Scrum and Kanban methodologies to optimize Agile practices. This network fosters collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation among Agile professionals who leverage both frameworks to improve workflow management, visualization of work items, and delivery efficiency. Members of the Scrum with Kanban Network exchange best practices, case studies, and tools to enhance their understanding and application of Agile principles in diverse organizational contexts.

Scrum with Kanban, amalgamates the iterative and incremental approach of Scrum with the visual management and flow-based principles of Kanban. This hybrid framework enhances transparency, collaboration, and flexibility in project management. Scrum's time-boxed iterations, or sprints, are complemented by Kanban's visualization of work items and their progression through various stages. Teams using Scrum with Kanban Forum can leverage Scrum ceremonies like sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and sprint reviews, while also benefitting from Kanban's emphasis on limiting work in progress and continuous improvement. This combined approach fosters adaptability and efficiency, enabling teams to deliver value incrementally while maintaining a steady flow of work.

Before we discuss how Scrum and Kanban are integrated in the Scrumban process, will have a quick look at some of the salient features of scrum and Kanban.
Implementing Scrum means:

  • Breaking the entire organization into cross-functional several teams.
  • Breaking down the entire project into small chunks of well-defined deliverables.
  • Listing the chunks in terms of priority and estimating the amount of work required to complete each one of them.
  • Splitting time into short periods (iterations) where market-ready code is presented.
  • Working on the release plan based on the review and feedback after the iteration.
  • Enhancing the process with the help of retrospection after the iteration.

Speaking of the workflow in scrum, the team plans and decides on the work that it will be completed in the upcoming sprint. Once decided, the sprint activities are finalized and are finished within the sprint duration, clearing the queue.

Now we will look at the features of Kanban:

  • Breaking down work into items, writing each item on a card and then sticking it on a wall.
  • Using designated columns to show the placement of each item in the workflow.
  • Limiting the work in progress by allocating clear limits on the number of items that may be in progress at each workflow level.
  • Measuring the time needed to complete an item and trying to the lead time as predictable as possible.

When it comes to the Kanban workflow, the limit on work in progress enables the team to change items in queues whenever it is needed. There’s no clearing the queue, and there is a continuous flow of work.

How are Scrum and Kanban integrated as Scrumban?

Scrumban blends the principles of Scrum with the tools of Kanban for enhanced process efficiency. While originally rooted in different methodologies, the mechanics of Scrum and Kanban seamlessly complement each other. By incorporating concepts like Work In Progress (WIP) limits and visual workflows, Scrumban facilitates continuous process enhancement. Unlike traditional Scrum, where iteration planning fills predetermined slots, Scrumban adapts by filling vacant slots with iteration planning as needed, reducing the overhead of planning sessions. Essentially, Scrumban embodies the practicality of Scrum with the cultural ethos of Kanban.

Integrating the two agile processes leads to several advantages in terms of quality, just-in-time delivery, short lead time, continuous improvement (also known as Kaizen in Kanban terminology), reducing waste and overall process improvement.

Though Scrumban is a relatively new approach in agile, it is gaining quite a lot of popularity and attention from industries that have to cater to both development and maintenance work.
Here are some areas where Scrumban can be implanted in order to achieve success:

  • Projects related to maintenance
  • Projects that require event -driven work
  • Projects that are prone to programming errors
  • Teams created to mainly work on developing new products