Blending Scrum and Kanban for Better Flow and Predictability

In agile, scrum and kanban are two prominent frameworks, each offering a unique approach to managing work. Scrum relies on fixed-length iterations, while kanban emphasizes continuous flow, visualizing work, and limiting work in progress.

A common misconception is that teams must choose one over the other. However, in reality, these methodologies can complement each other effectively.

Integrating kanban practices into scrum can enhance workflow efficiency, provide better visibility, and offer flexibility without compromising the core principles of scrum.

Busting the myth: Why kanban and scrum are not enemies

Combining the flow-based kanban approach with the iterations in scrum can create a balance between discipline and adaptability, allowing your team to maintain structure while responding effectively to changing demands.

Teams often choose to blend scrum and kanban for several practical reasons:

• Overcoming scrum's rigidity: Some teams find scrum's fixed-length sprints restrictive, especially when dealing with unpredictable workloads.
• Enhancing flow visibility: Kanban's visual boards provide real-time insights into work progress, helping teams identify bottlenecks.
• Managing unplanned work: Kanban allows teams to handle unexpected tasks without disrupting sprint commitments.

Ultimately, scrum and kanban share the same goal: enabling agility. The difference lies in execution.

How does kanban complement scrum teams?

Integrating kanban practices into scrum strengthens workflow, increases transparency, and fosters adaptability. There are a few practical concepts you can consider when introducing flow into your scrum environment.

• Visualize every step of work: Kanban boards give a clear picture of your workflow, from user stories to tasks. Visual signals like blockers or color-coded classes of service help prioritize work efficiently. Tools such as Businessmap make it easier to create work management boards that reflect your team’s actual process, track progress in real time, and support collaboration—especially for distributed teams.

Did you know? Scrum Alliance members have access to a 3-month extended trial of Businessmap's enterprise agility platform to visualize objectives, break them into tasks, and track progress. Learn more.

• Limit Work in Progress (WIP): Setting WIP limits ensures your team focuses on finishing tasks before starting new ones. In scrum, WIP limits can be applied at commitment points like “Ready to Start.” Limiting WIP reduces multitasking, prevents bottlenecks, and provides insights into your team’s capacity, improving sprint planning.
• Measure flow with metrics: Kanban introduces metrics such as cycle time, lead time, and throughput. By analyzing these, you can identify process inefficiencies and make data-driven decisions. Monte Carlo simulations based on historical delivery data can forecast how many user stories your team is likely to complete in the next sprint. Incorporating these insights into burn-down charts or sprint planning enables more realistic expectations and better predictability.
• Handle unplanned work with ease: Unexpected tasks or urgent requests can disrupt sprint plans. Kanban allows you to track and manage these items without compromising sprint goals. Using a dedicated swimlane or column for unplanned work ensures high-priority items are addressed promptly while maintaining overall focus.
• Continuously learn and improve: Kanban encourages regular review of workflow metrics. Integrating these insights into scrum retrospectives helps your team identify bottlenecks, optimize processes, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Each sprint becomes not just a delivery cycle, but also an opportunity to refine how your team works.
• Collaborate without effort: Kanban boards serve as a single source of truth, making work visible to all team members and stakeholders. This transparency improves communication, aligns priorities, and empowers your team to self-organize effectively.

What are the benefits of combining scrum and kanban?

Setting aside their differences, when blended, scrum and kanban offer several benefits:

• Improved visibility: Kanban boards provide a clear view of work in progress, helping teams track tasks and identify potential issues early.

• Enhanced predictability: Flow metrics enable teams to forecast delivery times more accurately, leading to better planning and stakeholder communication.
• Streamlined processes: Defining explicit workflow policies helps standardize processes, reducing variability and increasing efficiency.

• Better prioritization: With a visual representation of tasks, teams can prioritize work more effectively, ensuring that the most critical tasks are addressed first.
• Increased focus: WIP limits prevent teams from overcommitting, allowing them to concentrate on completing tasks before starting new ones.
• Data-driven planning: Integrating kanban's metrics into scrum planning sessions enables teams to make informed decisions based on historical data.

Into the real world: Real case example

Everything seems perfect on paper, but it could take a wrong turn when tried in practice.

This example comes from the Turkish dairy producer, AK Gida, who managed to combine scrum and kanban. While still on their continuous journey, the company, so far, has improved transparency, streamlined workflows, and created a more agile, data-driven IT delivery process.

At the beginning, the company faced challenges in their IT department with low transparency, scattered project activities, and delays caused by internal and external dependencies. To improve delivery speed and collaboration, they embarked on a Lean/Agile transformation.

Here’s what they did:

1. First, they analyzed their current processes through value stream mapping workshops. As a result, they identified two main areas of service delivery.

2. The first group within the IT department was the one managing incoming requests and projects. Due to the ad-hoc nature of the incoming work, they adopted kanban to visualize work, separate classes of service, manage continuous flow, and track dependencies.

3. The second group within the department was the one delivering the actual work (epics and stories) on the incoming projects. As the projects were flowing through a set of steps, teams broke them down into epics and started delivering them within 2 week-sprints. This allowed the IT department to plan how long each project would take based on its number of epics and the 2-week sprints for each epic.

4. With the help of a supporting Lean/Agile project and portfolio management tool, the department was able to build interactive management boards and separate their areas into those who manage the project flow with kanban and those who deliver the work with scrum.

To learn more about this process, you can refer to this case study.

Finding the sweet spot

By blending scrum with kanban, teams get the best of both worlds: scrum's clear structure and kanban's flexible flow. This powerful combination allows them to handle changing demands, boost their efficiency, and deliver consistent value, ultimately helping the entire organization get better results.

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