What is kanban vs scrum?

Choosing an agile methodology is a critical decision. Both Kanban and Scrum are powerful frameworks designed to improve how teams deliver value, but they operate on different principles. Understanding the difference between kanban vs scrum is essential for optimizing your team’s performance and project success.

This kanban vs scrum comparison will explore the core distinctions, workflows, roles, and ideal use cases for each methodology. We’ll move beyond the basics to provide the insights needed to determine whether Scrum or Kanban is the superior choice for your specific context in agile project management.

Core Philosophies That Set Them Apart

At their heart, the kanban vs scrum​ debate is about two different approaches to managing work and delivering value. Scrum emphasizes iterative progress through structured time-boxes, while Kanban focuses on a continuous, fluid workflow to maximize efficiency and reduce waste.

Scrum is an agile framework built on empiricism, requiring teams to learn and adapt based on experience. It uses prescribed events and roles to create a rhythm of inspection and adaptation. This structure is designed to handle complex adaptive problems, promoting predictability and control.

In contrast, Kanban is a method for managing and improving the flow of work. Its primary goal is to visualize the workflow, limit work in progress (WIP), and maximize efficiency. Kanban is less prescriptive than Scrum, offering a flexible framework that can be applied to existing processes.

The Prescriptive Nature of Scrum

The Scrum framework is intentionally prescriptive. It operates on a series of fixed-length iterations called sprints. The Scrum Guide defines specific roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team), events (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective), and artifacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog).

This structure provides a clear and repeatable process. The time-boxed sprint creates a consistent cadence for the Scrum team, forcing prioritization and focus. The goal is to deliver a potentially shippable increment of product at the end of each sprint, ensuring steady progress.

The Adaptive Nature of Kanban

Kanban is fundamentally an adaptive methodology. It doesn’t prescribe fixed iterations or specific roles. Instead, Kanban works by applying simple principles to an existing process. The core idea is to make the workflow transparent on a Kanban board and continuously improve it.

This flexibility makes Kanban highly versatile. Kanban teams pull work items from a backlog as they have the capacity, rather than having work pushed to them in a sprint. This pull system is central to the Kanban method and helps prevent team members from being overloaded.

Kanban vs Scrum​: How Do Their Workflows Differ?

The most significant difference between Kanban and Scrum lies in their approach to workflow and cadence. Scrum operates in fixed-length cycles, while Kanban promotes a continuous flow model. This fundamental distinction impacts planning, execution, and delivery.

The kanban vs scrum​ board comparison highlights this difference. A Scrum board is reset at the end of every sprint, whereas a Kanban board is a persistent representation of the workflow.

Scrum’s Time-Boxed Sprints

Scrum divides work into iterations of a fixed duration, known as a sprint. This approach creates a predictable rhythm for the team.

• Fixed Duration: Sprints are typically two to four weeks long.
• Sprint Planning: At the start of each sprint, the team commits to a set amount of work from the product backlog.
• Focused Goal: The objective of each sprint is to produce a valuable, usable product increment.
• Protected Workload: To ensure the team can focus, no changes that would endanger the sprint goal are allowed during the sprint.

Kanban’s Continuous Flow

Kanban does not use sprints. Instead, it focuses on optimizing the continuous flow of work and delivering value as quickly as possible.

• Continuous Model: Tasks are pulled from the backlog into the workflow one by one as the team’s capacity allows.
• Optimized Delivery: The primary goal is to optimize the continuous delivery of value to the customer.
• Flexibility: This model is highly responsive to changing priorities.

On-Demand Work: Because there is no fixed sprint commitment, a new high-priority work item can be pulled into the workflow as soon as capacity is available, making it ideal for managing unpredictable requests.

Roles and Responsibilities A Comparative Look

While both frameworks are team-centric, their approaches to roles are distinct. Scrum defines three specific roles to ensure clarity and accountability. Kanban, true to its flexible nature, does not prescribe any formal roles, allowing teams to maintain their existing structures.

The presence of a Scrum Master and Product Owner in Scrum provides dedicated leadership for process and product vision. In Kanban, these responsibilities are often shared among the team members or handled by an existing manager, making the kanban versus scrum choice dependent on organizational structure.

Defined Roles in the Scrum Team

The Scrum framework explicitly defines three roles. The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product by managing the product backlog. The Scrum Master acts as a servant-leader, ensuring the Scrum team adheres to agile principles and removing impediments.

The Development Team consists of the professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable increment at the end of each sprint. Together, these roles form a self-organizing and cross-functional Scrum team. This clear division of responsibilities is a core strength of the Scrum methodology.

Role Fluidity in Kanban Teams

Kanban does not require specific roles. It is designed to be overlaid on an existing process and organizational structure. While some Kanban teams may adopt roles like a Service Delivery Manager, they are not a formal part of the Kanban method.

Responsibilities like backlog management and process improvement are typically shared among the team. This fluidity allows teams to adapt Kanban to their unique context without a major organizational overhaul. The focus remains on the workflow, not on predefined titles.

Key Metrics for Success

Measuring performance is crucial in any agile framework. The kanban vs scrum​ board reveals different priorities in metrics. Scrum focuses on metrics related to sprint execution, while Kanban emphasizes metrics that track the efficiency of the workflow.

Scrum teams often track velocity—the amount of work completed per sprint. This helps with future sprint planning. Kanban, on the other hand, measures cycle time and lead time to identify bottlenecks and improve the flow of work.

Scrum Metrics Velocity and Burndown

In Scrum, a key metric is velocity. It measures the average amount of product backlog work a Scrum team completes during a sprint. This helps forecast how much work the team can realistically commit to in future sprints, improving predictability.

Another common Scrum tool is the burndown chart, which visually tracks the completion of work throughout the sprint. It shows the remaining work against time, helping the Scrum team gauge if they are on track to meet the sprint goal.

Kanban Metrics Lead Time and Cycle Time

Kanban prioritizes metrics that measure flow. Lead time is the total time from when a new work item is requested until it is delivered. Cycle time, a subset of lead time, measures the time it takes to complete a work item after work has started.

These metrics help Kanban teams identify bottlenecks in their workflow. By focusing on reducing cycle time and making lead times more predictable, teams can significantly improve their delivery speed and responsiveness, which is a key aspect of continuous improvement.

When Does Scrum Work Best?

Scrum is an excellent project management framework for complex projects with evolving requirements. Its iterative nature allows for frequent feedback and adaptation, reducing risk. When you need to deliver a substantial product through focused, incremental efforts, Scrum provides the necessary structure.

The framework’s defined roles and events create a strong sense of team cohesion and accountability. If your organization is transitioning to agile and needs a clear roadmap, the prescriptive nature of Scrum can be highly beneficial. It works best for dedicated product development teams.

Projects that benefit from a regular delivery cadence thrive with Scrum. The end-of-sprint review provides a consistent opportunity for stakeholder feedback, ensuring the product stays aligned with user needs. This makes Scrum a powerful tool for building the right product.

When is Kanban the Right Choice?

Kanban is a powerful framework for managing work, but its flexibility makes it particularly suited for specific types of teams and workflows. Understanding its core strengths can help you decide if it’s the right fit for your team to boost productivity.

Ideal for Dynamic Work Environments

Kanban excels in situations where work is continuous and priorities are subject to frequent change. It’s built for adaptability, allowing teams to pivot without disrupting progress.

It’s a great choice for teams such as:

• IT operations
• Customer support and help desks
• Maintenance projects
• Content creation and marketing teams

If your team’s work is frequently interrupted or if priorities need to be reshuffled daily, Kanban provides the necessary agility.

Key Benefits and Practices

The primary goal of Kanban is to create a smooth, sustainable workflow. This is achieved through a few core practices that distinguish it from other agile methodologies.

• Flexibility: The system allows for the immediate reprioritization of tasks. New high-priority items can be added to the backlog and pulled into the workflow as soon as capacity is available, without waiting for the next “sprint.”
• Limiting Work in Progress (WIP): This is a fundamental concept in Kanban. By setting explicit limits on how many tasks can be in any single stage of the workflow, teams can prevent bottlenecks, reduce stress, and ensure a consistent pace. This focus on limiting WIP is a key difference between Kanban and Scrum and is crucial for preventing team burnout.

An Evolutionary Path to Agility

Kanban works best when you want to introduce agile practices with minimal disruption. It offers a gradual, evolutionary path to improving your processes rather than requiring a revolutionary change.

• Start with What You Do Now: Kanban can be applied directly to your existing process. There’s no need to change everything at once.

Gradual Implementation: Teams can begin simply by visualizing their workflow on a Kanban board. From there, they can incrementally introduce other practices like setting WIP limits, establishing feedback loops, and defining explicit policies to guide their work.

Exploring the Hybrid Scrumban Approach

For some teams, the choice isn’t a strict agile vs kanban vs scrum. Scrumban is a hybrid methodology that combines the structure of Scrum with the flexibility and visualization of Kanban. It offers a middle ground for teams looking to optimize their process.

Scrumban uses the processes of Scrum, like the sprint structure and defined roles, but incorporates Kanban’s pull system and WIP limits. This allows a Scrum team to improve its workflow within the familiar Scrum framework, creating a powerful combination.

Combining Structure with Flexibility

The Scrumban is a hybrid method that leverages the best of both worlds. Teams may use sprints for planning and review cadences but manage their daily work using a Kanban board with WIP limits. This prevents overloading the team during a sprint.

This approach allows a Scrum team to maintain its structure while gaining the flow-based efficiency of Kanban. It’s particularly useful for mature Scrum teams who want to evolve their process and improve their delivery workflow without abandoning the Scrum framework entirely.

Is Scrum Right for Your Team?

Choosing Scrumban makes sense when a Scrum team consistently struggles with its sprint commitments or faces frequent priority changes. It helps manage workflow interruptions more gracefully than pure Scrum. It’s also a great option for Scrum teams using Kanban principles to visualize bottlenecks.

By adopting WIP limits, a Scrum team can improve its focus and reduce cycle time. This hybrid approach fosters continuous improvement by blending the prescriptive guidance of Scrum with the flow-based principles of Kanban, enhancing overall productivity.

How is Kanban different from Scrum?

This is the most common question, and the answer lies in their core structure and practices. While there are similarities and differences, the main differences are in their approach to cadence, roles, and change management.

The key differences between the two agile project management methodologies are:

• Cadence: Scrum is an iterative methodology built around fixed-length iterations called “sprints,” which are typically 1-4 weeks long. Work is planned at the beginning of a sprint and is not typically changed until the next one. Kanban, on the other hand, is based on a continuous flow. Tasks are pulled from the backlog as the team has capacity, without prescribed timeboxes.
• Roles: Scrum has three defined roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team. Kanban has no formal roles; it’s designed to be applied to your existing team structure.
• Change Management: Whereas Scrum discourages changes during a sprint to protect the team’s focus, the Kanban framework is designed for it. New items can be added to the backlog and prioritized at any time.
• Meetings: Scrum uses prescribed events like Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum meetings, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. Kanban has no required meetings, though teams often adopt practices like daily stand-ups.

Why change from Scrum to Kanban?

Teams often switch when their work is less about building a product in increments and more about managing a continuous stream of tasks with shifting priorities. You might consider changing if:

• Your priorities change daily. If your team is constantly interrupted with high-priority tasks (e.g., a support or operations team), the rigid structure of a sprint can be a hindrance. The continuous improvement focus of Kanban allows for this flexibility.
• The Scrum ceremonies feel like overhead. For some teams, the required Scrum meetings and roles are more than they need. Kanban offers a lighter-weight approach to productivity.
• You want to improve your workflow. If your Scrum process has bottlenecks, you can use Kanban principles—especially WIP (Work in Progress) limits on your scrum board—to identify and resolve them. The decision to use Kanban vs. Scrum often comes down to the nature of the work.

When to use kanban vs scrum?

Neither methodology is inherently “better”—the best choice depends entirely on your team’s context.

• Use Scrum: When you are working on a complex product with a clear goal or vision. The iterative structure is excellent for developing, delivering, and getting feedback on product increments. The structure of one scrum sprint helps teams focus.
• Use Kanban: When your work is more about continuous delivery and managing a flow of tasks with varying priorities. Kanban is great for teams in operations, support, or maintenance.

Ultimately, choosing between Kanban or Scrum depends on your project management needs.

Can Kanban and Scrum work together?

Absolutely. This hybrid approach is often called “Scrumban.” It allows Scrum teams to apply Kanban practices to improve their process. For example, a team can use a scrum board but add WIP limits to prevent bottlenecks within a sprint. This allows Scrum teams to visualize their workflow more effectively and focus on continuous improvement, a core tenet of Kanban. Many of the differences between the two can be bridged in a hybrid model.

Is Jira a Scrum or Kanban tool?

Jira is a flexible project management tool that supports both methodologies. You can set up a project in Jira using a pre-configured template for either Scrum or Kanban.

• For Scrum, Jira provides features for backlogs, planning sprints, creating user stories, and managing a scrum board.
• For Kanban, Jira offers a visual board focused on workflow stages and WIP limits. Jira is one of the most popular scrum tools, but its flexibility makes it equally powerful for teams who use Kanban boards.

Is Kanban Lean or Agile?

This question touches on the origins of these frameworks.

• Agile is a set of values and principles, primarily for software development, outlined in the Agile Manifesto.

Kanban and Scrum are agile methodologies because their practices align with those values. However, Kanban’s roots are in the Lean manufacturing methodology, specifically the Toyota Production System. Kanban is centered around visualizing workflow, eliminating waste, and promoting continuous flow, which are core Lean principles. Scrum, while based on agile principles, was developed specifically as an agile framework for complex product development