Scrumban : The New Agile Methodology

Introduction

The world of project management is dynamic and ever changing so is the nature of technology. We are familiar with the two Agile methods Kanban and Scrum. Scrum is an Agile framework to get work done with flexibility and transparency at its centre, which is almost a ceremony with its rituals held somewhat religiously for proper management of a project. Kanban methodology is also an Agile framework, the objective of which is to facilitate task management quite flexibly and visibly. Kanban methodology is more visual representative in nature with the use of Kanban Boards.

Scrumban is a hybrid project management methodology with a blend of Kanban and Scrum ideas and which is quite recent. Since, it is still an emerging methodology, resources available on this is still meagre. In effect, it combines the visual management approach and flexibility of Kanban with the structured framework of Scrum. That is, project teams using this method makes use of the Kanban’s stress on continuous delivery and workflow optimisation in addition to Scrum rituals like sprint planning, daily stand-ups and sprint reviews. It gives teams the visibility into work progress through Kanban boards and enables them to swiftly adjust to shifting priorities and customer needs.

Scrumban first started as a way for teams to easily switch from Scrum to Kanban or the other way around, but has evolved into a stable system that allows teams to tackle complex, ongoing projects. It's flexible due to its hybrid approach and because it gives teams a wide range of Agile Tools.

History and Evolution

As mentioned above, Scrumban is quite a novel entrant in the realms of project management, therefore, it does not have a history attached to itself. However, the constituent parts viz., Scrum and Kanban have quite a rich history.

The Scrum guide was first introduced to the world in 1995 as a better way for team collaboration to solve complex problems. Scrum is an “empirical process, where decisions are based on observation, experience and experimentation. Scrum has three pillars: transparency, inspection and adaptation. This supports the concept of working iteratively. Think of Empiricism as working through small experiments, learning from that work and adapting both what you are doing and how you are doing it as needed”.

The history of Kanban dates back to the 1600s. In 1603, after 14th-century’s devastating near-constant military conflicts and social upheaval have finally ended, Japan entered a period of stability and economic growth. As the country’s economy flourished, the streets of Japanese towns became crowded with shops and local businesses fighting for customer awareness and attention. It’s on these streets where the term “Kanban” was born. In 1940s Toyota’s Lean manufacturing Kanban pushed the method to the forefront.

Toyota’s Mantra: “To produce only what is needed, when it is needed and in the amount needed”. — Taiichi Ōno

Ōno identified and categorized seven kinds of waste (jap. Muda), which lead to a decrease in system throughput and performance.

Scrum is an Agile framework that allows teams to continuously complete work in fixed-length periods called sprints. With each sprint, a Scrum team delivers a working iteration of the product - the minimum viable product (MVP).

Every sprint concludes with reviews and retrospectives, which help the team make ongoing improvements to the project and its procedures. Teams using Scrum have members assigned certain roles and a Scrum Master whose responsibility it is to guide the team and remove obstacles from the project.

Scrum uses a board to record project progress, just like Kanban. In contrast to Kanban, the Scrum board makes use of a backlog that exists independently of the board. The team's sprint-specific work is shown on the board, and all other project-related tasks are included in the backlog. When teams choose what to work on in the next sprints, they take tasks from this backlog.

What part of Scrum is still a part of Scrumban methodology?

Scrumban, to start, makes use of the Scrum structure. It's evident what needs to be done and by when thanks to the time-boxed sprints, planning, and reviewing processes. Scrumban projects also carry on the Scrum tradition of periodically evaluating the MVP and modifying it to meet evolving requirements.

Srcumban has four vital ingredients from Scrum:

• Sprints / Process Iteration : Teams complete all work in a Scrumban project within a defined period called a sprint. Sprints typically last two weeks, though teams may opt for shorter (or longer) periods. Once the team agrees on what tasks to work on within the sprint, they can't receive new tasks until the sprint ends.
• Daily Standups / Prioritisation: To clarify who does what, Scrumban teams meet for a daily standup—a meeting of no more than 10 minutes. There, participants briefly answer three questions:
  • What tasks did I do ?
  • What tasks that I am working on ?
  • Do I have any blockers ?
• Retrospectives: At the end of every sprint, the team meets to analyse their performance. What processes went well and what should they repeat? What didn't work and what should they stop? The team documents the wisdom they glean from each retrospective and uses it to inform future sprints.
• Definition of Done: The entire team reaches a common agreement on the sense of “done” for all commitments to be sure that the outcomes are apparent and measured. This will bring out a consistent and clear understanding of all the project occurrences.

Kanban is a way to visualise work and limit the amount of work in progress so a team can achieve an efficient flow. It's much more about productivity, as the methodology is perfect for teams that require continuous improvement. Scrumban uses Kanban's workflow visualization as the heart of its process. Alongside the board and cards, Scrumban benefits from the work-in-progress limits, the pull system for its tasks, and the continuous flow of work. This means teams can complete projects even midway through a sprint.

What are the parts of Kanban which are used in Scrumban?

Kanban provide three vital ingredients  to Scrumban:

• Backlog Management: Scrumban has a backlog of items that require completion with a clear organization. The team gets “pulled” the next tasks that have passed through the backlog directly into their current workflow, thereby providing a steady flow of work.
• The Cards / Visual Representation: The board holds the project's tasks, or cards (historically teams used index cards or sticky notes on whiteboards). As each member begins work on a card, they move it from "to do" to "in progress" and, once finished, into the "done" column. Every task is visually represented by a Kanban card and proceeds through the stages of the process on the Kanban board. This visual presentation makes the project process transparent and allows the team members to track the progress of tasks conveniently.
• The work-in-progress limits: For a team to work efficiently, they must know what they can realistically handle within a defined work period. How many cards can a team member work on within a day? By defining this limit, the team prevents overwork (and burnout) while showing stakeholders exactly what they're accomplishing.

Now Let’s Look at Scrumban

Scrumban combines the basic principles of Scrum and Kanban. It preserves Scrum’s sprint cycle structure and team roles while it merges Kanban’s visual management techniques, limits on WIP, and commitment to the flow. It encourages teams to continuously modify their processes by taking into account changing priorities and feedback.

The Scrumban method is defined by the union of Scrum and Kanban features and acts as a flexible and effective long work-hour guide for project managers.

Unique Features of Scrumban

• No Team Hierarchy: In contrast to the uniform hierarchy, Scrumban offers a flatter team structure in which everyone is on the same level and can freely make decisions and suggestions. Such an approach creates a great environment where all team members speak with one voice and do their best to drive the team forward.
• Flexible Timeframes: The schedule for a Scrumban project need not be strict with deadlines. Sprints are very often performed in the scheme of two weeks from the viewpoint of team members. This means that they can focus on some specific tasks which again need to be reviewed and iterated. The flexibility of Scrumban makes it a good fit for long-term projects or those whose goals are not clearly defined.

Working of Scrumban

There are four simple steps that make up the Scrumban method. The Scrum master is not responsible for it, and everyone needs to learn about these procedures the hard way. So, this is how you proceed.

1. Set up the Scrumban Board:

The Scrumban board is the type of Kanban board that incorporates all the features that include, and not limited to a product backlog, a sprint backlog, and workflow stages (not started, in progress, reviewing). These stages shown on the Kanban board will comply with the set preference of your team. In cases like this selected teams may probably prefer to omit the product backlog from their Scrumban board and only concentrate on the sprint backlog.

Scrumban is adjusted to be aligned with the bug-tracking nature of the iterative process of sprints. If the remaining cards ran out while team members were solving them, they could quickly pick up more cards from the product backlog. The team should look at the story cards about the board every week, which should help add cards to the product backlog. It will also aid in meeting the sprint’s aim.

2. Decide work-in-progress Limits and Apply the Accepted Ones:

In Scrumban, story points are not involved. In this way, the team avoids work-in-process limits to prevent overloading the organization with too much work. Thus, the members of the team will be able to cope with their responsibilities wisely and not experience the burden of many tasks.

More flexibility in adapting the process to the existing workflow is the second advantage of Scrumban. For instance, if the team assesses that the board is crowded with a lot of cards, then they are allowed to postpone the addition of new tasks until more cards are moved from the “Todo” category to the “Done” one.

3. Workers should Hold Daily stand-up Meetings:

Scrumban in particular has demonstrated its superiority in offering a tailored Agile approach. The scrumban approach lacks a predetermined hierarchy in the team, therefore furnishing flexibility, members get the opportunity to select tasks for them. The uncomplicated way to go about similar task prioritization is to browse the product’s biggest pain points.

Team members have the opportunity to assign the top priorities for the product and make their own decisions whenever they view something as important. A Scrum master/product manager expecting these independent teams to make decisions does not exist, as such, teams make decisions on their own.

4. Work with your Team to Prioritise Tasks:

The stand-up meetings with the team, which happen every day, are helpful for all the team members since they present a clear schedule for all the current tasks. For starters, the teammates can glance at the cards on the board and select a task that works best for them. The development team can use agile meetings to prioritize tasks by knowing the workload of every member of the team because the members are always active in these meetings. When the Scrumban method is employed, no assigned manager then takes on the responsibility of organizing the daily stand-up meetings. The team members can thereby support each other by taking turns to lead through the sessions.

The 3 Agile Methods at a Glance

Practicality and Future Outlook

Using the Scrumban technique can help a team in a number of situations:

• Intermediate Step in Agile: Teams taking the process of Scrum to Kanban can successfully use Scrumban as an intermediate step as they migrate towards Agile through a smooth change process and adjustment to a new approach.
• Adaptability to Changing Requirements: In cases of imminent variations or long-term evolution of the project needs, the adaptability provided by Scrum’s nature is invaluable, giving the team a chance to cope with new demands promptly, following the changing priorities and facilitating alignment with the changing business situation.
• Flow and Continuous Delivery: Working with different workloads or reoccurring requests requires the use of Scrumban, which focuses on balance and continuous delivery. It helps to avoid unnecessary work piles as the new task can easily be added to the workflow without interfering with already ongoing processes.
• Structure and Adaptability: Scrumban is a very useful approach that can be employed by teams that need the security of Scrum and at the same time require the flexibility that a flow-based approach can offer, making it suitable for organizations when project needs are getting more and more complex.
• Unpredictable Workloads and Priorities: Scrumban can be beneficial for teams in the cases of undetermined volumes or sudden shifting priorities recurrently. Its flexibility permits teams to amend the workflow smoothly in case of different demand management.
• Structure and Flexibility: For Teams requiring a greater level of flexibility in their development process, Scrumbans comes in as an excellent solution to Scrum by offering a structured approach and a flexible workflow to ensure efficiency in task completion.

Conclusion

Scrumban is regarded as a mediator between Scrum and Kanban methodologies, providing an intermediary and agile approach to task list prioritization and management. Through a blend of the pros of these two approaches, it presents a method where teams can easily adapt to changing desires while keeping a predictable delivery pattern. As companies choose to integrate agility and innovation, scrumban comes to be a handy framework for managing the complications of sophisticated software development.

Since, it is a relatively new methodology, Scrumban has these following drawbacks as well:

1. Lack of established best practices

Since, it is a new and not so widely tested methodology, it lacks documentation and guidelines. This would result in teams making all decisions independently, which is exactly what the flexibility aspect trying to achieve, however could lead to confusion with certain teams.

2. Difficulty in planning and tracking progress

Scrumban again does not have any guideline in terms of planning and splitting workload among team or how to monitor the progress of the same.

3. Reduced managerial oversight

Scrumban teams are not obliged to much supervision from managers or people having certain project roles, which may or may not give rise to issues in terms of accountability.