Scrum and Kanban Methodologies for Digital Product Development

My name is Fedor Gvozdev. I am the founder of the web agency ‘Onecommerce’. I have been working with development teams for ten years and I know how to manage digital projects. Most of my experience in working with different teams revolves around using the agile management system. However, implementing the agile approach is not enough. It is important to apply it directly to the planning itself. In this article, I will share my experience of applying the agile methodologies ‘Scrum’ and ‘Kanban’ to my projects.

The agile approach is a system of values, a philosophy around which a set of agile management methods and practices have been created. When applying them to work, the team becomes more cohesive, learns to make decisions quickly, and systematizes the work processes. All this is achieved through the use of specific tools for organizing and managing project activities.

Since its inception, the philosophy has evolved into a variety of methods for embedding the agile approach into teamwork.

Scrum and Kanban are two of the most popular methodologies for implementing the principles of the agile management ideology. Companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google have long used them in software development.

Both frameworks aim to improve the product and optimize the organizational processes. However, there are fundamental differences between them.

Content Overview

• Kanban for Task Visualization and Continuous Improvement

• Scrum: The Art of Creating Work Cycles

• Scrum or Kanban?

Kanban for Task Visualisation and Continuous Improvement

The Kanban methodology revolves around process visualization. Such a team aims to reduce project duration and limit work in progress.

The Kanban visualization is implemented using a special tool of this framework which is the Kanban Board.

Kanban Board Components

The Kanban board consists of cards with tasks and columns. This type of visualization helps to organize tasks in a simple and clear way, as well as to track the work progress.

• Visual Cues. The first thing you notice when you look at the board is the abundance of cards. Each one is added by the team and represents a task. As they complete them, they move through the columns – the stages of development. For agile teams, a card represents a user story, i.e. a development task.

• Columns. The workflow is divided into stages on the board. Each stage has its own column of cards. There are no rules when it comes to creating and managing Kanban boards, so you can decide on the number of columns and their names. They can be as simple as ‘To Do’, ‘In Progress’, or ‘Completed’, or you can break them down into several more specific ones.

• Limiting Work in Progress (WIP). This is an important aspect of working with the board. For each column, the team sets a limit on the cards. For example, the number of user stories in the ‘Development’ column has reached the pre-set limit. This means that the team must do their best to clear the queue so that other tasks can be added to this column.

• The Commitment Point is the moment when the team picks up a task from the backlog and starts working on it. In addition to the board, there is another important thing, which is a backlog that has been prioritized beforehand. The team and other project participants select tasks from the backlog by priority level and start working on them.

• The Delivery Point is the moment when the project is completed. This component refers to the outermost column. It represents the end of the project and the delivery of the product to the client.

You can create a digital board or a physical one that can be kept in the office. Which one you choose depends on what is convenient for your team.

Kanban Principles

This methodology consists of the continuity of the workflow and product delivery. This is achieved through visualization and limiting WIP (work in progress). The team focuses on the continuity of work without doing more than it can. This approach ensures phased implementation and adherence to priorities.

The goal of the Kanban team isto reduce the time it takes for a card to move from the commitment point to the delivery point. The collective effort of the project team is focused on reducing this time to a minimum and maintaining the quality of the product.

There are no deadlines or specific dates. Tasks are updated when they are completed. There is no need for a meeting or evaluation to release the product.

Since there are no clearly defined roles in this approach, everyone is free to make changes – move, block, or delete cards.

Implementation

In our work, we used a digital version of the board created in Trello. It was most convenient for us this way because some of our team members worked remotely.

At the time, our company used Kanban on an ad hoc basis for some of the projects. However, we decided to use it for all tasks as the methodology had proved to be effective.

The task was to develop and optimize the product catalog for an online store. The whole process was divided into several stages, including analysis, design, and development. By visualizing and prioritizing the tasks, we were able to achieve a high speed of task execution. The stages became clearer and the previous experience of using the Kanban methodology meant that the team did not have to spend much time adapting to the new approach.

The flexible system helped the team to make changes immediately, thus preventing more serious consequences.

Scrum: The Art of Creating Work Cycles

Scrum is a planning methodology for agile development. The entire project is divided into sprints – work phases of equal length. Scrum teams aim to deliver an intermediate product (increment) at the end of each sprint. The completed piece of work is evaluated and revised, and only then does the team proceed to the next phase. The Scrum master ensures that the team adheres to the methodology throughout the project.

Scrum Roles

Unlike Kanban, Scrum is based on role division

• Development Team develops the product and delivers an increment at the end of each sprint.
• Scrum Master guides the team, participates in the evaluation of the intermediate product and oversees meetings.
• The product Owner represents the client and helps the team to prioritize the backlog and evaluate the intermediate product.

However, Scrum is part of the agile approach, so there is no single control center. Following the agile philosophy, Scrum relies on self-organization and shared responsibility.

Scrum Principles

Dividing work into phases helps to reduce product release time.

Delivering an increment at the end of each sprint allows for a step-to-step evaluation and avoids the high cost of mistakes. Divided tasks are easier to complete and employees feel less overwhelmed and more motivated.

Ongoing communication with the product owner helps to better understand and meet expectations for the final product.

The goal of a cross-functional team is to deliver a quality product that satisfies the client. This is the main evaluation criterion. However, you can also introduce speed performance evaluation as part of sprint retrospectives. The concept of such meetings makes it possible to discuss mistakes and find the reasons for the team's declining performance.

Tools and Phases

The Scrum tools are as follows:

• Increment is an intermediate product delivered by the team at the end of each sprint. For the development team to proceed to the next sprint, the temporary product must be evaluated as satisfactory.

• Product Backlog is created by the product owner before product development begins. The sprint backlog is created using the product backlog.

• Sprint Backlog consists of tasks selected from the product backlog for the upcoming sprint. It is created by the product owner and the development team under the guidance of the Scrum master.

Each Sprint has three main meetings, attended by the development team, the Scrum master, and the product owner. In terms of agenda, they are divided into:

• Sprint Planning Meetings, which focus on the selection of tasks for a phase.
• Sprint Meetings, the purpose of which is to assess an increment.
• Retrospectives, are team meetings to discuss past achievements and failures after the delivery of a fully completed product.

In addition to the main meetings, there are daily Scrum Meetings, which aim to set daily goals and should last no longer than 15-20 minutes.

Implementation

Our company started to transform the planning process using the agile approach a few years ago. We tried out the Kanban board and the concept of agile management proved to be efficient for our team.

We had to go further. Scrum proved to be a more difficult tool to implement.

We encountered several problems:

• It was difficult to organize regular meetings. At first, not everyone understood their purpose. Instead of short meetings to update the team on the work done and highlight any problems encountered, in the early stages of Scrum implementation, the meetings turned into long sessions listing everything that had been done and how it had been done, as well as discussing new ideas, which made the meetings ineffective.

• Planning sprints was also time-consuming. It was new for us to divide the whole project into equal phases.

Over the course of a month, the team learned how to work with the new methodology. It took time for the Scrum team to fully understand and get used to their roles, tasks, and fundamental principles.

Scrum helped us to bring clarity to teamwork. The employees understood the concept better because they could apply it in practice. The team began to work more efficiently and correct mistakes more quickly.

Scrum or Kanban?

The most suitable framework can only be chosen by trial and error. It is worth trying both models in practice. Here, we will analyze these approaches.

Both methodologies are in line with the agile philosophy. It is advisable to add elements of Scrum and Kanban step by step to see what suits your team best.

We use both Kanban and Scrum tools in our work, depending on the team and the project.

Try them, implement them, and improve your work!