We recently talked about the processes and the structure of agile methodologies. But at the centre of the implementation of these methodologies is the team. Therefore, this time we review the differences between the three methodologies – Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban – concerning the team members, roles, and interactions.
Roles
In Scrum, there are several roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the team itself.
The product owner is responsible for the product vision and priorities – and she is the person who decides which items or user stories are the most important to work on and complete in a sprint. The Scrum Master ensures that the Scrum process is going as agreed, removes any issues in the process and provides leadership with regards to the way it works. The team builds and implements the product.
Kanban and Scrumban do not have clearly defined roles for team members – so the characters may be wary, and it is up to the team whether any functions should be used at all.
Team members
Generally, Scrum is a methodology where the team members can be cross-functional. While there is no precise definition of what is cross-functional, the team as a whole should have the skills to complete the work within each iteration. As Scrum is time-limited methodology, it often happens that some team members need to work on several types of tasks to complete the work during the sprint – but as mentioned above, the methodology does not explicitly define what is cross-functional.
On the other hand, in Kanban, the team members’ specialisation or preference for tasks is preferred. The job is limited by work in progress. Anyone with items in backlog can start working on another piece. As soon as they are finished with their own – which allows for specialisation of the team members.
In Scrumban, the team can be either specialized or cross-functional.
Ownership
The critical difference in property is that while Scrum is a team-oriented methodology and is owned by a team, Kanban and Scrumban support multiple team ownership. So, for example, in Kanban, different stages of the process can be owned by several organisations – such as the development team, quality assurance team, and others.
Meetings
Several meetings are used in Scrum. They are sprint planning, daily scrum, and retrospective.
The sprint planning meeting involves pulling items from the backlog into the sprint and prioritizing the user stories that will be carried out during the sprint.
The daily Scrum or stand-up meeting includes a short regular meeting where each member of the team briefly shares what they are working. The daily Scrum typically lasts no more than 15 minutes.
The retrospective reviews the teams progress after each sprint, and discusses ways to improve the process.
In Kanban and Scrumban, meetings are optional. They can be avoided entirely, or agreed upon on a regular or on-demand basis.
Short Kaizen events can be done from time to time to focus. Kaizen events are defined as short, breakthrough events where employees from several departments or teams examine a problem, propose solutions and implement changes. These events can be used in Kanban and Scrumban from time to time, to solve issues or improve the process of work.
Continuous improvement
The approach to constant development prescribes how the team makes changes and improves their work process based on the issues they encounter.
Scrum achieves continuous improvement by using a sprint retrospective meeting after the sprint and discussing the outstanding issues as well as improvements to the way to work.
In Kanban and Scrumban, continuous improvement is optional. However, as mentioned above, short Kaizen events can be used for this purpose as well.
The next time we will be reviewing a few other differences between Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban – including boards, rules, and who should use which methodology.
