Hans Samios' Personal Lean-Agile Knowledge Base

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====== What Are the Differences Between Scrum and Kanban? ======

For folks that are into the details of these two methods. They clearly come at the problem of managing knowledge work from different perspectives. The following table provides a clear breakdown of these differences:

^ Scrum                                                                              ^ Kanban                                                                                                                                                           ^
| Time-boxed iterations prescribed                                                   | Time-boxed iterations optional. \\ * Can have separate cadences for planning, release, and process improvement. \\ * Can be event driven instead of time-boxed.  |
| Team commits to a specific amount of work for this iteration (Sprint)              | Team commits to work when it is brought to the board for execution                                                                                               |
| Uses velocity as default metric for planning and process improvements              | Uses lead time as default metric for planning and process improvements                                                                                |
| Cross functional teams prescribed                                                  | Cross functional teams optional\\ * Specialist teams allowed                                                                                                     |
| Items must be broken down so they can be completed in an iteration                 | No item size is prescribed although small(-er) sized work is highly recommended                                                                                                                                     |
| Burn down chart is prescribed                                                      | No diagram type is presecribed                                                                                                                                   |
| "Change agent" is "commitment"                                                       | "Change agent" is "WIP limits"                                                                                                                                     |
| WIP limited indirectly\\ * Per iteration                                           | WIP limited directly\\ * Per workflow state                                                                                                                      |
| Estimation prescribed                                                              | Estimation optional                                                                                                                                              |
| Cannot add items to ongoing iteration                                              | Can add items whenever capacity is available                                                                                                                     |
| Prescribe 3 roles\\ * Product Owner\\ * Scrum Master\\ * Team                      | No prescribed roles                                                                                                                                              |
| Prescribes 4 events \\ * Planning\\ * Daily Scrum\\ * Review\\ * Retrospective  | No prescribed events                                                                                                                                         |
| Scrum board is reset between each iteration                                        | Kanban board is persistent                                                                                                                                       |
| Prioritized backlog is prescribed                                                  | Prioritization is optional                                                                                                                                       |

{{tag>FAQ Scrum Kanban}}