Scrum and Kanban are the two widely practiced agile methods devised for different team categories. If Scrum was preached by the development teams, then Kanban served as an ideal option for the infrastructure operations team. Both methods individually benefitted teams. But as time evolved and the need for DevOps emerged, IT organizations started looking for a hybrid method, which brings in the best from both methods. This became a prominent ask as development teams started closely with the infrastructure operations team and a few started forming a DevOps team. This led to designing a new hybrid agile method called scrumban, which was coined by Corey Ladas (a lean Kanban practitioner). This method offers the predictability element from Scrum with the flexibility from Kanban. It is an ideal fit for DevOps and maintenance teams or large-scale projects.
Scrumban is a hybrid method that delivers in a continuous manner and accepts changes at any time. It is flexible like the Kanban methodology but embraces the best practices of Scrum as well. This method introduces a new concept called bucket planning wherein teams plan the activities and place them in buckets.
Such a method is suitable for teams who do not want to just focus on the current workloads and performance but also would like defined goals. For example, an infrastructure team practicing Scrumban can have long-term goals like adopting AIOps in the one-year bucket, tool investments and implementation in the six-month/three-month buckets, and actual operational tasks and infrastructure pipeline work in the current bucket. This kind of method brings in transparency since the team can align with the roadmap. This is an ideal agile method for teams where priority changes are very frequent. Let’s dive more into this method and understand its key construct.
There are no defined roles while implementing scrumban. Whatever roles exist can be considered and upscaled to meet the expectations. Every member in the team is accountable for the stories, and this is where the work-in-progress limits also help. Existing roles like Scrum master, product owner, specialists, and the Scrum team all can continue to operate in this model. The only prerequisite is that the team should be enabled to effectively use this method.
The basic ceremony that is recommended while practicing scrumban is the daily standup. Standups are conducted daily to track the progress and brainstorm on any risks that are identified for the current bucket. Teams refer to the scrumban board for tracking WIP limits, and their backlog is driven just-in-time by removing the rigid constraints of sticking to what exists in a product backlog. Additional meetings like planning meetings or retrospectives are planned only if the team feels the need for them.
It is evident that scrumban focuses on goals, work visibility, and process improvements, and of course the key foundation to its success is “the team.” It has also been observed that some organizations customize scrumban in a way that best serves their teams. Agile management tools like Atlassian JIRA offer templates for Scrum and Kanban, but there is nothing explicitly defined for scrumban in the tool. Teams leverage either Kanban or Scrum as the base template and then customize the template to address scrumban working methods. A few new tools have recently become available like Method Grid, Monday.com, ClickUp, Kanban Tool, Favro, etc., that offer scrumban templates along with Scrum and Kanban templates. Most of them are cloud-based applications. So, if teams have licenses for JIRA, then they can leverage them for practicing scrumban; otherwise, they can opt for the new tools available. One important thing to remember is that the key requirement for enabling teams on scrumban is the “board.” This Scrumban board will be the visibility tool for teams for viewing tasks, flagging tasks, and monitoring overall project status as well as viewing what is in store in the near future.
