Scrumban: Mastering two Agile methodologies

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).

With reviews and retrospectives at the end of every sprint, the team continuously improves the project and its processes. Scrum teams consist of members with specific roles and a Scrum Master, whose job is to lead the team and clear project roadblocks.

Like Kanban, Scrum utilizes a board to track project progress. However, the Scrum board differs from Kanban in that it utilizes a backlog that lives separately from the board. The board displays work that the team is focused on during a single sprint, and the backlog includes all other work items related to the project. Teams pull work from this backlog when they decide what they’ll work on for upcoming sprints.

Teams can easily start building their Scrum board and backlog with Jira’s Scrum template. 

Which parts of Scrum live on in the Scrumban methodology?

For one, Scrumban uses the Scrum structure. With the time-boxed sprints and planning and reviewing events, it's clear what needs completing and by when. In addition, Scrumban projects continue Scrum's tradition of regularly reviewing the MVP and adapting to its changing requirements.

Why choose the Scrumban methodology over just Scrum or Kanban? The power lies in its combination of the best parts of both methodologies:

• Increased flexibility: Because Scrumban delivers incremental work with every sprint, it allows for project changes even in the middle of the process. Meanwhile, there's progress toward project completion.
• Continuous delivery: With a board and a continuous flow of work, teams can deliver features as they complete them—no need to wait for a sprint to end.
• Reduced overloading: Limiting work in progress to the team's capabilities allows for progress without burnout.
• Faster issue resolution: Laying out cards on a board gives Scrumban the transparency teams need for better collaboration while quickly identifying problems and solutions.

• Ability to tackle large-scale projects: Because both Scrum and Kanban are about continuous and incremental improvement, Scrumban allows teams to work toward the completion of even the most complex projects.

While there are many advantages of the Scrumban methodology, there are also some limitations to be aware of, including:

• Ambiguity: Scrumban is relatively new, so there isn't much documentation on its implementation. As such, there could be some difficulty in finding guidance or best practices.
• Less control: Since Scrumban forgoes traditional Scrum roles, team members self-manage their sprints. The absence of a clear leader may lead to confusion over responsibilities.

• Complexity: Taking elements from two methodologies may be confusing to team members who are familiar with another system or who have never used an Agile system.

Scrumban is perfect for specific use cases where Scrum or Kanban alone aren't sufficient. Some examples of this include:

Software projects with scope creep is the perfect opportunity to use the Scrumban methodology. Scrumban allows for this with sprints and continual development. Even as requirements change, teams can continue to complete work incrementally.

In larger companies, it's not uncommon to have simultaneous ongoing projects. Sometimes, they even involve the same teams. Because of its flexibility, Scrumban allows for simultaneous initiatives, so even small teams can tackle multiple requirements.

Startups often have constantly changing environments and projects. Every day brings a new challenge, and there are rarely any resources. Scrumban brings capability into that environment and allows even small teams to thrive with its flexible framework for doing work.

In the end, it's not Kanban vs. Scrum. Taking the principles that work best for your team from each methodology makes for a more efficient way to tackle any project.

Scrumban is a flexible Agile methodology that helps project teams balance their capacity with a project's complexity. The strength of Scrumban lies in combining the best parts of Scrum and Kanban.

If you're ready to experience the benefits of Scrumban's hybrid approach to project management, Jira makes it as easy as setting up your next project. Start with one of Jira’s dozens of pre-configured templates, and customize your project around any team structure, workflow, or agile methodology. Jira makes it easy to organize work, stay aligned, and build better products. 

Jira also enables business teams, such as marketing, HR or finance, to take advantage of Scrumban principles. In addition to the board view, Jira offers Calendar and Timeline views to give these teams a clear and easy way to visualize work. Jira is the shared platform of collaboration across an organization, allowing software development and business teams to stay connected while using tools curated for their own use cases.

Try the Jira Kanban template today.

Because Scrumban doesn't require a Scrum Master, the team has balanced input into how they handle priorities on the Scrumban board. Typically, teams agree on assigning either a values-based ranking to each task (the higher the value, the higher the priority) or a risk-based system (the more impact it has on the deadline, the more crucial).

Absolutely. Since Scrumban delivers incremental progress, it allows teams to tackle large-scale projects whose scope naturally changes over time. The consistent delivery of output ensures teams complete increments of the large-scale project with every sprint.

The biggest challenge is always cultural. As with any organizational change, there will be resistance from those who are used to a different way of doing things. Getting the team to commit to the principles and structure of Scrumban will be the main challenge.