Scrum Board Vs Kanban How To Choose The Right Agile Tool? : Agile project management has gradually become a new normal for almost all firms. It’s been a long time since firms have abandoned the traditional task management process and moved to the modern agile project management method. And when someone says they work in an agile product environment, it simply means that they are working in a firm that uses agile project management.

If you are familiar with the agile product management approach, you must have come across words like ‘Kanban’ and ‘Scrum’ at least once. Both are a type of agile project management process, and they both offer visual representation for keeping tabs on the project’s progress. Moreover, both Scrum and Kanban help the team to deliver the product quickly while making changes as per the feedback.

But when it comes to choosing between Scrum and Kanban boards, a vast majority of people cannot make the right decision. This blog post is intended to make you familiar with how to choose between Scrum Board and Kanban.

But before jumping directly to comparison, we will take a look at both Scrum and Kanban boards.

What is a Scrum board?

A scrum board is a visual board used for keeping tabs on work in incremental, short sprints. The main goal before completing a sprint is to push all the tasks in the Done column. But there is nothing like a standard format for building a Scrum board.

What is a Kanban board?

A Kanban board is also a type of visual board in which columns are used to track and visualize the tasks. In this agile board, just-in-time, continuous improvement, cards and columns are used to help the team commit to the impeccable amount of work they can complete within the set timeline without compromising on the quality.

Kanban vs. Scrum

Both the boards are used to keep tabs on what has been done, what needs to be done, and what has been completed in a visual manner. Using such types of agile boards helps the entire team to stay focused and stick to the timeline.

So, to understand the difference between the two, we will compare scrum vs kanban the boards on different parameters.

Timing

When it comes to timing, Scrum is limited to a sprint containing a specific number of tasks. These sprints can be two weeks or more. The work is released in Scrum after every sprint. But in the case of Kanban, work is never limited to sprint as it primarily supports continuous delivery. The team working on Kanban boards applies limits to the work in progress and takes on a new task once finished with the present ones.

Roles

Both the Scrum and Kanban are a far cry from each other when it comes to roles. In Scrum, the role mainly includes a development team, product owner, and even a scrum master. While in the case of Kanban, there are no such defined roles.

Work in Progress

There is no way a task can be included in the Scrum board in the middle of the sprint. But, all the tasks can stay in the progress column simultaneously. Whereas, in the case of Kanban, it is the team who decides this aspect.

The team working on the Kanban board decides the number of tasks that can be completed and the number of tasks that can be included in the progress column simultaneously. When one task is completed, the team takes another task from the specific queue.

Philosophy towards change

Even when it comes to changes, both the Scrum and Kanban board differ a lot. There is no way one can include work during the two-week sprint. And all the team members can have access to the board, but only the product owner can make changes.

This is where Kanban boards have an advantage since they are highly flexible, and changes can be made at any point. So, if you are looking for better flexibility, you should always stick with a Kanban board.

Reports

Velocity is the primary metric used to measure the performance in a Scrum board. In addition to this, a spring burndown chart along with other reports is also used to review the performance. But in the case of Kanban, there is no such specific report, although a type of cumulative flow diagram is used.

Both Kanban and Scrum help the team visualize the workflow and stay focused. But there are certain advantages offered by Kanban that make it a better option than Scrum. You can take the example of both flexibility and ease of use, where Kanban performs better than Scrum. So, if you are looking for a better workflow management system, Kanban is your best bet.