Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both [Paperback]

Henrik Kniberg (Author), Mattias Skarin (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2010

Scrum and Kanban are two flavors of Agile software development - two deceptively simple but surprisingly powerful approaches to software development. So how do they relate to each other?
The purpose of this book is to clear up the fog, so you can figure out how Kanban and Scrum might be useful in your environment.
Part I illustrates the similarities and differences between Kanban and Scrum, comparing for understanding, not for judgement. There is no such thing as a good or bad tool - just good or bad decisions about when and how to use which tool.
Part II is a case study illustrating how a Scrum-based development organization implemented Kanban in their operations and support teams.
Consistent with the style of "Scrum and XP from the Trenches", this book strikes a conversational tone and is bursting with practical examples and pictures.
This book includes:

• Kanban and Scrum in a nutshell
• Comparison of Kanban and Scrum and other Agile methods
• Practical examples and pitfalls
• Cartoons and diagrams illustrating day-to-day work
• Detailed case study of a Kanban implementation within a Scrum organization

Editorial Reviews

Review

Henrik Kniberg is one of those rare people who can extract the essence of a complicated situation, sort out the core ideas from the incidental distractions, and provide a crystal clear explanation that is incredibly easy to understand. 

- Mary Poppendieck, Author of Lean Software Development series

Exceptional. Really enjoyed it. Very objective.

- David Anderson, creator of the Kanban method for software development

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: lulu.com (March 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0557138329
• ISBN-13: 978-0557138326
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Henrik Kniberg is a coach and consultant at Crisp in Stockholm. Henrik's background is a mix of development and management, and his passion is applying Lean and Agile principles to help IT companies improve. Henrik is the author of "Scrum and XP from the Trenches", "Kanban & Scrum, making the most of both", and "Lean from the Trenches", and he is a popular keynote speaker at conferences worldwide. Henrik lives in Stockholm with his wife and four kids, and in his "spare time" plays bass and keyboard with two local bands.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good sequal to XP & Scrum From the Trenches May 23, 2010

By Bas Vodde

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Kanban and Scrum is a similar small and useful book as Henrik's earlier popular book Scrum and XP from the Trenches (Enterprise Software Development). Kanban and Scrum briefly compares Scrum and Kanban to explain the differences and give hints in which situation one is perhaps better than the other. Just like Henrik's earlier book, this is a very thin and easy to read book.

"Kanban and Scrum" is about 100 pages and consists of 2 parts, each written by one of the two authors. The first part is the "Kanban and Scrum" part, written by Henrik, where he shortly clarifies Scrum and Kanban and explains the differences between them. He gives hints to in which situation Kanban and which situation Scrum might be better... and also hints about ways of combining them into Scrumban (a term Henrik doesn't use, but was popularized by one of the first descriptions of Kanban by Corey Ladas Scrumban - Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development).

The second part of this book is an experience report written by Mattias Skarin about applying Kanban for an operations team in a games company. He briefly explains how they got started and how gradually they evolved Kanban and the kind of decisions they had to make.

This book is very thin and reads fast (of the 100 pages, there are a lot of empty pages). Most of it is available for free from Henrik's page, so if you don't want to buy the book, you can just download it :) The writing is easy to read, it reads more like a blog post than a book.

Amazon stars-wise, I've been thinking about 3 or 4 stars.... 3 stars because the book is thin, not very thorough and it does what it is supposed to do well, but not much more. It doesn't give a thorough introduction of Kanban (for that, probably check David Andersons work: Kanban) it doesn't give a thorough introduction of Scrum either. It just briefly explains the difference. Four stars because Henriks writing is very popular (a little too popular for me) but it attracts a wide audience. Also, his writing is very clear, he has a good ability to explain seemingly complex concepts in a simple way. Yet, this book is not a ground-shaking new book. In the end, I decided to favor Henriks explanation skills and go for 4 stars. If you know about Scrum and heard about Kanban and... wonder... then this is the book for you! If you want to have a thorough explanation of Kanban or Scrum, skip this book and go for the ones mentioned in this review. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Simple and Nice but a good article would had fit for the purpouse September 27, 2012

By Davide B.

Format:Paperback

"Very simple and nice, more useful if you already have and understanding /experience of both Kanban and Scrum.
Maybe too expensive for the content, almost all the pages are printed on just one side so do not expect much more than a good article.
I would rank it 6/10 so not that great book actually.

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful comparison for people already doing one or the other January 22, 2013

By Heidi Waterhouse

Format:Paperback

I think this was a useful comparison book about Kanban and scrum, but I was coming to it without much Kanban experience, so I wanted a writeup of the history of Kanban and the philosophy behind it.

The second part of the book, with the case study, was the most useful to me. That allowed me to see what the authors meant when they talked about limiting the number of items in a stage. A real-life example was just what I needed to grasp what was happening.

I also found the kanban theory helpful to me since I am a writer supporting many cross-functional teams, but I can only do so many things at once. I am not, myself, cross-functional.

Read if: You are looking for new methods of looking at agile development that are less deliverable-based.

Skip if: You don't want to read about project management.

Also read: I dunno.

4.0 out of 5 stars Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both April 26, 2011

By Alex Falkowski

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Very concise guide on the subject. I especially enjoyed the the case study at the end. It discussed how an operational team tackled Kanban to fit their process. It has been an eye opening experience in our organisation.

5.0 out of 5 stars Optimizing your process February 21, 2011

By Ilya Grigorik

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

An informal but illustrative introduction to the differences between Kanban and Scrum. The authors assume that you are already familiar with the Scrum methodology and focus on motivating the differences in the implementation and philosophy of each. In other words, don't expect a thorough technical analysis of either, and definitely pick up some other resource if you are not already familiar with Scrum.

As the authors put it in the opening.. "it's not the tool you start with, but the way you constantly improve your use of that tool and expand your toolset over time". In other words, Scrum, or any other methodology should not be treated as a dogma. Great teams review, adjust, and experiment with their process to discover what works for them and their environment. Scrum provides a set of guidelines, and Kanban relaxes some of them, giving you more wiggle room (which can be both a blessing and a curse) to explore: how you estimate, how you prioritize, which criteria you optimize (lead time vs troughput vs ...), whether you hold daily standups, and so on.

The book is a quick read and provides a good mix of hands-on examples and practical advice. The reassuring part was that our team has already arrived at many of the same conclusions and patterns on our own, and this just gave us the confidence to go even further and experiment with our workflow to a larger extent.

5.0 out of 5 stars Be confused no more! April 26, 2010

By John Sonmez

Format:Paperback

If you, like many others have been confused by Scrum, Kanban and agile in general, be confused no more. Finally a book that simply explains the key differences between the two processes in a way that anyone can understand.

I really enjoyed the informative and easy to understand illustrations in the book that made some of the more complex subjects seem simple.

It is a short read that you can finish in a single night, but it can clear up many points of confusion that plague the software development and agile community.

I also really enjoyed the approach of the author's of suggesting to do what makes sense for your organization. Very few people address the choice between Agile methodologies in a way that embraces mixing and matching the best parts of each.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is considering an Agile based process.

John Sonmez
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