From a numbers perspective, Kanban didn't necessarily make the team complete more work than if they'd used Scrum.
While the MVP work was completed to a quality standard, the Kanban approach improved this further and reduced the intensity of the work.
It helped because:
- there was less back-and-forth with a story
- less rework
- people had the time to think about the work in more detail
- the team found the work pace more manageable
- the team environment was better post MVP, as shown in the health-check and retro data, with happier team members
- the cumulative flow data had just settled down and was starting to indicate a smoother flow of work
- don't break the Work in Progress (WIP) limits!
Lessons for teams considering using Kanban
- ensure the team understand Kanban and what they need to do to make it work (provide training before you leap into it)
- if already working with Scrum, make sure that the team have tried to improve working practices within Scrum first before leaping to Kanban
- make sure everyone is onboard with the idea
Be prepared for the discipline and work needed to ensure there's always a prioritised, appropriately refined, well managed backlog to make sure Kanban can work smoothly.
This is a must and takes a team effort as well as dedication to this from the Business Analyst and Product Manager.
Be aware that Kanban takes time to embed and ways of working and workflow takes time to settle.
