Scrum vs. Kanban: With Guests Ken Rubin & Eric Brechner if/else

On this episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue explores a choice faced by many software development teams: which agile methodology should they use?

There are several different agile frameworks, including Lean, Crystal Clear, Extreme Programming, and Feature Driven Development, but we’ll focus on two of the more popular approaches: Scrum and Kanban.

You’ll learn about the history and philosophy behind these two methodologies, and you’ll hear some perspectives from several developers about their experiences–good and bad–working with these processes.

You’ll also meet Grant Ammons. Grant is a development team leader at an online marketing tools company. Grant and his colleagues have been working in the Scrum framework, and it has dramatically improved communication with their stakeholders. But they’re running into problems with certain aspects of the process, and are beginning to think about giving Kanban a try. To help Grant decide whether to tweak his teams current process or jump into a completely new one, we’ve enlisted the help of two industry veterans.

Eric Brechner is a Principal Software Engineering Manager for Azure at Microsoft. He is also author of Agile Project Management with Kanban.

Ken Rubin is the founder of Innolution, an Agile and Scrum coaching and consulting firm, and he’s the author of Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process.

Ken and Eric join Mayuko to discuss the guiding principles of each methodology, and to debate the strengths and weaknesses of each system. You’ll also hear about the types of teams that each approach best suits. The idea is to give Grant, or anyone else facing a similar decision, the information needed to make a solid choice.