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Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both
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
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
120 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2010
32 people are currently reading
1731 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
March 3, 2015
More than half of the book is empty due to an excessive amount of whitespace: Empty or half-empty pages, over-large chapter numbers, too many subchapters.
Half of the book is dedicated to a specialized practice situation which can't be transferred to different situations.
This is a very light touch of the subject, you'll find no deep dives or outstanding thoughts here.
But if you want a contrasting overview Scrum vs. Kanban, this is a good book.
Half of the book is dedicated to a specialized practice situation which can't be transferred to different situations.
This is a very light touch of the subject, you'll find no deep dives or outstanding thoughts here.
But if you want a contrasting overview Scrum vs. Kanban, this is a good book.
June 28, 2019
A great accessible book to learn and compare Kanban and Scrum. Recommended for those looking for a practical insight. Henrik’s ability to take difficult concepts and explain things simply is incredibly beneficial for those new to Scrum and Kanban. Also good for experienced practitioners so learn how to explain the concepts simply.
April 21, 2022
A great recommendation from a former colleague. I was hoping for more guidance on the specific rules, philosophy, and rituals of kanban, but one of the key takeaways from reading this book is … there aren’t many. Making work visible and limiting WIP are pretty much the sum of it. That being said, those are two important and challenging tasks, and the book provided some useful commentary on how to measure, experiment, and adapt to make the most of them.
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April 15, 2024read for work 🤪
December 31, 2020
С начала XXI века индустрия разработки программного обеспечения претерпела огромное количество изменений, и теперь если ты не в курсе, что такое Agile-методологии, а слова Kanban, Scrum вызывают у тебя вопросы, скорее всего, ты можешь услышать "Вон из профессии!"
Многие нынче рассматривают Agile-методологии как некую панацею от всех проблем. Типа "вот раньше все работали по Waterfall, поэтому было долго, дорого и непредсказуемо". А если резко переключишься на современные гибкие методики, то сразу счастье и наступит.
Далее: https://knari.by/2020/12/31/kanban-an...
Многие нынче рассматривают Agile-методологии как некую панацею от всех проблем. Типа "вот раньше все работали по Waterfall, поэтому было долго, дорого и непредсказуемо". А если резко переключишься на современные гибкие методики, то сразу счастье и наступит.
Далее: https://knari.by/2020/12/31/kanban-an...
November 29, 2014
Great read. Fast-paced, maybe too much so in some parts -- it's good that the book is always on topic and straight to the point, but I felt some aspects lacked more context (history, reasons why, etc.).
December 27, 2015
I was a bit confused about the difference between Kanban and Scrum. This book cleared up the confusion in no time at all, plus it helped me consider which parts of each process tool fit my own practice best.
October 8, 2015
I really liked this book because in a short piece of time it lets you learn the basics of using Scrum and Kanban for your needs. Although it's from 2009 it's still very useful and helped me to made up my mind about how I want to run my project.
July 13, 2016
Jeg har et man-crush på Kniberg og hans ind-til-benet formater om processer, der passer som fod i pose til de ting jeg bruger mine arbejdsdage på for tiden.
Bogen gør det, titlen siger, den vil, men den gør det bare rigtigt godt.
Bogen gør det, titlen siger, den vil, men den gør det bare rigtigt godt.
December 30, 2024
Once again, Kniberg gives us a useful under-the-hood perspective of the two techniques and toolsets of Kanban and Scrum. Similar to "Scrum and XP From The Trenches", rather than showing a rule-for-rule application of the techniques, Kniberg and Skarin share how they took the main ideas from each practice and adapted them to their own team/company/problem set.
As is written in the foreword by Mary Poppendieck, "the important thing is not the tool you start with but the way you consistently improve your use of that tool". In both of these books, the author(s) show us how they started with the core concepts and then proceeded to experiment with them and adapt them to work best for them.
This book in particular often mentions the inspect-and-adapt principle which is one of the core messages of Scrum. This is a message which I believe is lost on many leaders and results in the thousands of 'Scrum Sucks' and 'Agile is dead' posts we see on social media and blogs. I think this is what happens when the people in charge take Scrum as a formal recipe and try to apply it to the letter but without the adaptation part because it is too hard.
If anything, this book tries to demonstrate that inspecting how well you are working and making positive changes to improve it can bring big improvements, and if anything it advocates Kanban as the winner due to its additional focus on measurements (and of course choosing the right measurement). This in turn is one of my gripes about the book - it is titled 'making the most of both' but in the end I felt it leant on Kanban more than Scrum.
As with Kniberg's other book, the greatest value in its pages is simply showing the authors' personalised process in measuring and improving the process. In its closing pages it states 'the only real failure is failing to learn from failure'. Learning and adapting takes bravery, and sometimes it takes someone like Kniberg to actually show that this is possible, and thus not to be afraid.
As is written in the foreword by Mary Poppendieck, "the important thing is not the tool you start with but the way you consistently improve your use of that tool". In both of these books, the author(s) show us how they started with the core concepts and then proceeded to experiment with them and adapt them to work best for them.
This book in particular often mentions the inspect-and-adapt principle which is one of the core messages of Scrum. This is a message which I believe is lost on many leaders and results in the thousands of 'Scrum Sucks' and 'Agile is dead' posts we see on social media and blogs. I think this is what happens when the people in charge take Scrum as a formal recipe and try to apply it to the letter but without the adaptation part because it is too hard.
If anything, this book tries to demonstrate that inspecting how well you are working and making positive changes to improve it can bring big improvements, and if anything it advocates Kanban as the winner due to its additional focus on measurements (and of course choosing the right measurement). This in turn is one of my gripes about the book - it is titled 'making the most of both' but in the end I felt it leant on Kanban more than Scrum.
As with Kniberg's other book, the greatest value in its pages is simply showing the authors' personalised process in measuring and improving the process. In its closing pages it states 'the only real failure is failing to learn from failure'. Learning and adapting takes bravery, and sometimes it takes someone like Kniberg to actually show that this is possible, and thus not to be afraid.
June 25, 2025
Reseñando la versión en español traducida por Agile Spain, qué no aparece en GoodReads.
Un libro que se lee en un rato, a sus 120 páginas hay que restar bastantes en blanco, títulos grandes y muchos dibujos. No lo digo como algo necesariamente negativo, es un hecho.
El libro se divide en dos partes, la primera es una comparativa bastante detallada de Scrum y Kanban, con sus puntos en común y diferencias. Me habría venido genial hace 10 años pero hoy en día se nota que algunas cosas son viejunas (Sprints inmutables, commitment en lugar de forecast...), propias del Scrum de 2008, y para alguien poco versado puede ser más confuso que esclarecedor en algunos puntos, aunque hay que decir que la mayoría sigue aplicando y está bien traída, y el Scrum viejuno te lo sigues encontrando en todo artículo de 2025 sobre Agile is Dead.
La segunda mitad del libro es un caso de estudio concreto. Como dicen en otra reseña demasiado concreto para ser demasiado aplicable en ningún otro sitio, y yo añado que la aproximación a algunos problemas también tiene un enfoque anticuado, aunque alguna idea se puede rescatar.
Entre estos enfoques anticuados he descubierto por cierto que este libro tiene el dudoso honor de haber instaurado la regla del 2n-1 a la hora de poner un límite de WIP inicial. A pesar de que el autor indica claramente que empezaron con ese número por empezar con alguno.
En fin, le doy 3/5 por su valor histórico, pero no sería una lectura que recomendaría a nadie nuevo en la temática.
Un libro que se lee en un rato, a sus 120 páginas hay que restar bastantes en blanco, títulos grandes y muchos dibujos. No lo digo como algo necesariamente negativo, es un hecho.
El libro se divide en dos partes, la primera es una comparativa bastante detallada de Scrum y Kanban, con sus puntos en común y diferencias. Me habría venido genial hace 10 años pero hoy en día se nota que algunas cosas son viejunas (Sprints inmutables, commitment en lugar de forecast...), propias del Scrum de 2008, y para alguien poco versado puede ser más confuso que esclarecedor en algunos puntos, aunque hay que decir que la mayoría sigue aplicando y está bien traída, y el Scrum viejuno te lo sigues encontrando en todo artículo de 2025 sobre Agile is Dead.
La segunda mitad del libro es un caso de estudio concreto. Como dicen en otra reseña demasiado concreto para ser demasiado aplicable en ningún otro sitio, y yo añado que la aproximación a algunos problemas también tiene un enfoque anticuado, aunque alguna idea se puede rescatar.
Entre estos enfoques anticuados he descubierto por cierto que este libro tiene el dudoso honor de haber instaurado la regla del 2n-1 a la hora de poner un límite de WIP inicial. A pesar de que el autor indica claramente que empezaron con ese número por empezar con alguno.
En fin, le doy 3/5 por su valor histórico, pero no sería una lectura que recomendaría a nadie nuevo en la temática.
June 18, 2018
A brilliant (& very short) book about Kanban and Scrum.
The first half outlines Kanban and Scrum including their respective advantages and disadvantages.
Most exciting is that the second half of the book is a case study of setting up Kanban in an Operations department. Prior to being a ScrumMaster, I worked within an Operations department as a Service Desk Manager, I’ve been on the look-out for something along these lines and not found much specific, until now!
The writing style was to gather all the relevant info and edit, edit, edit until the ideas could be put across in a very neat succinct form, none of that terrible waffle that is often found.
A five-star review from me means that I’d recommend the book as essential reading for Agile Coaches & I expect that I will re-read and refer back to it multiple times.
The first half outlines Kanban and Scrum including their respective advantages and disadvantages.
Most exciting is that the second half of the book is a case study of setting up Kanban in an Operations department. Prior to being a ScrumMaster, I worked within an Operations department as a Service Desk Manager, I’ve been on the look-out for something along these lines and not found much specific, until now!
The writing style was to gather all the relevant info and edit, edit, edit until the ideas could be put across in a very neat succinct form, none of that terrible waffle that is often found.
A five-star review from me means that I’d recommend the book as essential reading for Agile Coaches & I expect that I will re-read and refer back to it multiple times.
September 7, 2020
This is a short book, and well worth the small time commitment. We use some mix of Scrum and Kanban at work, and have for years, though I never personally read much about the formal ideas, processes or theories behind each. This book was a good primer.
My favorite notion was the idea that each of these methods puts particular constraints around a process in order to influence outcomes. The constraints we use affect in large part the results that follow.
I enjoyed the first part of the book more than the second. In the first part, one of the authors compares Scrum and Kanban. That was informative and helpful. It also motivated me to have us pursue some of the practices common to both, like regular retrospectives and continuous improvement. The second half of the book was written by the other author and was a case study of applying Kanban.
My favorite notion was the idea that each of these methods puts particular constraints around a process in order to influence outcomes. The constraints we use affect in large part the results that follow.
I enjoyed the first part of the book more than the second. In the first part, one of the authors compares Scrum and Kanban. That was informative and helpful. It also motivated me to have us pursue some of the practices common to both, like regular retrospectives and continuous improvement. The second half of the book was written by the other author and was a case study of applying Kanban.
February 7, 2020
Short overview of Scrum and Kanban frameworks and their comparison. Book also contains case study of real project that made significant improvement in efficiency after introduction of Kanban board in their processes.
Book should be very useful for those who just started or want to start the path of working in Scrum or Kanban way (or both) and need some direction and advises on how to start. Also I'd recommend this book to read for everyone who is too tightly follow one specific approach (Scrum or Kanban) - this books will help to improve your way of working by making the most of both.
Book should be very useful for those who just started or want to start the path of working in Scrum or Kanban way (or both) and need some direction and advises on how to start. Also I'd recommend this book to read for everyone who is too tightly follow one specific approach (Scrum or Kanban) - this books will help to improve your way of working by making the most of both.
July 10, 2017
This is a simple introduction to a simple idea (Kanban limits work in progress, forcing you to deal with bottlenecks, or at least recognize them). But it's a bit less to the point than the "Scrum and XP from the trenches" book.
The second half (by a different author) has a less concise, less confident, style, which slightly obscures the interesting stories that it tells. Also, don't be put off by the waffly second foreword.
The second half (by a different author) has a less concise, less confident, style, which slightly obscures the interesting stories that it tells. Also, don't be put off by the waffly second foreword.
October 10, 2018
I absolutely adore Henrik Kniberg's books, mainly the focus he has on concrete issues without much of "beat around the bush" talks. Generally, the style of his books is what I like and that allows quite fast paced reading. I stormed through this one in less than 2 days.
Additional moment in this book with story "from the trench" is quite valuable.
I think I read this book long time ago, looked to familiar :D.
Additional moment in this book with story "from the trench" is quite valuable.
I think I read this book long time ago, looked to familiar :D.
January 11, 2021
Short, to the point - quick tips to help you gain confidence in your Scrum and Kanban choices. It's a very quick read, more white space than text in its 80 pages really, so I'd say come to this book once you have read the Agile manifesto and the Scrum handbook - it's more about the tweaks, teaching you how to pinpoint when you have a problem and when is the time to experiment, more than the theoretical background.
TL;DR: Continuously improve, experiment, find what works for you.
TL;DR: Continuously improve, experiment, find what works for you.
December 12, 2016
Very nice writing style, intuitive and easy to read.
Gives a good introduction of what the title is promises without in a very practical way.
The last chapter is a little bit too detailed in how they ran their practical example and I lost track af the actual topic, Kanban and Scrum. Otherwise 5stars...
Gives a good introduction of what the title is promises without in a very practical way.
The last chapter is a little bit too detailed in how they ran their practical example and I lost track af the actual topic, Kanban and Scrum. Otherwise 5stars...
February 6, 2018
Um bom livro para complemento de informações conceituais de kanban e scrum, principalmente que aborda as diferenças entre os métodos, pontua como eles podem ser utilizadas em conjunto e ilustra bem com estudos de casos. A tradução não é tão boa, mas é útil e facilita bastante o entendimento. Para quem se interessa pelo assunto ele está disponível para download na página da InfoQ.
January 1, 2019
Книга очень не больших размеров, но достаточно содержательна. Очень кратко, лаконично и визуально иллюстрированно сравнение двух основных Agile методов Scrum и Kanban (и в теории, и в практике). На самом деле если у вас мало времени и необходима основная концентрированная качественная информация - книга для вас. Так же предоставляет прочную базу для комбинации методологий, а так же по вопросу регулирования пределов и вариаций.
Больше направленна на постижение Kanban. Но повторюсь самое классное в этой книге, то что она построена на конкретном сравнении. Я нигде такого не видела.
Больше направленна на постижение Kanban. Но повторюсь самое классное в этой книге, то что она построена на конкретном сравнении. Я нигде такого не видела.
April 27, 2019
This free mini-book has great illustrations and is written in a very accessible, conversational style. It's like a powerpoint presentation with all the chit chat added in as text. You can download it from the authors' website -- it nicely illustrates the chief differences between scrum and kanban, and provides encouragement to use the tools and experiment.
June 14, 2018
Головна ідея в тому, що немає ідеальної методології, потрібно весь час есперементувати. Загалом класна стаття, аби швидко порівняти 2 методології, а якщо потрібен експрес курс, то можна прочитати останні 2 сторінки, там все структуровано у таблицю.
May 3, 2020
Mini book but insightful. Give you enough insights for working with Scrum & Kanban.
The last part is a real use-case story, but I don't learn much from it than the first part, introduction about Scrum & Kanban.
The last part is a real use-case story, but I don't learn much from it than the first part, introduction about Scrum & Kanban.
February 26, 2021
Sok újat nem mondott, de azért megérte elolvasni a Scrum és Kanban kapcsán. Esettanulmány felszínes, de ennek ellenére élvezetes, mivel érződik, hogy a való életből való, nem csak kitalált szemléltetés.
August 16, 2022
7/10
Atšķirībā no daudzām grāmatām par Agile metodoloģijām, par laimi šī iztiek bez pārspīlētas jūsmošanas un kopumā bez liekām runām. Īsi un konkrēti par atšķirībām starp divām aktuālākajiem Agile frameworkiem. Bet kopumā brīžiem šķiet aprautas nodaļas vai sasteigtas.
Atšķirībā no daudzām grāmatām par Agile metodoloģijām, par laimi šī iztiek bez pārspīlētas jūsmošanas un kopumā bez liekām runām. Īsi un konkrēti par atšķirībām starp divām aktuālākajiem Agile frameworkiem. Bet kopumā brīžiem šķiet aprautas nodaļas vai sasteigtas.
January 23, 2018
칸반에 대한 입문서 중에서 제일 얇길래 골라서 읽었다.
March 5, 2018
Very inspiring when you're trying to find your way in the maze of agile frameworks. Short and pragmatic.
August 25, 2018
Start with this one, everything else is refinement.
September 3, 2018
Excellent comparison of the two frameworks, followed by a in-depth look at how to implement Kanban.
September 14, 2018
Very short, but concise overview of both Kanban and Scrum. I like that the book is very direct and to the point. Experiment, until you find what works best.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews