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My current employer switched from SCRUM to KANBAN. We're broken up into person squads. Epics are created by product by engineers are involved in kickoff and st
by Osiris 7y ago
My current employer switched from SCRUM to KANBAN. We're broken up into person squads. Epics are created by product by engineers are involved in kickoff and story breakdown.
We use KANBAN cycle times to estimate delivery dates. For example, my squad completes 85% of stories in 5 days. Given that, the number of stories in the epic, and number of engineers, it's easy math to calculate an approximate completion date.
It's important to note that we've convinced management that these are approximate completion dates, not deadlines. The dates are used for planning upcoming features and which squad will be free first to take it on. However, there's still plenty of adaptability.
Of all the places I've worked, this model is one that I've found to be the most productive.
- RussianCow 7y ago> For example, my squad completes 85% of stories in 5 days. Given that, the number of stories in the epic, and number of engineers, it's easy math to calculate an approximate completion date. Until it turns out that the remaining 15% takes half of the total time. In my experience, estimating about 80-90% of a project accurately isn't that difficult; it's the other 10-20% that can end up taking considerably longer than you expected and throwing off the entire estimate.
- mikewhy 7y agoI really, really like Kanban as well. Seems the hardest part is selling it to upper management.
- davidjnelson 7y agoBecause they want hard deadlines. I don’t think this is something that can be “fixed”. I think it’s something you discover in an interview and use as a make or break join/pass decision if you truly care about it.
- ecaradec 7y agoFor us kanban was an easier sell to management than scrum, because they wanted frequent changes more than hard deadlines.
- davidjnelson 7y agoInteresting. Who made the decision to switch and who pitched it to execs? In my experience an executive is the only one who can make this decision. Extremely curious how this worked out.
- Too 7y agoIt should be up to the team to decide the process that works best for them. FWIW that's what agile manifesto says also. Agile is not equal to scrum btw.
- davidjnelson 7y agoI hear ya. “Should be” and “is” are quite different though ;-) Have you worked for companies where teams choose their preferred project management styles? If so, which companies?