Do Scrum and Kanban models help in reducing multitasking and waste?
Gaurav DhooperAssistant Vice President| GenpactNoida, U.P., India
Scrum is a time boxed delivery framework and Kanban is a JIT model. If these models are implemented effectively, do they help in reducing multitasking and waste? Please share your valuable thoughts. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
That is not the goal of Scrum and Kanban. Kanban is about maximizing the amount of work items you have in the pipeline. Scrum is about using increments and iterations to deliver value.
Neither of them focus on efficiency, per se. Of course, the Scrum retrospectives allow for the selection of efficiency-improving activities. Saving Changes...
Joshua RenderProduct Owner| CognizantHarrisville, Ny, United States
The only thing that helps in reducing multitasking is to actively work to reduce multitasking.
Both Scrum and Kanban (and any other model or lack of model) benefit greatly from the reduction of multitasking. Saving Changes...
Eric IsomOwner| learn.pmguaranteed.comUt, United States
Both help to reduce waste. JIT is about dramatically reducing inventories (waste). Scrum reduces waste by saving time & money, as well maximizing value through adaptation to change and implementing learnings at regular intervals.
Though neither is focused on reducing multitasking, they both tend to encourage it, and are typically combined with efforts to reduce multitasking by limiting the number of work-in-progress items. As Joshua said, the only thing that really helps to reduce multitasking is to actively work to reduce multitasking. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
I tend to agree with Eric. If you go to scrum.org website, they have a new guide and certificate called Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK). It shows you how you can use Scrum and Kanban together and what are the benefits. It is a very short and to the point Guide and will certainly answer all your concerns. Saving Changes...
Agree with Eric and Rami. Kanban is flow-based and Scrum is timeboxed. One of the six kanban core practises is Limit WiP (this leads to the effect of reducing task-switching if taken seriously by the team). The scrum value "Focus" encourage the team to avoid multitasking. Saving Changes...
Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
What is more commonly taught is that Scrum and/or Kanban help identify waste. Kanban, specifically, will point a spotlight on bottlenecks in your workflow. So this may sound like I'm splitting hairs, but neither Scrum nor Kanban will reduce waste automatically. What they will do, if used properly, is identify waste that your team needs to address.
Sometimes, teams will try Scrum and become disappointed at all the inefficiencies it reveals. Rather than address the problems, they abandon the framework that revealed the problems. It's kind of like dimming the lights so you can't see the dirt on the floor. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Really great input from the gang. From a multitasking perspective, one of the goals in Scrum is to have the smallest possible pieces of work to reduce cycle time within the sprint which inherently would reduce (theoretically) the need to multitask. Saving Changes...
Gaurav DhooperAssistant Vice President| GenpactNoida, U.P., India
Thank you all for the great and valuable inputs. It really helps. Saving Changes...
The only thing I can add to the excellent feedback from my esteemed virtual colleagues is that agile methods can also surface sources of waste and the impacts of anti-patterns such as multitasking quicker than traditional approaches. Saving Changes...
Priya PatraDelivery Director| Capgemini India Technology Services LtdMumbai, India
I couldn't agree more with what has been already iterated..both SCRUM and Kanban helps us to identify wastes like multi- tasking Saving Changes...
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