A Comparison of the Main Forms of the Agile Approach to Innovation
There are at least a dozen agile innovation methodologies, which share values and principles but differ in their emphases. Experts often combine various approaches. Here are three of the most popular forms and the contexts in which each works best.
| SCRUM | KANBAN | LEAN DEVELOPMENT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guiding Principles | Empower creative, cross-functional teams | Visualize workflows and limit work in process | Eliminate waste from the system as a whole |
| Favorable Conditions for Adoption | Creative cultures with high levels of trust and collaboration, orRadical innovation teams that want to change their working environment | Process-oriented cultures that prefer evolutionary improvements with few prescribed practices | Process-oriented cultures that prefer evolutionary improvements with overarching values but no prescribed practices |
| Prescribed Roles | Initiative owners responsible for rank ordering team priorities and delivering value to customers and the businessProcess facilitators who guide the work processSmall, cross-functional, innovation teams | None | None |
| Prescribed Work Rules | Five events: Sprint planning to prepare for the next round of workFixed time sprints of consistent duration (1–4 weeks) to create a potentially releasable product incrementDaily stand-ups of 15 minutes to review progress and surface impedimentsSprint reviews that inspect the new working incrementSprint retrospectives for the team to inspect and improve itselfThree deliverables (or “artifacts”): Portfolio backlog, a fluid and rank-ordered list of potential innovation featuresSprint backlog, the subset of portfolio backlog items selected for completion in the next sprintReleasable working increments | Start with what you do nowVisualize workflows and stagesLimit the work in process at each development stageMeasure and improve cycle times | None |
| Approach to Cultural Change | Quickly adopt minimally prescribed practices, even if they differ substantially from those in the rest of the organizationMaster prescribed practices and then adapt them through experimentation | Respect current structures and processesIncrease visibility into workflowsEncourage gradual, collaborative changes | Respect current structures and processesStress agile values throughout the organization while minimizing organizational resistance |
| Advantages | Facilitates radical breakthroughs while (unlike skunkworks) retaining the benefits of operating as part of the parent organizationDelivers the most valuable innovations earliestRapidly increases team happinessBuilds general management skills | Avoids clashes with the parent organization’s cultureMaximizes the contributions of team members through flexible team structures and work cyclesFacilitates rapid responses to urgent issues through flexible work cycles | Optimizes the system as a whole and engages the entire organizationProvides the ultimate flexibility in customizing work practices |
| Challenges | Leaders may struggle to prioritize initiatives and relinquish control to self-managing teamsNew matrix-management skills are required to coordinate dozens or hundreds of multi-disciplinary teamsFixed iteration times may not be suitable for some problems (especially those that arise on a daily basis)Some team members may be underutilized in certain sprint cycles | Practitioners must figure out how best to apply most agile values and principlesWide variation in practices can complicate the prioritization of initiatives and coordination among teamsWhen initiatives don’t succeed, it can be hard to determine whether teams selected the wrong tools or used the right tools in the wrong ways | Novices trying to change behaviors may find the lack of prescriptive methodologies frustratingEvolutionary improvements can make radical breakthroughs less likely and major improvements less rapidLeaders need to make the grind of continuously eliminating waste feel inspirational and fun |
| Source Darrell K. Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, and Hirotaka Takeuchi From “Embracing Agile,” April 2016 | |||
