Disadvantages of Kanban over Scrum

1. Kanban Lacks a Clear Explanation of Roles and Responsibilities

Some projects need a clear explanation of the roles and responsibilities of various team members in the Project execution. The disadvantage of Kanban is that it has a flexible approach of roles for planning and managing project activities. So, it is not beneficial for such projects.

2. Kanban has a Limited Planning Structure

The Kanban follows the approach of ‘Plan as you need and Execute as you go’ which has limited planning. But the Scrum Methodology has a structured and detailed approach to planning and executing the tasks. So, if the project requires detailed execution plans, using Kanban over Scrum is not feasible.

3. Kanban Depends much on Team Collaboration

As already discussed, the Kanban-based projects have a continuous workflow that needs effective communication and collaboration among the team members. However, due to the lack of fixed roles, it is very challenging to manage the collaboration among the various team members.

4. Kanban may Cause Unstable Execution due to Continuous Changes

Kanban Principles emphasize more frequent changes and updates in the package. But, too many changes and updates often lead to instability in the project execution. But Scrum involves calculated tasks under the plan, which makes the project stable. So, using Kanban over Scrum is not a good choice if the project does not require too many updates.

5. Kanban is Less Scalable than Scrum

The limited planning of the Kanban Methodology makes it less capable of accommodating a larger set of project tasks. Hence, it is not very scalable in comparison to Scrum which offers various frameworks such as SAFe to scale to larger projects.

6. Kanban is More Challenging to Adapt

The continuous delivery with a lack of defined roles aeries a strict and disciplined execution of the project. This is the reason why Kanban is more difficult to adapt for the project teams. This is a major drawback of Kanban in comparison to Scrum which pre-defines the execution plans for the team.

7. Kanban is Not Suitable for Timeline-based Projects

Time-boxed projects require fixed timelines for the project delivery. But, Kanban has a drawback in that it continually delivers the project. So, it is not suitable for the timeline-bound project. In such cases, Scrum has more advantages over Kanban due to its time-box sprints.

8. Kanban has Difficulty Defining the Sprint Goals

A Project Goal means a fixed set of tasks has to be completed under the timeline. The disadvantage of Kanban over Scrum is that we can not clearly define the sprint goals in Kanban due to the continuous delivery. So, Scrum is more beneficial for goal-based projects.

If you are having trouble with choosing the right tool between Kanban and Scrum, you have landed in the right place. This article lists an in-depth explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of Kanban over Scrum. By the time you finish reading this article, you will be able to decide the right tool for your project management needs.

Agile Methodologies have gained huge popularity among Project Experts as they have made project execution and delivery simple and easy. Among all the Agile Frameworks, Kanban and Scrum are the two most important ones that are being used these days. However, Kanban offers visual workflow and continuous delivery which has more benefits in comparison to the Scrum Methodology.

In this comprehensive guide, we will see what are the key benefits of Kanban over Scrum with practical examples so that we can easily choose the right tool based on our project requirements.