Leanban is a team-level framework that makes higher level Lean-Agile tenets actionable on a day-by-day basis. It guides process refinements using the most valuable lessons from Lean, Scrum, eXtreme Programming (XP), and Kanban. It requires a focus on business value, an organizational view, and a deep appreciation of empowered teams.
Leanban is:
- based on Lean Thinking
- a set of starting practices from Scrum, Kanban, and XP
- a way of migrating to different practices when appropriate
- a set of organizational commitments called Guardrails that keep everyone on track
The Agile world is partially based on Lean Thinking. Both Scrum and Kanban have implemented many of Lean’s principles with set practices – often with great success. Including more of a Lean perspective and incorporating other practices can lead to even more success. A Scrum or Kanban team can readily jump to Leanban, but that is not necessary. Scrum and Kanban teams can learn from each other and incorporate practices from each that work for them. The key is to investigate what works and why and then do that, and understanding Leanban can help.
Leanban is the next step in the evolution of Agile in that it provides guidance to help Agile teams use Lean principles to select and use practices that best fit their situation and to change those practices when beneficial. It provides a consistent approach for delivering business value quickly and sustainably across the organization.
For more information, see Leanban in Depth.
To see how Leanban can help your Scrum team see Improve Scrum with Leanban.
To see how Leanban can help your Kanban team see Improve Kanban with Leanban.
Resources related to Leanban
Agile Practices Every Developer Can Do To Help Their Team (Article)
Agile Product Management | FLEX from Product Management to the Team (Article)
Alternatives to Scrum of Scrums (Article)
Business Value, the Forgotten Goal (Webinar Session) (Article)
Carry-Over Work (Article)
Common Challenges Faced by Teams New to Scrum, Remedies to These Challenges, and Related FAQs (Article)
Contrasting the Daily Scrum with Kanban's Daily Retrospective (Article)
Cross-Functional Teams: Improving Communication Between People who Work Together (Case Study) (Article)
Daily Standups (Article)
Designing the Kanban Board (Article)
Dynamic Feature Teams: Creating Small Mobs Within a Large Group (Case Study) (Article)
Flowing Within a Time-box (Article)
Focus on Finishing Stories in the Sprint and on Finishing MBIs in the Business Increment (Article)
Further Information on Leanban (Article)
Getting Started with Team-Agility or Scrum (Article)
Going Beyond Scrum, Part 1 (Blog Entry)
Going Beyond Scrum, Part 2 (Blog Entry)
Guardrails for the Team and Agile Coach (Scrum/Kanban Master) (Article)
How Lean Thinking Helps Scrum (Article)
How to Adopt Scrum Effectively (Article)
How to Use Scrum in Mid to Large Scale Organizations (Article)
Improve Scrum with Leanban (Article)
Is Scrum applicable for your team? (Article)
Iteration 0 - Conduct (Article)
Iteration 0 - Facilitate (Article)
Iteration Planning Meeting - Facilitate (Article)
Iteration Retrospective - Facilitate (Article)
Lean-Agile Product Management (Article)
Lean-Agile Team Checklists (Article)
Leanban in Depth (Article)
Meetings for Lean-Agile (Article)
Metrics (Article)
Net Objectives View of Scrum (Article)
Product Demonstration and Review - Facilitate (Article)
Product Demonstration and Review - Plan (Article)
Product Planning and Review - Conduct (Article)
Resistance is Not to Change (Article)
Running Effective Planning Events (Article)
Scrum (Article)
Scrum and Mid-Scale Case Studies (Article)
Scrum as Example (Article)
Scrum by Example (Blog Entry)
Scrum of Scrums (Article)
Scrum-But: Management interrupts us all of the time with needed new functionality (Article)
Starting With Kanban (Article)
Teaching Scrum by concentrating on Agile practices (Article)
Team Agility / Scrum Support System (Article)
Test-Driven Development: ATDD and UTDD (Article)
The Importance and Myth of “Consistency” (Article)
The Learning Philosophy of Team Agility (Article)
Types of Tests for Code (Article)
We do Scrum-but: We don’t estimate because it takes too long or management beats us up. (Article)
What Framework / Method / Approach Are We Using? (Article)
What Roles Are Missing? Which Roles Need To Be Redefined? (Article)
What Should Team Process(es) Be: Scrum, Kanban, Leanban? (Article)
Why You Should Grow Your Own Scrum Masters Instead of Bringing in Outside Scrum Masters (Article)
Why You Should Rethink How You Are Trained in Scrum (Article)
Writing Explicit Policies (Article)
Writing Tasks (Article)
