Leanban looks across multiple software methods to discern fit-to-purpose and to apply practices thoughtfully. It does not insist on purely following one approach when that means being limited in using good practices from others. Borrowing from Scrum, kanban, and XP, Leanban prescribes certain core practices including:

• Control Work-in-Process
• Self-organizing teams
• Daily stand-ups
• Focus on completion of work items not starting new ones.
• Make all work visible at the portfolio, program, and team levels
• Include management in what the team is doing
• Make all workflow rules explicit
• Explicitly manage WIP throughout the process
• In high-level planning, use estimation and velocity
• Minimize cycle time
• Use Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)
• Attend to technical practices

In addition to these core practices, your situation may call for other or additional practices including:

• Use cross-functional teams as much as possible. Start by creating cross-functional teams if possible.
• Use a common cadence with or without iterations

Then, depending on your particular approach, use lean to drive

• Lean-XP: Test-first; strive for TDD when you can (starting with ATDD); paired-programming; strive for continuous integration and automated testing.
• Lean-Scrum: Cross-functional teams if you can; use iterations to provide disciplines and a common cadence.
• Lean-kanban: Create teams to the greatest extent possible; adopt a common cadence.

Leanban uses lean principles to guide teams in abandoning practices. For each practice, focus on the value that it is providing and why and then investigate the alternatives in order to get that value. The Inflection Point System offers guidance in making these choices.

These tables describe the practices and the value they provide.

Alternative methods of getting value

Practice	Value Provided	Alternative Method of Getting Value
Time-boxing	Cadence for input, output, demonstration, and retrospection Discipline Small batches Visibility in and out Velocity Planning method Focus	Can have independent cadences. Must bring discipline to each story since they may take longer than should without it. Use small batches / stories. Use visual controls throughout workflow. Measure velocity via cadence. Plan ahead if valuable. Take a value-centric approach.
Cross-functional team	Limits WIP Reduces hand-offs Improves feedback Minimizes delays Improves collaborative problem -solving Improves learning	Attending to flow while using as close to a true team structure as possible can achieve these values
Use of a Product Owner	Reduces unneeded features	An equivalent “one-voice” is needed regardless of method.
Finish stories quickly	Minimizes delays Reduces WIP Provides quicker feedback	Time-boxes or discipline to complete stories quickly. Decompose to small stories. INVEST
Remove structural impediments	Minimizes delays Provides quicker feedback	Manage WIP Kaizen / intentional process improvements Shorten feedback cycles
Balance workload	Reliable flow of value	Pull work based on velocity Manage WIP

What each practice achieves

Practice	What It Achieves
Explicit workflow	Enables everyone to know how we do software in our context Facilitates learning.
Daily Stand-ups	Keeps people informed (might not be strictly needed if the team is colocated).
Make everything visible	Facilitates learning and management. Detect challenges. Reduces the tendency to add unneeded reviews
Common cadence / sprints	Enables early synchronization of different teams through code integration and testing..
Build incrementally and iterate on the increments	Short feedback cycles and learning.
Focus on finishing	Avoid too much WIP and look for opportunities to collaborate.
Do continuous integration	Detect out-of-synchronization errors.
Estimate work items and compute velocity (unless a maintenance group)	Validates understanding of items being worked on by the teams. Facilitates planning.
Work in small batches	Faster feedback. Easier to avoid workflow delays. Enables people moving around as needed.
Use small stories	Improves clarity and specificity. Faster feedback. Easier to avoid delays. Enables people moving around as needed.
Manage Work-in-Process (WIP)	Eliminate delay and speed up feedback. Reduce multi-tasking.
Create cross-functional teams to the extent possible	Eliminate delay, speed up feedback and learn faster, thereby enhancing horizontal flow of value.
Use test-first methods	Better understand what is needed and convey this better. Improve collaboration and resource balancing between development and test. Facilitate automation of test.
Paired programming	Collaboration, shared knowledge of code base, and increased discipline.