Transition of Software Maintenance Teams from Scrum to Kanban

TLDR

Software firms are shifting from Scrum to Kanban, citing benefits such as greater project visibility, improved quality, and enhanced team motivation, communication, and collaboration. The study aims to empirically investigate the real motivations behind software maintenance teams’ transition from Scrum to Kanban. A multiple‑case study with 17 semi‑structured interviews of two Scrum maintenance teams from large Finnish firms was conducted, and thematic analysis identified common Scrum challenges and their Kanban solutions. The findings revealed that Scrum maintenance teams struggled with visibility, prioritisation, communication, collaboration, sprint over‑commitment, work synchronisation, and personnel changes, and that Kanban mitigated these issues, offering lessons for future transitions.

Abstract

Software companies are increasingly moving to use Kanban after Scrum since Kanban claimed to offer improved project visibility, software quality, team motivation, communication and collaboration. However, empirical studies are needed to verify these effects and companies' real motivation for the transition. In particular, underlying reasons leading software companies to start using Kanban in software maintenance must be understood. A multiple-case study was conducted to investigate why two experienced Scrum maintenance teams transitioned to Kanban. We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with two different teams from two large Finnish software companies. Thematic analysis was applied to identify the most common challenges in Scrum and their solutions in Kanban. The results showed that Scrum maintenance teams faced challenges, such as lack of work visibility, task prioritisation, communication and collaboration, over commitment of sprints, work synchronisation and changing people. We discuss how maintenance teams mitigated these challenges with Kanban and present the lessons learned.