Agile Frameworks: Scrum, Kanban, XP & SAFe

Scrum (high-level)

Scrum is the most popular Agile framework. Work is organized in fixed-length Sprints (1-4 weeks). Three roles, five ceremonies, three artifacts. See the dedicated Scrum note for detailed coverage.

• Roles: Product Owner (what to build), Scrum Master (process), Development Team (how to build)

• Artifacts: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Increment

• Ceremonies: Sprint Planning, Daily Standup, Sprint Review, Retrospective, Backlog Refinement

• Key: Sprint commitment is protected — no scope changes during Sprint without team consent

• Definition of Done (DoD): shared agreement on when work is truly complete (coded, tested, reviewed, deployed)

Kanban

• Continuous flow — no fixed iterations. Work moves through stages as capacity allows.

• Visualize work: board with columns (To Do, In Progress, In Review, Done)

• WIP Limits: maximum items per column — prevents multitasking and exposes bottlenecks

• Pull system: team pulls new work when capacity frees up (not pushed by manager)

• Lead time: time from request to delivery. Cycle time: time from start to delivery. Both are key metrics.

• Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD): visualize WIP, throughput, and lead time trends over time

• Kanban vs Scrum: Kanban suits operations/support teams with unpredictable incoming work; Scrum suits product development with planned features

Extreme Programming (XP)

XP focuses on engineering practices that enable Agile at the code level. Less about process, more about technical excellence.

• Test-Driven Development (TDD): write failing test → write code → refactor (Red-Green-Refactor)

• Pair Programming: two developers at one machine — driver writes code, navigator reviews in real time

• Continuous Integration: integrate and test multiple times per day; broken builds block the team

• Refactoring: continuously improve code design without changing behavior

• Simple Design: do the simplest thing that could possibly work (YAGNI — You Aren't Gonna Need It)

• Small Releases: deploy to production frequently — get real feedback fast

• Collective Code Ownership: anyone can improve any part of the codebase; no code silos

• Sustainable Pace: 40-hour weeks; overtime consistently leads to quality problems and burnout

SAFe & Scaling Agile

• SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework): most popular enterprise scaling framework. Adds Program Increment (PI) planning at the portfolio level.

• LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum): minimal additional framework on top of Scrum. One Product Backlog, multiple teams. Keeps Scrum integrity.

• Spotify Model: squads (autonomous feature teams), tribes (related squads), chapters (skill communities), guilds (cross-tribe interest groups). Informal, often misunderstood.

• Nexus: 3-9 Scrum teams working on one product. Adds Integration Team and Nexus Sprint Review.

• Scaling pitfall: applying SAFe process overhead to a 10-person team. Scale only what's needed.

• Key scaling challenge: dependency management between teams. Use a dependency board or "Scrum of Scrums" sync.