How Is Kanban Different From Other Approaches?
There has been a lot of discussion recently around trying to define what Kanban is. Is it a tool? A process? A philosophy? During a discussion on the kanbandev list, Ron Jeffries led me (probably unintentionally) to an idea for a different way of trying differentiate Kanban from other Agile approaches. Rather than attempt a direct comparison and identification of unique differences, I realised that the various approaches are different only in where they place their emphasis. XP places a lot of emphasis on the technical practices. Scrum places more emphasis on the project management practices. Kanban, places its emphasis on business and value flow practices. As Ron would say, its all the same elephant, but each approach has a different view of it. At the end of the day, its having the most appropriate elephant for any given context that is most important. Using Kent Beck’s distinction of Primary and Corollary Practices in XP (2nd Edition), I think that Kanban can be differentiated by id
