"The Framework Isn’t Broken, Prioritisation Might Be"
The other day, a software engineer suggested we switch from Scrum to Kanban. Their reasoning? Sprint commitments felt too rigid they wanted the flexibility to bring work in at any time. I get it. Scrum can feel constraining when unexpected work keeps derailing plans. But here’s the thing, Kanban wouldn’t fix that. Work-in-progress (WIP) limits mean you can’t just throw in tasks whenever you want. If urgent work is constantly disrupting progress, the real issue isn’t the framework it’s prioritisation. Too often, we think changing how we work will solve our problems. But if we don’t understand why work keeps getting interrupted, we’ll just run into the same issues with a different label. The solution isn’t swapping frameworks, it’s working with stakeholders to set clear priorities and only bringing in truly urgent work when absolutely necessary. This is The Messy Middle in action: we assume reorgs and process changes will make things smoother, but if we don’t address the root cause, we’re just shuffling problems around. Ever seen this play out in your teams? Hit reply—I’d love to hear your thoughts. Until next time, |