Scrum isn’t always the answer; and that’s perfectly okay.

Let’s face it: Agile isn’t a one-size-fits-all world. While Scrum is fantastic for teams building iterative value, sometimes the reality of your work just doesn’t fit into tidy sprints. And when that happens, it might be time to stop forcing it and start flowing — straight into Kanban.

So, when should you consider moving from Scrum to Kanban?

Let me give you a real example.

My product team was getting daily requests. Every day. No two-week predictability. No time to lovingly groom a backlog with long-term vision. Just a constant feed of “we need this now” items ; and guess what? Most of them were independent, quick-to-complete tasks.

We tried Scrum. We really did…

But after a few rounds of sprint planning that felt like a guessing game and retros that repeated the same complaints (“We didn’t finish because priorities changed mid-sprint!”), we had to ask the question:

Is Scrum helping us deliver better, or just making us work harder to follow a process?

Here’s what helped us realize Kanban was the better fit:

1.No Real Iterative Value

We weren’t building features in layers or enhancing a product step by step. We were handling one-off requests mini-projects with no real benefit from iteration. Scrum thrives when you can incrementally build toward a goal. That wasn’t our reality.

2.A True First-In-First-Out System

Our work was more like a ticket queue. No tangled dependencies. No deep cross-functional design. Just “do this, then the next thing, then the next.”

Trying to “forecast” work in a sprint didn’t add value, it just added admin.

3.Meetings Stopped Making Sense

• Sprint planning? Pointless : priorities changed every couple of days.
• Sprint reviews? There was no cohesive story to tell.
• Retrospectives? Mostly became “Why are we still trying to sprint?”

So we shifted to Kanban, and here’s what happened:

• We had one refinement session a week to clarify requests.
• We used a Kanban board with clear WIP limits to keep focus.
• We tracked cycle time instead of velocity.
• We became more responsive, less stressed, and a whole lot more realistic.

1. But What If You’re in a SAFe or Multi-Team Environment?

Good question. Sometimes, your team is working in a bigger program maybe using SAFe, or contributing to a product alongside several Scrum teams. In that case, you don’t have to do Scrum to stay in sync.

You can use the sprint as a timebox or checkpoint not to plan your own delivery, but to align and share progress with the rest of the organization. It’s a rhythm, not a constraint. You’re still in flow with Kanban, but connected to the broader cadence.

When your team is flowing rather than building think service requests, BAU tasks, or support tickets; Kanban is often the better tool. Scrum is great, but it’s not sacred. The Agile mindset means adapting the process to your work, not bending your work to fit a process.

So ask yourself: Are you sprinting just because “that’s what Agile teams do”? Or are you choosing the right tool for the job?