Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Setting up the right workflow for your team can be a serious force multiplier. 

Too often, teams default to the popular frameworks like Scrum or Kanban, following ideologies without asking the critical question: is this actually working for us? Because if it isn’t working for your team, compounding effects can lead to subtle friction and seriously affect productivity. 

It’s a scenario that’s not all that uncommon in teams, ours included, and is what eventually drove us away from Scrum to a more Kanban-like system. Along the way, we picked up some lessons on how to fine-tune a workflow that actually fits your way of working.

Signs it’s time for a workflow change

Work frequently spills into the next cycle

Carrying over a few tasks into the next cycle is sometimes unavoidable. But when it becomes the norm, it’s a sign that something is off.

Back when we used Scrum, we’d commit to a sprint plan based on our estimates of the effort of each task. Unfortunately, this relied on the assumption that we could accurately predict the amount of time and effort a task would take before we get started on it.

Instead of guessing, we’ve found it more effective to plan projects around milestones leading up to the final delivery deadline. At the end of each cycle, we review and adjust the plan based on new information. For example, in a project involving sensitive transactional data, we discovered an unexpected edge case and successfully extended the deadline to address it. In another project with multiple parallel workstreams, we were able to borrow engineers from other teams to stay on track. This approach allows us to flexibly adjust scope, team capacity, or deadlines based on each project’s specific needs.

Disconnected work streams and team silos

There are a few reasons that people work in isolation, with low levels of overall collaboration. However, if the number of team members doing so is high, it may stem from a workflow-related issue.  

On our team, the workload often required us to manage urgent, unrelated requests alongside ongoing projects. To stay on top of demands, we set aside capacity in sprints to address unrelated but necessary work, alongside planned project tasks. But with engineers splitting off and taking on tasks from different workstreams, team members felt a bit disconnected. The work became less enjoyable, knowledge sharing suffered, and overall delivery slowed.

We eventually started to limit the number of in-progress tasks during a sprint, constraining ourselves to concentrate on fewer topics at a time. This makes it easier to evaluate urgent requests as they arise. Depending on how close we are to the next milestone, we decide together whether to stay on track or switch gears immediately. Either way, we do it together. 

Working together in the same context has significantly boosted collaboration, better solution design, and faster code reviews. It feels like transforming a group of individuals into a single, shared brain tackling a problem.

Round pegs in square holes

Sometimes, your workflow feels out of step with the reality of the demands on the team. For us, following a neat, multi-sprint roadmap in our compliance and regulatory scope – which often hinges on quick actions – was almost impossible. 

In theory, Scrum allows for easier project planning by splitting work into manageable chunks. However, the reality for us looked more like a timeline of disconnected sprints involving excessive context switching. For this reason, we decided it was time for a change in our workflow approach.  

Finding the right workflow for your team

For us, switching to the continuous flow style of Kanban, with its principle of limited work-in-progress (WIP), resolved our collaboration issues and felt better suited to our unpredictable roadmap. Of course, every team is different. If you’re considering the right process for your team, there are a few great frameworks worth exploring.

• Scrum: Timeboxed sprints and regular feedback loops. Great for product-focused teams iterating quickly and needing regular feedback.
• Kanban: Continuous flow with WIP limits. Ideal for ops-intensive teams needing flexibility.
• Lean: Strips away waste and optimizes for rapid value delivery. Good for hackathon-style or short-lived teams.
• Waterfall: A step-by-step approach: one stage finishes before the next begins. Useful when the scope and deadlines are fixed.

All these approaches should be used as templates to guide your implementation rather than followed prescriptively; sometimes, what works best for your team could be a mix of elements from different methodologies. Once you have chosen a framework, use it as a baseline and start to apply adjustments to fit your style. 

Here are a few helpers for fine-tuning the perfect workflow:

A regular cadence of reviews

Set up a regular cadence (weekly or bi-weekly) of reviewing how the process is supporting ongoing work. This will be similar to sprint reviews in Scrum but focused on the process, not the product. You can experiment with small changes and quickly get feedback on what’s working and what needs changing. 

Rate of flow metrics

While experimenting, track how much work is flowing through the process per cycle. You can measure this by counting how many tasks were completed by the end of the cycle. This enables you to evaluate the outcome of adjustments. Did your last change improve flow, or slow things down?

Project debriefs

Zoom out and reflect after completing a major project using your new approach. What went well? Where did the workflow break down? 

Unlike regular cycle reviews, this focuses on making bold shifts before the next major project starts. In one of our debriefs, we identified a recurrent issue where tasks got stuck in the quality checks phase. After some brainstorming, we decided to test features as a whole rather than queuing each task individually for QA. In the next project, this adjustment eased the bottleneck without compromising the quality of our output.

Final thoughts

Challenging the status quo might be the last thing that comes to mind in the fast-moving world of engineering teams. There’s always a new deadline or another fire to put out. But how your team works is the foundation that helps the team move faster while enjoying the ride. 

You don’t need to default to a standard framework. Instead, borrow, remix, and experiment. The best workflow is one that feels natural, reduces friction, and lets your team do their best work.

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