Agile is a software development methodology designed to create value in incremental chunks of development. Rather than obtaining value when development is "done," agile is intended to utilize the fast paced iterative processes of Scrum & Kanban so that when development occurs, it does so in bite-able pieces that can be quickly adapted to changing requirements, functionality concerns or any other changes that may happen in the product life cycle. In obtaining value, it allows for these bite-ablen pieces to be released and in use immediately.
Kanban, in agile, is the visualization of the activities / tasks needed to complete the development of the product/project. In Leantime, they are visualized in columns as: New, Blocked, In Progress, In Review, Done. Within these columns, the tasks will be defined, assigned and will travel throughout the columns until they reach the Done category. In Leantime, you'll also have an archived category that is not visualized on the board itself.
In Leantime, the Kanban view has been combined with some of the second component of agile: Scrum.
Scrum is a process framework within agile that helps to guide the iterative process. The goal of which is to increase the the quality of deliverables, improve change management (changing requirements, provide more realistic time estimates, and offer more control over project/product dates and timelines. While Scrum has quite a few working components, for our purposes, we'll discuss the ones specific to Leantime.
A Scrum Sprint is a month long, or less, actionable push that is intended to finish with a quality deliverable, or releaseable product increment is created. As part of the building process, one would create a actionable tasks, assign and incorporate into this release. There are then tasks that remain as part of the product but are held for later Sprints. In Leantime, on the Kanban (To Do) view, you are able to create timed Sprints, associating specific tasks within it. On the List view, you can see both the tasks in this Sprint and in Backlog (the tasks held for later Sprints).
Maintaining iteration must also include retrospection. Improvements must be made in sequence with development otherwise any missteps, inefficiencies or problems may be missed or simply repeated. At the end of a Sprint, a brief Retrospective period should be done. In Leantime, there are boards that can be associated with Sprints. It includes member feedback of what went well, what needs improvement, and what should be continued for the next sprint. In Leantime, this is visualized in a similar Kanban format.
For Scrum, and product development in general, an estimation of effort required is useful in determining how much work and time is required to get to "Done". As a general rule, there is often some difficulty in the accuracy of identifying how much time is required for a specific task or project. Scrum then uses effort to describe the complexity of the project. Scrum calls this "Story Points." In Leantime, these are "T-shirt Sizes." T-shirt size is defined by the team as estimations within a task. The team averages that a certain task is a "small" task and this second task is an "XL" task and so forth.
Velocity is another important concept within Scrum. It is the amount of work your team can accomplish in a single Sprint. To calculate Velocity, the amount of effort completed at the end of the Sprint is used. This can then be used to measure and plan for outcome improvements and task/Sprint estimations. In Leantime, velocity can be visualized under the Reporting Menu.