| SEARCH PM LIFELINE |
|
|
 |
| USERS LOGIN |
|
|
|
| PM FORUM |
Latest entries on PM Forum:
Topic: Project Management Recruitment & Careers
Last Reply: Indeed - the forum has been a little quiet of late. It is the old chicken a egg - needs more content/opinions for people to deem it worth contributing....
Author:
Nick Boothroyd
Go there >>>
Topic: Project Management Recruitment & Careers
Last Reply: It doesn't look like this forum is used very much which is a shame, especially with the outlook being a little gloomy and many project managers are lo....
Author:
Lindsay Scott
Go there >>>
Topic: contract roles
Last Reply: Hi Matt,
Just noticed that this was posted some time ago, hopefully you will pick up this reply.
I work for Wellingtone Project Management, one ....
Author:
Baz Khinda
Go there >>>
|
|
| TELL A FRIEND |
Why not recommend PM Lifeline to a friend?
|
|
|
| SCRUMWORKS™ PRO 3.0 |
Ref: P/1811
Date: 5/7/2008
Contributor: Cathryn Symons, Cathryn Symons
|
|
|
|
| Complicated spreadsheets seem to be a feature of Scrum projects, with project managers and/or scrummasters developing complex tools in Excel to track backlogs and sprint progress. |
 |
| Cathryn Symons |
|
|
|
|
These works of art can be very helpful, but they do have their downsides. In particular, it is hard to get all team members to take responsibility for keeping data up to date unless the software they use is very convenient.
ScrumWorks™ Pro 3.0, which was released at the end of March by Portland, Oregon based Danube Technologies, provides an integrated, multi-user tool which provides all the essentials needed to run a set of projects using Scrum.
Installation is simple, even for a fairly non-technical project manager. For this review, I downloaded and installed it on a single PC, though it is hard to see it would be more difficult it would be in a server environment, given that the client software auto-installs when started. It is available in Windows, Mac OS and Linux versions, using its own embedded database or MySQL. To see how the software worked, I set up a product, added some tasks to the backlog, and started a sprint. Putting the user stories into the backlog items allows all information about an item to be kept in one place and setting up a sprint is a simple matter of dragging and dropping. With a projector or large screen and a quick typist, it would be easy to use in a sprint planning session.
There are two user interfaces – a fully featured java desktop client and a lighter, browser-based one. The desktop client has to be downloaded and installed from the server each time, a process which took long enough to be annoying. Unfortunately, the browser version is only really a team member tool, with the timesheet and burndown chart, so scrummasters, project managers and anyone setting up sprints or adding items to the backlog will need to use the full desktop client.
Team members update their tasks daily, and the burndown charts are calculated automatically and visible to everyone. It is never easy to persuade developers to do admin stuff, but this is at least easier than a shared spreadsheet. A task is moved from not started to in progress to Done, possibly stuck in impeded for a while. Although there is a register of impediments, they are not linked to particular tasks.
For the scrummaster or project manager, who may be managing an overall project with multiple scrum teams which ScrumWorks terms a programme, the reporting package gives a senior-management-friendly view of the progress of each team in the programme, as well as allowing more detailed analysis of individual teams. If you prefer to work with traditional cards, there is a standard reporting format which will print them for you, although I suspect many teams will choose to save paper and keep it all online.
The list price for the software is $279 per user. If your budget will not stretch to that, and you can do without formal support, full timesheeting, advanced analytics and reporting, return on investment calculation and integration with Bugzilla and Jira, the free ScrumWorks™ Basic version offers the basic framework needed for Scrum. It does everything my spreadsheet does, but is easier to use and would need less looking after. Next time I am running a project using Scrum, Ill definitely give this a go. I am not sure that I could easily justify the cost of the full version though.
|
|
|
|
| Feedback |
Send this article to a friend |
| If you would like to comment on this article, please email us, quoting the article reference number P/1811. |
|
|
|
|
|
