Scrum Software

Question

What software do you use to manage Scrum software development? We've tried Tackle and VersionOne (both free) so far and they are good except for the fact that it's difficult to track work in progress. For example, if I have a task that I estimate will take me 8 hours to complete, I've done 4 hours of work with 4 hours remaining, the task is always reported as 8 hours remaining until it is marked complete, at which time it falls to zero. I'd like to use a tool that will allow me to take an accurate work at the teams WIP at the end of each week and see how much impact that work has had towards a deadline along with completed tasks.

Thanks for your input!

Answer 1

ScrumWorks is nice for small teams. And free, too, for the basic version. We have about 30 developers with multiple projects/iterations/etc. Some basic burn-down charts, good for "yesterday's weather", etc.

Check it out at:

http://danube.com/scrumworks/basic

Answer 2

I think RallyDev might be worth checking out for you. Unless I'm mistaken the way that it tracks time will not cause the issue that you mentioned above.

We have been using it on our project for several months and have grown with it to where the team enjoys using the project.

Answer 3

We use Scrum for Team System which is excellent, but you do need to be using Visual Studio Team System to get it!

Answer 4

VersionOne does let you change the estimates as you go - the burndown report wouldn't work otherwise. You may be hiding the estimate column or have it set to read-only - click the spanner on the right to list available columns and make sure that the estimate/ToDo column is editable.

We've found it to be rather good, though their odd insistence on customised controls breaks in Chrome.

Answer 5

We have used XPlanner. It's simple, but does it's job pretty well. Especially Developers get a nice overview for their current status.

Answer 6

I recommend a white board and excel spreadsheets. The whiteboard has story cards (index cards) , where the work in progress is tracked. The story card starts out with say 8 hours, and as the work progresses decrement the number on the card. At the end of the day, put the numbers in the cards to a spreadsheet.

The whiteboard is visible all the time, and gives the whole team visibility on how the work is progressing.

Answer 7

This question was asked recently:.

Everything from Excel to VersionOne to Scrumworks to BaseCamp was mentioned.

Personally, though, we use a heavily customized Excel sheet, whiteboards, index cards in a variety of colors and a large corkboard.

You also might want to check out Mingle. It's a tool developed by ThoughtWorks, a company that only does Agile.

Answer 8

I've used this Index card generator, but I see now that there is a newer version link that only uses Excel

I also like their Planning Poker when trying to get estimates.

Answer 9

Just saw this, maybe in a another stackO q/a, https://scrumy.com/demo

Answer 10

ScrumDesk - the principle of this tool is to provide views on your backlogs in natural (board) ways. Planning poker is supported too. Charts as reporting. Support for multiple teams and distributed scenarios.

(And no problem with the time remainig as you wrote.)

Answer 11

OnTime recently added support for Scrum management (disclaimer: I work for them and helped build the product). :) We also put together an intro video for Scrum if you need more information: Video.

Answer 12

@Yaba

hi. I agree with you about XPlanner. I am also a big fan of XPlanner, and the developer of XPlanner-Plus