ScrumDesk 4.16.1: Export Backlog Items
Export backlog items Did you ever need to do a deep analysis of your sprint, or product backlog for management and stakeholders? Didn't ScrumDesk support such analysis? Showstopper? NOT ANYMORE! You can thank Rick. Just two steps.... Export currently displayed backlog items to CSV by click on Export menu item displayed at the [...]
ScrumDesk 4.15.2: Bulk Edit of User Stories
This week's version of ScrumDesk brings to you only a few changes, but you will highly probably welcome. Bulk editing If you ever needed to change more attributes of the backlog item at once, now it is a good time to start. Start just with a selection of multiple cards either in [...]
ScrumDesk 3.15.1: User Stories Map, Company Account Management
Auto-assignment Are your team members lazy to update the board? Are you poor scrum master who updates cards of team members? ScrumDesk auto-assigns task cards on drag and drop intentionally. However, there is still some, however. However, some scrum masters who support not-so-agile teams needed to update the board [...]
ScrumDesk 3.14.2: Performance, Security, Usability
ScrumDesk v3.14.2 brings major changes we think you will like. Our aim for this version was to speedup the tool, increase security and usability. Changes are not so visible for the first sight as most of them were internal. Context menu For easier planning we have added context menu for backlog [...]
ScrumDesk 3.14.1: User Stories Mapping Improvements
User Stories Mapping We are proud to say we finalized user story map, the new feature of ScrumDesk. At least up to the level, we think that usability and performance are perfect. But that doesn't mean we do not want to improve it. We have a couple of additional ideas [...]
ScrumDesk 3.13.2: User Stories Mapping, Import from JIRA
User stories mapping User story mapping is a technique which we believe helps readability of the product backlog. ScrumDesk has provided it from its first version in form of free canvas displayed in Desk view. Based on your feedback we have implemented improved mode STORY MAP supporting a matrix of epics broken into backlog [...]
ScrumDesk 3.12.2: Task Types, Definition of Done
Task types Agile teams are multidisciplinary teams so you should have an analyst, developer, tester, or even operation role in your team. And everybody needs to find out an appropriate card on the kanban board quickly. ScrumDesk has supported colors for subtask from the first version. The intent of [...]
ScrumDesk 3.12: Custom Fields
Custom fields You asked for them many times. ScrumDesk supports custom fields for backlog items and tasks now. Well, for a now it is MVP in which you can configure them and enter data. Filtering, searching, group by custom fields will come in upcoming versions soon. Custom fields can be configured on Project [...]
ScrumDesk 3.11: The Capacity Planner. How much can we commit?
Capacity Planner Your sprint backlog is planned and backlog items are broken into subtasks. They are even estimated and assigned. Now, the moment of truth. Will you be able to finish what you have just committed to? Scrum teams check the capacity of all team members by a simple [...]
ScrumDesk 3.10: The Sprint Review Report. What has been finished?
Sprint review report Do you want to be prepared for a sprint review session with all information necessary to review your commitments and the status of the outcome? Sprint report is the document that summarizes: Sprint title and goals Sprint start and end dates Information about the team who [...]
ScrumDesk 3.9: Retrospective done well
Retrospective techniques Do you need to energize your retrospectives? There is one very easy receipt to try. Just changing retrospective format or technique helps a lot. ScrumDesk enables now to apply following retrospective techniques: classic Good vs. Better, Star Fish, Mad Sad Glad, 4L, Star Stop Continue, 6 Thinking Hats, [...]
ScrumDesk 3.8: Print the Product Backlog. Filters and Mentions.
Print the Product Backlog Printing has appeared in ScrumDesk. As we have great planning experience with physical cards, we decided on a card layout that we suggest to clients of our consultancy team. Printed card layout provides fundamental information necessary for proper release or sprint planning. Print is available [...]
ScrumDesk 3.7: User Story Template
Performance improvements We continued with performance improvements targeting the second(s) goal instead of minutes for large backlogs. We are happy to share we were successful, but also that doesn't mean we have ended. As Backlog and Work views are the most used parts of the application, we have chosen [...]
ScrumDesk 3.6: Team Capacities Leveling
Performance improvements, part I. As the first of performance improvements, we concentrated on the Kanban board that is the most used part of the application. We integrated caching into the Kanban board. The first load has been shortened by 25%. Following loads of kanban board is a matter of [...]
ScrumDesk 3.5: Instant Tasks Sync, Cumulative Flow for Kanban, Work logs, History
Instant synchronization of tasks The board is alive finally. Adding new tasks, changing them, moving, cloning, or deleting them will update the Kanban boards of all team members in seconds. Just change them and everybody sees the same. Cumulative Flow Chart The Cumulative Flow Chart enables Scrum Masters to identify [...]
How to balance business requirements and technical debt?
How to balance business and technology requirements in a product backlog to build a successful product in long term. Product ownership is hard stuff. Very often you feel schizophrenia. Often you play for a customer, but later, suddenly, you have to protect your team. Sometimes you are pushed by [...]
When to accept User Story
When is the best to accept the user story which is finished and who should accept them? In our Agile and Scrum Fundamentals training, people are (surprisingly) surprised when we present our approach of the acceptance of finished work. At the begging we often observe disagreements, but after a few [...]
The checklist for your daily standup, part IV.: People & Company
This article is the continuation of The Daily Stand-up Checklist for ScrumMasters, part III. The aim of this series of articles is to help ScrumMasters to prepare better for daily stand-up so it is efficient, productive and engaging. These tips are based on our observation of 100+ agile teams in their agile transformations. Daily standup [...]
Prepare for Sprint Planning properly
Sprint planning is one of the most important ceremonies in the Scrum project management method. Why run it and how? Even the Sprint planning ceremony doesn't seem to be complex, many Agile teams consider it a waste of time. "Let's develop something instead of loosing so much time in [...]
Storypoints, hours or #noestimate?
How to choose the best estimation unit in an appropriate time. Should it be storypoints or hours? Or even #noestimates at all? In Agile meetups, we often hear very strong opinions about estimation units. From some perspective, it even sounds like a religion. I. Religion: Story points Most people [...]
Kanban or Scrumban?
The Agile company can be recognized by the presence of Kanban boards with index cards of user stories which are put into multiple columns based on their status. Such a board looks simple and easy to handle. For agile teams, this is very welcome due to a low level [...]
Daily stand-up checklist, part III.: Agreements, Definitions of Done & Ready
This article is the continuation of The Daily Stand-up Checklist for ScrumMasters, part II. The aim of this series of articles is to help Scrum Masters to prepare better for daily stand-up so it is efficient, productive and engaging. These tips are based on our observation of 100+ agile teams in their agile transformations. [...]
The Daily Standup Checklist, part II.
This article is the continuation of The Daily Stand-up Checklist for ScrumMasters, part I. The aim of this series is to help Scrum Masters to prepare better for daily stand-up so it is efficient, productive and engaging. These tips are based on our observation of 100+ agile teams in their [...]
The checklist for your daily standups, part I.
The daily standup meeting is a fundamental ceremony in Scrum. Even if you do not follow Scrum, it has a huge impact due to the transparency it brings. Most of the Agile teams and ScrumMasters think the daily standup ceremony is the easiest part of Scrum. Well, should it brings you the [...]
10 ScrumMaster’s Failures
We see ScrumMasters fail very often while supporting agile teams in their agile transformations. Based on stories of more than one hundred of ScrumMasters we think that the following 10 ScrumMaster's failures are the top most important for agile teams. 1. Because of Agile People do not care about [...]
Agile Estimation: Reference user stories
In the first part about agile estimation, we explained the fundamental principles of the estimation. Now it is time to think about how to implement them in real life. Reference stories For estimation, we will need to have 'the catalog of references' so we can compare all new requirements fast [...]
Agile Estimation: Principles
Estimation has been questioned in software development for many years. How can an estimate be made accurately and quickly? And is estimation even necessary? Well, that is the question for thousands of bucks. Because estimation might be expensive. Especially in the age of changes. Time as an estimation unit [...]
How to build product: Let’s start with the business
Agile development works very well in the product development area. But to build a successful product is much more work than just gather requirements and implement them. One of the trickiest things in agile development is how to prepare requirements that are ready for incremental development while still delivering [...]
Prioritization by Business value in Agile
The first blog post about prioritization was focused on MoSCoW - prioritization of the backlog from the perspective of customers. This is not enough for the products development of the commercial company. You need to survive, to pay bills, to pay the next sprints. You have to think about features [...]
How to prioritize in Agile I.: Customer’s perspective with MoSCoW
Prioritization is probably the most discussed part of development processes. Product backlogs are often quite complex with hundreds of requirements. How to find user stories in your story map which you should start developing first? Traditional approach The approach of traditional processes is simple. You have high, medium, low [...]
Certified Scrum Master, May 10-11, 2016, Bratislava
ScrumDesk and Tomasz de Jastrzebiec Wykowski organize Certified ScrumMaster workshop in Bratislava, Slovakia. When? Where? May 10-11, 2016, Hotel Barónka, Mudrochova 2, Bratislava – Rača. How much? Till the end of Feb - 999€, later 1200€. VAT is not included. Registration About trainer Tomasz is first Certified Scrum Trainer from [...]
How To: Business Model and the Product Strategy
Agile works very well in a product-oriented environment. It’s understandable, as Agile Manifesto as a key document of whole Agile stresses the functional product as one of the most important values. When implementing agile practices, Product development is very often reduced to: Description of responsibilities for Product Owner role, [...]
ScrumDesk as partner of CopenhagenContext 2015 conference
CopenhagenContext 2015 is a unique conference for testers about context-driven testing. It is the largest international Nordic. This year the conference will be held for four days, in four parallel tracks with 18 speakers experienced in the testing area of agile development. ScrumDesk company, a producer of scrum project management tools that [...]
Webinar: Traditional versus Agile Management
Traditional versus Agile management is fundamentally different in the core principles. This webinar (in Slovak language) summarizes fundamental agile principles: Pull principle, a team pulls requirements and tasks to implement them. As late as possible, details are added as late as possible to do not produce waste working on [...]
Successful Agile adaption. Possible?
The last couple of weeks were incredibly intense for me. It´s been a long time since I was returning home doing mentoring exhausted to the level I barely could talk. In this case, even my natural ‘workaholics’ was of no help. It was my honor to work with a [...]
Certified ScrumMaster workshop in Bratislava, Slovakia
Even summer has just started, do not forget to think about your future career. The demand of the market for great ScrumMasters is increasing in the last years. Even certification doesn't mean you will be great ScrumMaster, it can help you to find your new job you will love to go faster. [...]
Daily Stand-up IV. Scrum Master and scrumastership
ScrumMaster is baking the daily bread on the daily stand-up. During these meetings his abilities and knowledge are uncovered. There is a possibility to pick up some useful information about the Scrum Mastership during the certification or specialized trainings but only trough real experience can you gain the deeper [...]
Agile Tips #1: Ideas for Scrum Master
The suggestions for this week are as follow: Top Five Tips for Starting Agile Talk: Jeff Lawson on Software Development Adopting Agile When Your Management Style is Mostly Command and Control Getting started with Acceptance-Test Driven Development
Scrum and Agile tips
The suggestions for this week are as follow: The article on the importance of modeling in Agile times, especially when development is built on multiple teams and shared understanding 40 minutes long talk about the correlation between safety and success of agile methods, what to do towards the change [...]
Personal Map: The Tool to Strengthen The Team
Do you feel that your team needs to improve relationships, or do you want to help them get to know each other better? Try personal maps with them, and you will not regret it. A personal map is a [...]
What is Minimum Viable Product
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a frequently used word today in development. For a Product Owner it is one of the foundations of Agile and a successful product. However, are you sure you know what MVP is and how it differs [...]
How to substitute the Product Owner or Scrum Master during vacation
It’s finally hot outside, and plane tickets to Spain are cheaper. Relaxing by the sea or relaxing from these heatwaves in Norway means temporarily leaving your team. Even if you only leave for two weeks, it may be challenging [...]
ScrumDesk, GitHub, BitBucket and Redmine integrations
GitHub integration Is your project stored in GitHub while the project is managed in ScrumDesk? From now don't forget to mention #ScrumDeskBacklogItemID in the commit, or comment, or wiki page title and the link to them will be added [...]
GitLab integration + full screen
GitLab integration Agile teams use a lot of tools these days, especially thanks to DevOps. GitLab is definitely one of the best DevOps tool on the market. It allows to track and manage a variety of activities and [...]
Meet Coach at ScrumImpulz 2019 Agile Coaching Clinic
Ladislav Medveczky Ladislav Medveczky Linkedin ProfileIT engineer, manager, and agile enthusiast who believes that trust leads to much better results than micromanagement.Laci started as a software developer in 1995 in ArtInAppleS, a pioneer and evangelist company of OOP [...]
Manage ScrumDesk Project with Slack
Project management in agile team is done by everybody. This is not an easy task. It requires discipline and drives the focus of the team away from the main activities they like more. ScrumDesk online project management tool is built [...]
Secure your account with two factors authentication
Enable Two Factors Authentication The two factor authentication increases the security level by inclusion of the mobile device into the authorization process. You will need to enable two factor authentication first: Log into ScrumDesk. Click the avatar in [...]
Import Trello Board to ScrumDesk
Do you manage projects in Trello? Trello is a great tool for small projects managed by small teams who need transparency of the Kanban board. Trello enables also to tracking of additional information. Anyway, once you think about Scrum, [...]
Mentors you will meet at ScrumImpulz conference Coaching Clinic
Zoltán Šipkai Zoltan is a passionate Agilist and tireless seeker of knowledge who believes that the best way to create great software is to nurture a safe, positive and inspiring environment. In his opinion, the central component [...]
ScrumImpulz 2019: Education track
Did you know that Agile can help students to learn in a more fun, collaborative and results-oriented way? How? More than 100 schools in Slovakia apply eduScrum already in the learning process. That definitely help grow our future colleagues [...]
ScrumImpulz 2019: Willy Wijnands, eduScrum
Does the education system prepare our children and young generation for future needs? A lot of people have a feeling that there must be a different way how to educate. Of course we are not teachers and therefore we [...]
Why are Agile Manifesto Principles so important?
On Agile briefly Agile methods are methods that apply iterative and evolutionary development. 12 agile principles employ adaptive planning, promote incremental delivery, and include other values and practices that encourage agility. What does that really mean for software development? [...]
ScrumImpulz 2019: Karel Smutny
Four years ago, I spent a couple of months in Prague, a beautiful city in Czechia. We supported the agile transition of the big insurance company for a few months so I had a lot of time to spend [...]
ScrumImpulz 2019: Marcus Hamrin, Spotify
Spotify. Well know the name of the company that has changed our behavior how we do listen to music. Not so many years ago we were used to listening to CD, later to MP3 or Internet radio. We were [...]