Blog on Agile principles, practices, and project management tools
Meaningful Agile
ScrumDesk 3.4.2: Attachments plus #Slack integration
Backlog item attachments ScrumDesk now supports keeping documents, UX designs and other assets related to backlog item (aka user story) in Amazon S3 cloud integrated with ScrumDesk Files can be uploaded in the side view when you click on a card. The usage is similar to many other applications on the web. Preview of attached picture is available on click on selected icon. Files can be, of course, [...]
ScrumDesk 3.4: Velocity Chart, Analytics, Comments, Emails
A message from you A few days ago we received on our support page the following message from Dave: Don't add anything!!! The problem with many versions of agile software is they pack them with so many tools that the core functionality gets muddled. ScrumDesk desktop is so beautifully uncluttered that you don't have to think about how to use it. Keep that concept alive! We appreciate this idea. [...]
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 help teams to apply agile practices correctly, was addressed by organizers to support the conference. As the platinum sponsor, we are [...]
AGILE ToolboX, daily standup and Poker Planning cards
AGILE ToolboX is a set of simple tools that agile team can use to support agile planning, daily standups or retrospectives. Agile ToolboX runs in the web browser on any platform. Cards Different card sets for backlog grooming, planning, team estimation or retrospectives. AGILE ToolboX supports multiple scales to estimate business value, effort or risk level. Teams can use Planning Poker, Fibonacci, 1 to 10 or T-Shirt size. Daily Standup Timer A receipt [...]
Scrum Project Management Tool with All Scrum Practices in One Package
Two days before Christmas we have published an update of ScrumDesk. We hope your teams will find it valuable once they will plan the first release of the year 2015. The Goal The main goal for release v.0.3 has been a supporter of all core Scrum practices used by agile teams. From the improvement of planning, through daily life tracking to retrospectives. Retrospective The retrospective is the most valuable agile practice we think all [...]
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 features that will be removed when they will not be necessary. Small teams, up to 10 people. Based on [...]
Restart an Iteration
ScrumDesk has been updated again. Thanks to all our customers who asked for new features we have implemented in this release. What we changed: [NEW] Release and Sprint can be restarted once it has been closed. [NEW] Password reset functionality in the login screen. [NEW] Password can be changed in the Profile page. [CHANGE] Minimum password length is limited now. [CHANGE] Massive code and styles refactoring. [...]
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 fresh team formed a just couple of months ago - Agile Pilots from T-Systems, Telekom IT department, which has [...]
ScrumDesk is updated
We are happy to announce an update of ScrumDesk which is available for more than two months now. For more than two months about 800 active companies and universities have been using this simple, web-based, solution to manage Scrum or Kanban projects. Also, we are very thankful for a lot of comments, request and kudos you sent us in this period. Thanks to that we were able to choose top 13 improvements [...]
Daily life with Kanban board
Daily life The Kanban board is a primarily visual tool for the self-organized team. Kanban board is split into multiple columns and rows (swimlanes). The main goal is to visualize work and its status. ScrumDesk board provides access to user stories and tasks selected for a particular sprint. Tasks and status Stories are typically broken into one or more tasks represented as small cards pinned on the board. [...]
Release planning with ScrumDesk
Planning in Agile Our aim is to create a tool very similar to the physical board on which team members are working with cards in different corners of the planning board. The board that can be split into more panes and swim lines representing either backlog, different releases or sprints. The board on which you can see customer's stories. Product owners often need to plan more iterations. In such case product owner may displays three backlogs at [...]
Agile Product Backlog Management with ScrumDesk
An index card for user story Fundamental XP practice is to keep requirements written on an index card. The index card should be: small, therefore requirement has to be written clearly, movable, so the product backlog is visually clean, resizable, so the size of cards can help to organize backlog, colored, so teams can categorize thousands of cards according to team's rules. Stories on board Similar to desktop [...]
Manage epics and themes with ScrumDesk
Epics and Themes Products are typically described by hundreds of requirements which are organized in the product backlog and represented by index cards. Large requirements, epics, cannot be completed in one sprint so they are broken into more user stories. Epics are then delivered in releases. But even small user stories from different epics can have something in common. Such a group of user stories is called a theme, or business initiative. Epics and themes [...]
ScrumDesk: Add new project
A lot of agile teams work for different clients. Projects are typically owned and managed by client and teams are contracted as developers who need an access to requirements and work tracking. ScrumDesk, therefore, supports a concept of projects listed by organizations for which you have been invited to work. Project details A new project is in ScrumDesk characterized by: project name, organization for which the project is developed, description, private - project assets will [...]
ScrumDesk: Invite team members
In ScrumDesk you can track a work for one or more organizations. Organization account An organization account is created automatically based on information entered in Sign Up form. For this organization your user, the account will be assigned as an administrator which gives you privilege to manage user accounts plus other details (not available in beta). Send invitations Once you are logged in, you should invite your colleagues first. Invitations can be sent from Account [...]