SN-Logo NewSN-Logo NewSN-Logo NewSN-Logo New
  • Agile Training
    • Scrum Master
    • Scrum Product Owner
    • Leadership Development
    • Private Workshops
    • Calendar
  • Enterprise Solutions
    • Unstoppable Program
    • Agile Keynotes
    • Private Workshops
  • Products
    • Personal Agility Book
    • Ten Agile Contracts Book
    • Extreme Manufacturing Explained
  • Blog
  • About
    • Peter B. Stevens
    • Scrum
    • Personal Agility
    • Saat Network
  • Contact
0

CHF0.00

✕
Managing Scrum with Paper and Cards
17-06-2008
Managing Scrum with Dedicated Tools
19-06-2008

Managing Scrum with Wiki and Office

Published by Peter Stevens on 18-06-2008
Categories
  • project management
  • scrum
  • tools
Tags

For my first Scrum project, I consolidated all of the wish lists into one spreadsheet which became our product backlog. Initially, I had 4 columns: Name, Effort, Priority and Estimate. I quickly added a “reference number” column to make it easier to find individual stories.

We set up a Scrum area on the wiki. It had hierarchical structure:

  • Sprint 1
  • Sprint 2
  • …
  • Sprint n
    • Sprint Contract
      • Product Backlog at start of sprint (xls and pdf, as sent to the customer)
      • Status Overview from the Planning Meeting (current burndown chart, estimated resources for next sprint, definition of done, time/location of next demo meeting, etc.)
      • Sprint Backlog at start of Sprint (pdf – this is the actual contract)
      • Daily Scrum Spreadsheet (xls – updated daily)
      • Status Review from the Demo (stories/points accomplished, costs etc)
    • Sprint Stories
      • Story 103 Some story -> all project documents related to that story
      • Story 105 Some other story
      • Story 106 yet another story
      • …

The daily scrum spreadsheet had 4 Columns: team member, yesterday plan, yesterday was, today plan, and impediments. “Yesterday plan” I copied from the previous days’ “today plan’ column, the rest corresponded to the three questions of the daily scrum. I updated the spreadsheet every day, adding one sheet per day in the sprint, copying “today plan” into “yesterday plan” and updating the remaining fields according to the results of the daily scrum. Then I uploaded the file into the wiki. There are pros and cons to recording data this way (particularly related to its impact on the flow of the daily scrum), and today I would do the daily scrum differently, but the traceability was awesome.

All other documentation gets uploaded into the corresponding task for within the Sprint. Confluence had a very nice feature that it would take first sheet in the daily scrum .xls file and display it directly in the browser from a Wiki page, saving the media break of having to download the spreadsheet and opening it in a dedicated program.

The advantage of this approach is self evident: you have these tools and you know how to use them (well, actually we had some user acceptance issues with the wiki). A spreadsheet is very flexible, so you can slice and dice the data as you see fit. Data reuse is not a problem per se. Backup is handled by whatever mechanisms you have in place for your PC. (You do have a backup, don’t you?! If nothing else, copy the data to a memory stick and store it separately from your PC).

The wiki requires a lot of discipline so that you can find things. The basic Scrum flow was relatively easy, but data which did not obviously belong to a single sprint were always somehow special cases and finding them later was hard. A good search tool is a prerequisite for using the Wiki.

What finally drove us to a tool based solution was the need for a better tool manage the product backlog. The Wiki was too inflexible as a data structure and the spreadsheet was too flexible. The customer, when he had the data, could too easily change the structure of the spreadsheet. Assuring the quality of the input was a problem and we had “file locking” problems: Either the customer could update or we could update, but we could not see changes made be other until we got the spreadsheet back, nor could we update unless we had agreed with the customer that we had the writable copy.

[Previous: Managing Scrum with Paper and Cards]
[Next: Managing Scrum with Dedicated Tools]

Share
Peter Stevens
Peter Stevens

Related posts

Inside the Scrum Team Cover

ITST Passed the 2000 View mark on May 22, 2023

23-05-2023

2000 Views on Youtube  🎉


Read more
Up to 55% of your staff could be in a meeting

Up to 55% of your staff could be in a meeting

12-04-2023

Increase Company Productivity by 40%?


Read more
Are you making Scrum harder than it is? Focus on the essentials to get better results, sooner!

Are you making Scrum harder than it is? Focus on the essentials to get better results, sooner!

31-03-2023

Are you making Scrum harder than it is?


Read more

3 Comments

  1. Michael Dubakov says:
    20-06-2008 at 05:45

    The problem with Wiki and Excel is quite common. These tools are simple, but general. They do not have business logic behind, but provide frameworks to resolve simple data manipulation problems.

    It is good, but what are the benefits? Wiki+Excel will not work in distributed environment and will not work for large collocated team s well. Concurrent access, real-time reporting, integration with other dev. process tools. It is just not there.

    Maybe it will work for small collocated teams? Yes, sure. But for small collocated team I prefer tangible cards, white boards and markers. For me Wiki+Excel is a dead end. No benefits, more repetitive work to have all up to date, still poor reporting (take a photo of your white board and send to manager instead sending spreadsheet!)

  2. Unknown says:
    22-08-2008 at 06:52

    I’d recommend using Google docs – u can have an online spreadsheet that everyone can edit live at the same time, works really well.

  3. Peter says:
    22-08-2008 at 07:04

    I used google docs to manage distributed testing once.

    The customer had not defined test cases but had a team of testers. So we created a main sheet with the user stories to describe the function of the system. Then we cloned the sheet, one sheet for each tester, where s/he entered his/her test results. On the main sheet, we linked to the individual tester sheets, one tester per column.

    For the limited scope of this problem, it worked quite nicely, was easy to set up and available across company boundaries, with no license fee.

Learn more about Agile

  • Module 1 | Self-Leadership with Personal Agility |  June 6-7, 2023
    in Zurich
    June 06, 2023 -
    June 07, 2023
    Register Now
  •  

  • Certified Scrum Product Owner | Face-2-Face | English | Jun 29-30, 2023
    in Zürich
    June 29, 2023 -
    June 30, 2023
    Register Now
  •  

  • Certified Scrum Master | Face-2-Face | English | Jul 06-07, 2023
    in Zürich
    July 06, 2023 -
    July 07, 2023
    Register Now
  •  

  • Certified Scrum Product Owner | Face-2-Face | English | Aug 24-25, 2023
    in Zürich
    August 24, 2023 -
    August 25, 2023
    Register Now
  •  

Saat Network GmbH is a small, independent company dedicated to helping you discover and apply the values, principles and practices that will enable you to thrive in the 21st century.

Quick Links

  • What Really Matters – Peter Stevens’ Blog

High Performing Teams

  • Get Stuff Done
  • Get Right Stuff Done
  • Create Alignment
  • Leadership

Free Resources

  • Personal Agility Institute
  • Impressum
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
© 2023 Saat Network GmbH. All Rights Reserved.
0

CHF0.00

✕

Login

Lost your password?

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Read more about our Privacy Policy
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement1 yearSet by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
CookieDurationDescription
mailchimp_landing_site1 monthThe cookie is set by MailChimp to record which page the user first visited.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
CONSENT2 yearsYouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
_ga2 yearsThe _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_42152348_11 minuteSet by Google to distinguish users.
_gcl_au3 monthsProvided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services.
_gid1 dayInstalled by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
NID6 monthsNID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads.
test_cookie15 minutesThe test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 months 27 daysA cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSCsessionYSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devicesneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-idneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
COMPASS1 hourNo description
cookies.jssessionNo description available.
S1 hourNo description available.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo