I love Scrum. I have used the Scrum methodology for a number of years for project management. Scrum is a great way to organize teams and produce usable output in iterations.
This week I want to talk about three tools you may want to consider when trying to manage a Scrum team.
First, a quick explanation of Scrum to those who are unfamiliar with the methodology. The idea is you organize small teams together to focus on getting work done. Each team will have a set of work items to accomplish.
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Create a sprint and put it to work for a designated length of time
Work is divided into short cycles called sprints. Each sprint is the same length (for example two weeks long). After each sprint the team reviews how the work went and what they should do to improve. The idea is work is produced in short interactive cycles in which the team is constantly reevaluating itself and the quality of work produced.
The team can easily adjust to unforeseen events such as customer change requests, changes in staff or good old-fashion unexpected problems.
So what project management technology can you use for managing a Scrum team?
The good news is there are a lot of options available on the market. The even better news is most are free to start using. I want to talk about three I have found myself using.
Jira allows for specific settings, customization
First, there is the classic Jira. Jira was made for Scrum teams, specifically for developers, but it can be used in most any situation. Jira is by far my favorite, but that is because it allows for very specific settings and customization. It also has many built-in features for Scrum teams, including sprint management.
The sheer number of options, configurations, and settings may make it difficult or intimidating to many users. The flip side is you can pretty much make it fit whatever organization and requirements you need.
For example, I can customize testing requirements for a task to be considered complete. Or I can control how tasks are viewed. Jira also is great at creating reports. You can see how much momentum your team is gaining (or losing) over time. You can get a sense of where the source of unexpected work is coming from.
These reports are also highly customizable, and are a little tedious to create if you want to stray from standard templates. But overall they are very helpful.
Trello is a bit simpler, more accessible, but option limited
If you are looking for something a bit more simple, you can try Trello. Interestingly enough, Trello is owned by the same company as Jira, Atlassian. However, Trello is a much more accessible (but option limiting), task management system. In fact, it was not built with Scrum in mind, but it does have the basic features you would need to manage a Scrum team.
Trello has what is called “Boards,” and you can create a new board for each sprint. This is how I am currently managing a project. We have broken down all the steps and divided them into different sprints. I can see what is yet to be done, what is in progress, what is blocked or requires external help and what has been finished.
Finally, there is Asana, which I have been using for a couple of years now to manage an external contract team. In terms of complexity and level of customization, I would rate it somewhere between Jira and Trello.
Asana is easy to use and has advanced features, too
The nice thing about Asana is it is super easy to just pick up and use while at the same time providing advanced features, if you need to use them. Here I created what is essentially a never-ending project that holds the work to be done and the sprints.
When work is completed and approved, I then archive the sprint. One other nice feature of Asana is I can view the work to be done in many different ways. I can see a list, calendar or a board (like Trello).
Regardless of what tool you use, you will find yourself having to configure a few options to match your team. If you are new to Scrum and want to try it out, I suggest giving Trello or Asana a try. If you really want to dig into the process and tweak it exactly to match your organization (and you have some tech skills) try Jira.
