Tip # 3- Working on the Scrum board
Continuing from our
Tip #2 on leading to a sprint
, let's see how to manage the work items on the Scrum board.
Once you start the sprint your work items are automatically displayed on the Scrum board where you will actually
manage
the work items. It is a snapshot of the backlog items identified for the current sprint.
The layout of the Scrum board
Simply put, the scrum board is just like a physical board with sticky notes on which the work items of the active sprint are displayed.
The scrum board is divided into columns:
- To Do – Work items that have not yet started
- In progress – Work items that have already begun
- Done – Work items which have been completed
You can also add other customized status columns based on your business requirement.
What do I do on the Scrum board?
In the scrum board you will track all the sprint activities. Each of the work items from the active sprint is displayed as a card on the scrum board initially in the “To Do” column and you will transition the items from one status to another as the sprint progresses .
You can also filter the cards based on your choice by hiding the columns that you don't want to see.
The scrum board allows you to:
- Add new items
- Move items directly from the backlog to the required status
- Filter work items based on criteria and swimlanes
One of the primary benefits of the board is that the team will see a gradual left to right migration of the work items across the board from "To Do” to "In Progress” to “Done”. This focuses everyone's attention on the pending items, which stand out since they are the last ones to move.
As the scrum board is a shared hub, it allows team members to collaborate virtually from multiple locations. You can also switch to the Scrum board of another sprint to manage your work items.
Scrum details from the sprint dashboard
From the Scrum board you can access the
sprint dashboard
which provides a cursory glance of the sprint reports as well as manage a few sprint activities.
Sprint-based reports:
- Overall sprint progress
- Count of work items
- Users with maximum open and closed items
- Daily progress of the sprint
- User summary
Manage sprint activities:
- Adding comments
- Log hours
- Scheduling meetings
- Inviting users
- Editing the sprint
- Deleting the sprint
- Canceling the sprint
- Moving work items
- Replaning the sprint