Tip#47: Estimation planner
Sprint planning becomes easier, smoother, more collaborative and more accurate with the Estimation Planner extension. Most work items involve multiple users, and each user's role and effort vary. To provide an unbiased and fair estimation point to the
Tip#46: Capture accurate log hours
Hello everyone, Use the newly introduced timer settings that will streamline the usage of timers and help admins or workspace owners to manage the time entries of the workspace users better. Check out the below mentioned timer settings added to the Timesheet
Tip#45: Custom Tags and Cluster Tags
Tagging your work items helps categorize and label work items within your Zoho Sprints workspace. Now, this feature is expanded across multiple modules, along with the introduction of cluster tags that offer an advanced tagging mechanism. Manage Tags
Tip#44: Integrate with Xero to manage your financial operations
Managing your project finances becomes more efficient with Xero integration in Zoho Sprints. With this integration, you can sync your Zoho Sprints data with Xero. Once you sync them to Xero, you can easily create invoices in Xero. This feature significantly
Comprehensive guide to add users
We've received quite a few questions regarding adding users to the Zoho Sprints workspace. So we decided to address it through a comprehensive post covering the locations (modules or tabs) from which you can add your users. Adding users to your workspace
Improve user efficiency with Automated reminders
When it comes to business, keeping up with the deliverables is imperative. Automated reminders help you just with that, allowing you to set up notifications that are automatically triggered to your workspace users to remind them about important updates,
Leverage layout rules to customize workflow
Layout rules in Zoho Sprints primarily aim to customize the field layout of your creation forms to meet complex requirements. But it doesn't stop there. Its customization can push the boundaries of how your fields behave, how data is gathered, how processes
Tip # 21 - 2 ways to search for work items
Did you try searching for a particular work item and found it hidden? Here's the Global Search that fetches work items across the projects in your team. You can search for work items in two different ways in Zoho Sprints; either using the simple search or advanced search. The Simple search fetches work items with respect to specific projects. All you need to do is enter the work item name or #ID and select the project. Learn more. The Advanced search fetches work items based on specific criteria
Tip 31 - Control your Email Notifications
Do you know that you can allow and restrict the number of email notifications you receive? If not, keep reading! You can enable email notifications for the activities that you want to be notified and disable for the rest of them. Click the Setup icon
Tip #27: Zoho Sprints integrates with Zoho Desk
We are happy to announce that Zoho Sprints now integrates with Zoho Desk. Wondering how a customer service product works with an agile tool? Let's see how Helen solves her customer service problem using this integration. Helen works as the customer support manager and operates Zoho Desk to manage all customer queries by creating and organizing tickets. She runs a team of 20, who manage all the support tickets using Zoho Desk. Helen's problem As new requests pile up and features increase,
Tip 26 - Item reminders in Zoho Sprints
Managing your tasks and delivering them on time is a challenging process. What if you are overloaded with tasks? You cannot remember every single task assigned to you. The easiest way to effortlessly remember and track everything is by setting reminders. Whether it's a new feature plan or a bug fix, just set a reminder and go ahead with your day. When it's time, Zoho Sprints will notify about your work item so you never miss out anything. We offer six different reminder types: Remind Daily
Tip 25 - Strict scrum settings in Zoho Sprints
We recently introduced the strict scrum settings for teams that follow a rigid scrum process. Based on your project requirements, you can choose to follow a strict or flexible scrum method. If you are from a software team bound to client's deadlines you can follow a strict scrum process. This means they can enable 'Strict Scrum' settings and complete the work based on the predefined settings. In case, if your work is flexible to the timeline, then you can opt for a standard scrum process. Navigate
Tip 24 - Zoho Sprints integrates with source code management tools
Are you an agile team that manages all your code repositories in GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket tools? Now you can manage your code repositories the agile way right at one point. Zoho Sprints now offers a suite of integrations with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. Integrating both the applications We have all the three applications listed in our Integrations section under Settings. You have to Authorize your third-party tool with Zoho Sprints to initiate the integration process. Mapping repositories
Tip 23 - Global view in Zoho Sprints
Global view in Zoho Sprints gives you a complete view of all the work items across the projects in your team. It is comprised of two different views - Default and Custom view. Default view lists all the work items in the open and closed statuses across the projects. Custom view helps you customize the work items based on your requirement. You can categorize them under Public, Private, and Shared views. Default view Default view has two different views: Team View and My View. Both the views display
Tip #11 - File sharing
Here's an interesting feature that simplifies your work. Do you want to upload a file or share a screenshot with your team? Well, there are four things you can do in the attachment section. You can: Drag and drop or upload a file from your desktop. Copy and paste a screenshot. Drag and drop or attach an image and annotate it using the inbuilt drawing tools. Upload files from other cloud services. Wondering how it works? Here's a video that can help you get started. Sharing files and attaching images
Tip #20 - GitHub Integration
Do you find it difficult to manage both your code changes and work items at different places? Well, you can now integrate your team with GitHub and manage everything at one place. Map your GitHub repositories to your Zoho Sprints team. Associate projects to the mapped repository. Attach commits and pull requests from the work item details page. Use quick commands to mention work items in GitHub. Here's a video to help you get started with the GitHub integration. Integrate with GitHub and manage
Tip #22 -Swimlanes in Zoho Sprints (Part 2)
Before we get in to know what's the new enhancement, let us have a quick glance of our previous tip on swimlanes. Zoho Sprints has enhanced this feature by adding two new swimlanes. Viewing swimlanes Navigate to your board, click Swimlane in the right corner, and choose your swimlane. Introducing new swimlanes User Swimlane: Lists all the work items based on particular users in the sprint. Track the users with maximum work items across each status. Track the work items tagged in the 'Unassigned'
Tip #19 - Track performance of sprints without estimation points
Wondering how to track the performance of your sprints without using estimation points? Well, this post can help. In Zoho Sprints, the progress of your sprints is evaluated either based on the estimation points or the count of work items. Team's that setup estimation points for calculating the effort of the work items can track the progress using Estimation Points. Team's that do not use estimation points can track the progress using the Count of work items. We've an inbuilt 'View By' option across
Tip #18 - New enhancements to work items
Did you check out our new enhancements in our work items released last week? Well, those who are looking to convert comments into work items and subitems into parent items, it's now available at the click of a button. For any queries, please contact support@zohosprints.com or reach us through live chat. You can also refer our help article here. Regards, Monica. R
Tip #17 - Replanning a sprint
Welcome back to our tips and tricks series! Your team has already begun the sprint and is half-way through. Suddenly you find a drop in performance. What will you do? You can always replan a sprint and start it again. When should you replan a sprint? You end up replanning a sprint only when there are a lot of work items that you cannot finish within the specified duration. Solution: You can overcome this by conducting proper sprint planning meeting, prioritizing the work items effectively,
Tip #16 - Meetings in Scrum
"What's up for today?" "How's the work going?" "Did you finish the overdue task?" "Why couldn't the deadline be met?" "What's our next set of plans? .......Keeps loading When it comes to work, questions are often raised. Those back-to-back meeting sessions, rushing to complete the target, preparing for the next set of goals etc. - You will not know where to focus. This is why scrum teams are always in a safe zone because they schedule meetings at every
Tip #15 - Predict the end date of your sprint
"I'm half-way through the sprint, how can I predict the end date of my sprint?" - The frequently asked question by the teams that are new to agile. Well, this post will walk you through the basic agile metrics and how Zoho Sprints helps you track the sprint progress. Your team has moved the prioritized work items from the project backlog to the sprint and the sprint has started. What's next? It's time to track its progress on a daily basis. You can track the Ideal, Actual, and Predicted progress
Tip #14 - Four new enhancements that you shouldn't miss!
Hello all, We have rolled out a few enhancements in Zoho Sprints. Eager to check out what are those? Read on. Global View Lists all the work items across projects in your team. Categorizes work items in two different views: Team View - Lists all the work items across projects irrespective of the assignee. Only Admin has access to this. My View - Lists all the work items assigned to you across projects. Search for work items matching a specific criteria using the filter option. Sort the work
Tip #13 - Project Dashboard
Welcome back to our tips and tricks series! Let's explore an interesting and vibrant module - The Project Dashboard . Track progress of your projects using the widgets displayed on the dashboard. What do the widgets do? Here's an illustration that can help you understand the different types of widgets and their purpose. Take a look at our resource page for more information. Write to support@zohosprints.com if you have any queries.
Tip #12 - Reports view and export
Reports are used to track the progress of your team. They help teams to forecast progress by evaluating the performance of the team members. In Zoho Sprints, you can either view reports by estimation points or by number of work items. Choose 'View by Points' to track the number of estimation points completed. Choose 'View by Count' to track the number of work items completed. Refer our guide for more information on reports. What if you want to export the reports and charts? Yes, you can
Tip #10 - 3 things to track using user profile
Hello, Are you looking for a report that tracks progress by users? Well, here's 'User Profile' that helps you track progress of the user from a single location. Track the total, completed, and pending work items and estimation points assigned to the user. Using this feature, managers can evaluate user work load and allocate resources. Velocity meter helps users evaluate their performance by tracking the progress of the completed sprints. Using this chart, managers can evaluate the performance of
Tip #9 - Epics in Zoho Sprints
Hello all, It's been a while since we launched 'Epics'. Hope you have explored it already. Here's a short blurb about this new feature that will help you get started with it. In Agile project management, all the requirements from the client are created as user stories and stored in the product backlog. These stories are further broken down into tasks and run across a sprint. What if the user stories are larger and cannot be accomplished in a single iteration? Instead of creating multiple user stories,
Tip #8 - Velocity Chart
Hello all, We are back with an informative tip on - 'How to measure your team's performance?'. Evaluating the performance of your team on a periodic basis will help the team deliver quality outcome at the end of every iteration. Why do you need a velocity chart? In Scrum, the effort of every iteration is measured by the total number of points that the team estimates. This estimation is defined based on the effort that is required to complete the work items in the sprint. The maximum effort
Tip #7 - Scrum settings
In Zoho Sprints, right after you create a project, by default you can start only one sprint at a time and once the sprint starts you will not be able to add or move work items to it. To overcome this limitation, we have introduced "Scrum Settings" to help you with two things: Add new work items or move existing work items from the backlog to your active sprint on board. Start multiple sprints at the same time. (You can start only 5 sprints in parallel). Say, you run a big team and you've got multiple
Tip #6 - Five benefits of using export in Zoho Sprints
Hello All, We're back with a cool tip. Exporting the data and taking a backup of the work you do is very important when it comes to any business. In Zoho Sprints, you can schedule an export, view the active schedulers, and track the export history - everything in a single place! Backlog - Exporting all the work items from the backlog will help in prioritizing during the sprint plan meeting. Scrum Board - All the project members can benefit from this export. They can export their work items from
Tip #5 - Create custom work item type and priority
Every business has a bundle of requirements to be targeted and these requirements are categorized into different work item types called 'Stories', 'Tasks', and 'Bugs'. What if your business expands and you get busy handling multiple projects at the same time? Well, your requirements are mounted and you will look out for different work item types to track different types of work. In Zoho Sprints, you can create custom work item types to segregate your requirements based on the type of work you
Tip #4 - Status Timeline
This week let's have a quick understanding of the interesting enhancement in Zoho Sprints. Did you happen to see something called 'Status Timeline' in your work item details section? - Yes? - Then you are ready to know what it actually does. No? - Quickly navigate to your work item details page and click Status Timeline from the top navigation bar. What does it do? Tracks the time taken by a work item to move across statuses on the scrum board. It also helps you know the number of days the
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
Tip#2- Leading you to a Sprint
Product Backlog After the user stories are written and finalized, they are sorted to create the Product Backlog for the project during the Backlog Grooming meeting. This is a master list of all the work items that have been identified for the project and sorted by priority. Requirements are not constant during this period.The Product Backlog is dynamic and is an ongoing process. Every user story in the Product Backlog is customer centric. The Product Backlog includes: User centric stories based on
Tip #1- Why swimlanes?
Lanes define a clear path to reach your destination. In Agile, swimlane is one such concept that sets a simple and clear process of the work that you do. The concept of swimlane can be related to the pool, where the swimmers gather in their respective lanes to start off. Similar to the pool, work items are grouped in different categories. Each category is referred as a lane and is displayed in horizontal format. Swimlanes are effective in categorizing the work items with respective to specific