Step 5: Planning project sprints :: ScrumDesk – scrum project management tool

Step 5: Planning project sprints

Posted on 28, Sep 2010

In this step product owner and development team will try to plan project sprints.

Who

product owner
Product Owner
scrum master
Scrum Master

Planning in SCRUM

In Step 4 Planning product releases we defined sprint as time box for developers to complete selected stories.

Product Development
Product Backlog
-
Release A Release B
- -
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3

ScrumDesk: Planning sprints

In part 4, product owner defined that RSS Reader must be released in two releases. These are deadlines for development team.

In the Step 4 we defined 3 releases and 1 sprint was created by default.

timeline roadmap

Time to release can be divided into smaller time boxes, sprints. Our development team agreed with product owner on 10 working days sprint length. This will be constant duration of sprints during development of the RSS Reader.

Sprints can be planned in Planning view. This view can be displayed by click on Planning menu item.

product release sprint planning

Top half of the screen is a virtual board for all stories that are in backlog and that are unassigned to any team member. These are stories that have to be developed.

Bottom half of the screen is another virtual board displaying stories assigned to Sprint 1 and all releases. Sprint 1 is selected in a left bottom combo box.

Below the combo box is displayed pane with commands that enables to users to create new sprints, remove current sprint and to display sprint details in Sprint detail dialog where they can be edited by Scrum Master.

These details are displayed also in a pane. In advance, sprint details  displays occupation calculated in real time. This is an indicator how much story points can be developed in current sprint. Maximum value is equal to a Sprint capacity value.

Create Sprint 2

Click on bottom New command under Sprint 1 combo box. Sprint details dialog will appear. Enter the values according to a screenshot below and close this dialog.

create new sprint details

ScrumDesk supports extra date for demo. This way the sprint demo can be planned later than sprint end. This can occur when product owner, stakeholders or management are unable to plan theirs time to sprint end.

Sprint length is given as a number of working days. ScrumDesk automatically skips weekend days when calculating burn down charts. Thus only working days are required to count.

State of the new sprint is set to Planning. Sprint in this state is in plan phase where stories can be assigned to the sprint. No story can be started. This prevent team members to start stories sooner then team agreed.

Only Scrum master can start sprint. This can be done in combo box State in Sprint detail dialog or using a big red button in a SideView. After the sprint starts, ScrumDesk begin to calculate sprint progress. This will be displayed in burn down charts, time sheet and other reports supported by ScrumDesk.

start stop finish sprint

Sprint can be finished by scrum master only when all stories are completed. In case that some of stories was not completed, scrum master or development team can split stories or tasks to a next sprint and complete stories.

Sprint 3

Now create last Sprint 3.

Result

Your timeline now displays plan for your product: 2 releases and 3 sprints.

timeline roadmap