Ask YC: Agile Project Management with Scrum - Software?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=245151

by mbjones • 18 years ago

5 3 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've been getting into Agile Project Management using Scrum for a while now. Currently, I've been using XPlanner (http://xplanner.org/), however, it is a pain and has plenty of bugs.

I was wondering if anyone out there knew of a better software, preferably free, for scrum management?

pjackson• 18 years ago

I have had some success with:

ScrumWorks (there is a free and pro version) VersionOne (paid only) Jira (paid only, needs plugins)

Banana Scrum is free and looks good. It was talked about on HackerNews awhile back.

After experimenting with lots of this software, my team has reverted to the whiteboard for Iteration Goals, and sticky notes for the iteration's tasks. We've found that you can't beat the tactile qualities of post-it notes.

Items in a software package can be easy to ignore if you don't manage it closely. But if you look at the whiteboard and see more sticky notes in the "pending" column than there should be, you instantly know something is wrong and can dive in.

DanielBMarkham2• 18 years ago

I'd like to second these thoughts.

In short, don't use a tool if you can get everybody in a co-located space -- use the walls. Hard to ignore big flashing lights that say the build is broken or large burn-down charts that show the iteration is off the rails.

But if you can't get all co-located, or if you're forced to have a team that's too large, or if your Product Owner is actually a committee of seven, etc -- there are good reasons for using some kind of tool on occasion.

DanielBMarkham2• 18 years ago

As it turns out, I'm writing a free web Scrum PM tool.

Email me at my profile if you'd like to be in the closed beta. I had been planning on using it with just my large clients but if it is something you need I'm willing to help you out. (I'm also an Agile Coach and help teams adapt to agile and perform faster, in case I can be of any help there)

Ask YC: Agile Project Management with Scrum - Software?

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