Scrum Project Management

Although practices vary from company to company, having a regular process to follow during your scrum project management is crucial.

The list of potential errors when not following set and recorded workflows is insane; even the big guys sometimes get caught with their pants down after something in development goes awry.

That’s why we here at Process Street have drummed up this scrum project management checklist, read-to-use and ready-to-kick-ass. By running this checklist before each sprint, you can ensure that your development, user story grooming, sprint planning and teasting all go as smooth as butter.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s ace those Agile scrum projects!

You scrum project management is going to kick off before any sprint is actually started – with an assessment of your software. This does not have to be an exhaustive procedure that practically turns your software inside-out, but instead a series of thoughts on how to improve the product.

Note these thoughts, along with basic information about your software, in the form fields below for safe keeping.

Think of features which could be improved, bugs you have noticed, etc, and jot them all down in your favourite note taking software (we’d recommend Workflowy for that little bit more organization in your thoughts) and the above form fields. Remember, these thoughts do not have to be exhaustive, but go for as much detail as you can easily gather about the topic.

Now that you have your general improvements and fixes written down, it’s time to put them into your project management software as user stories! Record the links to these new user stories and your project management software account in the form fields below.

Don’t worry too much about putting them in a standardized format, but try to include all of the necessary information as concisely as possible.

Note that, before writing up any of these issues you should first check for existing user tickets which cover the topic; it doesn’t matter if you have a similar user story, just be certain that you’re not duplicating a known issue. Also, be sure to put them into your grooming queue, so that they can be later sorted and assigned correctly.

Whilst you’re in your project management software, it is highly advisable that you check your project’s backlog (production queue). If your user stories are regularly being groomed into a consistent format, then go ahead and check this task off.

If you find that your stories are not being groomed at all or are standardized badly, refer the engineering team to your user story template.

To follow up on your user stories being groomed, you should also check that your sprint planning is going smoothly whilst you’re in the correct software. This shouldn’t be an in-depth analysis, but more of a quick assessment, after which you need to note the number of points you expect to tackle and the start date of your next sprint in the form fields below.

Check that a consistent number of points are being tackled in each sprint, along with each developer getting the same number of points to tackle. This is vital in your scrum project management, as deviating from these principles will only lead to unrealistic goals and unhappy developers.

Once again, if this is not happening, refer the team to your sprint planning template and enquire as to why this is happening.

During your regular sprints, it is imperative that any changes made to your software are checked and double-checked before being set live. To this end, you must ensure that during the sprint a rock solid testing process is carried out for each alteration.

If you need a little help in setting up a steady test procedure, we have a handy software testing tutorial to get you going.

Remember that, even if you are not doing these tests yourself, you should be checking that the testing process is carried out for each new piece of code and that the tests are up to scratch.

After your sprint has concluded it’s time to pick up with your scrum project management once again! The next step is to check that the issues set out in the last sprint have either been dealt with or broken down into appropriate smaller issues. Record your progress using the form fields below.

Go back to your sprint board and check that each assigned user story has been completed, or at least documented and partially completed (eg, if unforeseen difficulties arose). If a project has not been completed, contact the developer and ask for an explanation.

There will always be issues which turn out to be more complicated than first anticipated, and so it’s not always the dev’s fault if a user story has not been resolved. However, this is a good opportunity to monitor the progress of your developers and pick up on any lax procedures.

The final step in your scrum project management is to check up on your software’s security. Whilst this should generally be a separate process which is carried out regularly, security is certainly no laughing matter; check that the process is being followed regularly and is up to scratch.

Monitor your progress with the sub-checklist below; feel free to add items to cater to your requirements!

Congratulations! You’re all done with this stint of scrum project management; huzzah! Now it’s time to start the whole thing again in preparation for your next sprint – there’s no rest for the wicked, but every completion brings you closer to success!

Dan Goodin – Potentially Catastrophic Bug Bites All Versions of Windows. Patch Now

Raju K – The Importance of Pre-Project Sprints

Vikash Krumar – Importance of Scrum in Project Management

Git Workflow

User Story Template

Sprint Planning

Software Deployment

Software Testing Tutorial

Software Debugging Process