Scrum with Trello
It started with a problem
How can we use Trello to support our Agile workflow using Scrum?
Trello has a concept called Template Boards. I created one called “Scrum with Trello”:
This board is public and you can access it at: http://tinyurl.com/scrum-with-trello
The lanes are identified as ‘Product Backlog’, ‘Sprint Backlog’, ‘Current Sprint’, ‘To do’, ‘In Progress’, ‘Ready to Verify’ and ‘Done’. This is called Scrum.
The Product Backlog a place to aggregate all of your project’s User Stories.
As you’re planning which Stories to action in the following Sprint during the, use the Sprint Backlog lane to prioritise.
Stories that the team commits for the present Sprint belong in the Current Sprint lane. When a Story makes it to this point, developers should now create many Product Backlog Items (PBIs) such as ‘Tasks’ or ‘New Features’ using as many Trello cards as required. PBIs should be as granular as possible!
Plan your daily commitments and move the PBIs to Todo.
Throughout the day, PBIs should move toward the righthandside of the board via In Progress, Ready to Verify and then to Done.
The User Story card can only be moved to Done, when all of its child Trello cards are completed and the Product Owner has accepted the completion of the work.
Hmmm.. how can Trello identify the different types of Product Backlog Items?
Labels! Use Labels to identify different Product Backlog Items. These are already part of the Template Board:
User stories (green) describe in layman’s terms a goal of a product user and why that goal exists. It should be described in a non technical way so that its meaning is equally understood by all parts of the business. A user story takes the form “As a …. I want to … so that I …”.
A New Feature (yellow) is a task that is required new components for the product.
An Issue (orange) is a problem that occurs during the sprint and is commonly confused with bugs. Issues are part of the evolving acceptance criteria for a User Story and until all are resolved, its User Story is not complete.
A Bug (red) is problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product. A bug is a bug only if it identified after a user story has been completed and accepted by the product owner.
A Task (purple) that needs to be done that must be completed as part of the Minimum Viable Product.
An Improvement (blue) is an enhancement to an existing feature that is not Minimum Viable Product.
Copy the Template Board for your project and kick it off:
Happy Scrumming with Trello!
References
Goldstein, I. 2014, Scrum Shortcuts without Cutting Corners: Agile Tactics, Tools & Tips, Pearson Education, United States of America
