SCRUM TOOLS

INTRODUCTION - I

• SCRUM is one of the most popular Agile methodologies used currently

• Consists of iterations called Sprints ranging from weeks to month, but typically 2 weeks

• Short duration of “sprints” leads to an intensive schedule

• Availability of tools to automate activities and generate artifacts helps in timely completion

INTRODUCTION - II

• Tool support has grown significant ly since 2009

• Many have generic Agile focus, some are specific to Scrum

• Forrester considers only 10 commercial vendors as “Significant”– CollabNet, Atlassian &

Rally discussed here

TOOL TYPES

• Commercial– Proprietary tools developed by companies– Mostly based on SaaS model

• Freeware– Developed by communities under various GPL– Limited support, installable & mostly HTML-based

• Freemium– “Dumbed-down” version is free, with limited support– Upgradeable to “Pro” version, with lot more features

RALLY SOFTWARE - 1

• Agile-Generic focus• Multiple versions

– Community, Free up to 10 users– Enterprise, for multiple projects– Unlimited, for entire organization

• Provides complete set of ALM tools for Agile Development

• Provides Certifications on Scrum and consultants (onsite) for customer implementations, if req.

RALLY SOFTWARE - 2

• ALM is the core engine• Web Services API provides

SOAP/REST interfaces and a Batch API for mass data transfer

• Connectors for integration with 3rd party tools– SCM, Defect Mgmt, Testing, IDEs, Build Mgmt…• App Catalog contains tools that extend Rally ALM

• Customization includes SDK, Ruby Integration Kit, etc• External Views provide hooks for Rally data to be

displayed seamlessly in external applications

COLLABNET - 1• ScrumWorks Pro is geared towards Scrum• Originally from Danube, acquired in Feb 2010

• Cloud-based software– SaaS pricing model, but installable in client’s cloud if

required

• Java-based with a MySQL datastore• Training & Certification services available

COLLABNET - 2

• Complementary products for ALM include:– Subversion, a widely popular source-control tool (SCM)– TeamForge, an integrated suite for Agile Software

Development & ALM with Collaboration tools– Lab Mgmt, a cloud-based service that enables IT users

to configure entire environments easily• Continuous Integration & Testing (CIT), manage software assets,

Project Reporting & Compliance Checking, etc

• Extensive User community to provide additional support

ATLASSIAN

• Focus on agile development– Company uses own tools and practices Agile internally

• Code base provided along with license– Users can change code, but not redistribute it

• Offers a whole suite of products, which can be used stand-alone or tightly integrated to help Agile development– JIRA, GreenHopper, Confluence, Bamboo, …

TOOL NAME FUNCTIONALITY

CONFLUENCE Wiki Editor & Collaboration

JIRA Issue Tracking & Project Tracking

BAMBOO Continuous Integration Server

GREENHOPPER Agile Project Management

BONFIRE Agile Testing

FISHEYE Real-time Notification & Reporting

ATLASSIAN - TOOLSET

ICE SCRUM

• Free & Open Source Software– Available under GNU Affero GPL V3

• Geared towards Scrum, with some Kanban features• Web-based application, built on top of Grails

Framework, which itself is based on Java EE– Earlier versions were in Java (2006) & Java EE (2008)

• Uses Hibernate ORM for accessing data store, typically MySQL or HSQLDB

• Lots of features, but GUI is not very intuitive

AGILE BUDDY

• Based on Ruby on Rails• Connectors to GitHub,

Git, JIRA, SVN• SDK based on REST API• SaaS Deployment only• Several advanced features for full SCRUM Mgmt– Proj Mgmt: Estimation, Planning, Calendar, Reporting– Team Mgmt: Collaboration, Backlog Mgmt, Bug Tracking– Centralized Document Repository, Portal-like GUI– User Story Mgmt, Task Mgmt, …

AGILO FOR TRAC

• Based on Trac/Python• Open Source, browser-based• Connectors to many Source

control s/w (Git, Subversion, Mercurial, …)

• Several advanced features for full SCRUM Mgmt– Complete traceability (Storyboard to Commit)– Support for multiple projects, teams and time zones– Smart drag & drop (aligns hierarchy automatically)– Burn-down charts and backlogs support multiple teams

OTHER SCRUM TOOLSOnline, Open source software still in Beta. Very easy to use with minimal, yet powerful features

Simple HTML-based tool with just enough functionality to automate Scrum projects. Basic version is SaaS. Pro is Java EE (v6+) based and requires Tomcat/Glassfish server

Adds as a Sanbox within Sharepoint 2010 and tightly integrated with it. Exceedingly simple GUI with limited functionality. Can be extended through SP2010 hooks and features

FEATURE COMPARISON - 1FEATURE RALLY

SCRUMWORKS

ICE SCRUM

AGILE BUDDY

AGILOFOR TRAC

Product Backlog

Prod Mgmt Board

Sprint Planning

Sprint Backlog

Sprint Estimation Moderate Planning Poker

Sprint Milestones

Task Mgmt Moderate

Burn-down Chart

Proj. Dashboard

Traceability

Multiple Projects

FEATURE COMPARISON - 2FEATURE RALLY

SCRUMWORKS

ICE SCRUM

AGILE BUDDY

AGILOFOR TRAC

Pricing Freemium Per User Freeware Per User Freeware

Deployment Cloud /SaaS Cloud/SaaS Installation SaaS Installation

Platform VMWare Multiple Grails/JEE Ruby on Rails Python

Integrated Wiki

Reporting Full-Fledged Full-Fledged Moderate Good Full-Fledged

Notifications E-Mail, RSS E-Mail

Bug Tracking In-built TeamForge JIRA In-built

3rd Party Integration

Large array of Connectors

CollabNet Suite only

SVN, Git, GitHub

Trac Plug-insSVN

SDK / API SOAP, REST Limited REST API

Support for Distributed Teams

Central Repository

Central Repository

Central Repository

Full Support