Which are the popular tools used by Scrum Masters These days?
I am researching on scrum masters latest practices. Please share your preferred tool of choice.
That's quite a broad question. Tools for what purpose?
Rather than list a load of tools, perhaps it's better to understand the problems people are trying to solve, and why they feel a tool is the most appropriate option.
"Individuals and interactions over processes and tools"
Eyes and ears.
A wise Scrum Master once told me "A fool with a tool is still a fool". A stated above, understand first what problem you'd like to solve.
In my org we use JIRA to keep a list of backlog items. To foster communication, we use legs, mouths, and a few communicators.
As Olivier mentioned, eyes and ears.
Which are the popular tools used by Scrum Masters These days?
I am researching on scrum masters latest practices. Please share your preferred tool of choice.
“Eyes and ears” would indeed be our preferred tools of choice, but they are not necessarily the most popular. I’d suggest that any research you do considers the reasons for that.
I've just started using VersionOne and see that it has enough tools for my need: product backlog, sprint backlog, storyboard, taskboard, burndown char,... Feel satisfy with it. Tried Trello but didnt like.
Similarly, I'm looking at tools to help me present the charts and dashboards that we learned in Agile books. We use JIRA and Confluence in office, and some groups use Trello. JIRA can display burndown charts and CFDs, but it's still not what I needed ..... hard to explain. Now evaluating Smartsheet due to some work overlap with Waterfall projects.
JIRA is pretty widely used. Provides mechanisms to visualize Product backlog items, Sprint backlog items, sub tasks, Burndown charts, etc. And in sprint to see Todo, InProgress and Done items.
The gray matter between my ears, otherwise known as my brain. :)
Excel if I can help it. Why? Because Agile is about changing culture from the top to the bottom. Tools, processes and ceremonies are not what help build quality products for customers.
I agree with the eyes and ears.
Dang Oliver!! That is the best response, you totally nailed it.
Any data analytics tool is useful. A Scrum Master is not the Manager of Scrum or the output of Sprints. I use data to show it back to the team so they can see the outcome of their behaviors. Survey's are useful for when you're ensuring the team is able to identify it's own improvements to any of the Scrum Events, and by using them to identify common agile anti-patterns. The anti-patterns are my primary concern, often accidentally driven by lack of agile/scrum understandings.
A general Sprint Planning meeting that takes place on-site mostly uses a whiteboard. But when the entire team is working from home, things are different. And you need to rely on more online tools to plan and collaborate on.
- A video conferencing tool like Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, etc. It helps immensely to see the reactions, expressions, body language of everyone when you work remotely. Plus you can use it to share the screen with others. And during Sprint Planning, you can improve team engagement far better with video on.
- Messaging platform like Slack. You can use this for instant messaging, quickly share a link you find relevant. You can continue to use it throughout the Sprint to communicate with each other.
- A project management tool. Here also you have a wide variety of tools to choose from; Asana, Favro, Trello, etc. You can plan, track and keep a record of all the tasks discussed during the planning meeting using such a tool.
- An online whiteboard software like. Whether you want to brainstorm around an idea, create a user story map, or analyze and discuss a wireframe of your product, a tool like this can come in real handy. Whatever you do using a traditional whiteboard during Sprint Planning can be replicated online with an online tool like this.
Source: The Essential Guide to Sprint Planning with Work from Home Teams
Backlog management with JIRA/Azure Devops (TFS).
Ceremony helper tools like Miro/Easyretro.
Video meeting tools like Teams/Zoom.
Communication tool like Slack.
Here's my 2 cents on the topic:
- BACKLOG MANAGEMENT AND WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT:
- JIRA, RALLY, VERSION ONE OR TRELLO (OR EQUIVALENT)
- ONLINE MEETINGS WITH SCREEN SHARING:
- ZOOM OR WEBEX (OR EQUIVALENT)
- GROUP INSTANT MESSAGING:
- SLACK OR MICROSOFT TEAMS (OR EQUIVALENT)
- COLLABORATIVE, CLOUD BASED DOCUMENTATION:
- GOOGLE DRIVE APPS OR MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 APPS (OR EQUIVALENT)
- CORPORATE WIKI:
- CONFLUENCE (OR EQUIVALENT)
- WHITEBOARD TOOL:
- GOOGLE JAMBOARD OR MICROSOFT WHITEBOARD (OR EQUIVALENT)
- RETROSPECTIVE TOOL:
- EASY RETRO OR IDEABOARDZ (OR EQUIVALENT)
- ESTIMATION TOOL:
- STORYPOINT.POKER (OR EQUIVALENT)
As for physical tools for co-located teams, nothing beats good old index cards, sticky notes, Sharpies, whiteboards and planning poker cards!
Jira is the most widely used agile tool for Scrum Masters that has many features like Scrum implementation seamless for the users, including customizable Scrum boards, many visual project reports, and custom filters for backlog management. So without a doubt, Jira is one of the preferred Scrum Masters tools.
"Eyes and ears" are definitely the primary "tool." However, using a relevant app that supports backlog management, sprint planning, and facilitating collaboration can be beneficial. We use Jira + BigPicture to optimize processes like planning, allocating resources, and tracking the work progress.