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 clients 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,

ATLASSIAN - TOOLSET
TOOL NAME
CONFLUENCE JIRA BAMBOO

FUNCTIONALITY
Wiki Editor & Collaboration Issue Tracking & Project Tracking Continuous Integration Server

GREENHOPPER
BONFIRE FISHEYE

Agile Project Management

Agile Testing Real-time Notification & Reporting

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, browserbased 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 TOOLS

Online, 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 - 1
FEATURE
Product Backlog Prod Mgmt Board Sprint Planning Sprint Backlog

RALLY

SCRUM WORKS

ICE SCRUM

AGILE BUDDY

AGILO FOR TRAC

Sprint Estimation Sprint Milestones

Task Mgmt Burn-down Chart Proj. Dashboard Traceability Multiple Projects

Moderate
Moderate

Planning Poker

FEATURE COMPARISON - 2
FEATURE
Pricing Deployment Platform Integrated Wiki

RALLY
Freemium VMWare

SCRUM WORKS Per User Multiple

ICE SCRUM Freeware Grails/JEE

AGILE BUDDY Per User

AGILO FOR TRAC Freeware Installation

Cloud /SaaS Cloud/SaaS

Installation SaaS

Ruby on Rails Python

Reporting Notifications
Bug Tracking 3rd Party Integration

Full-Fledged Full-Fledged Moderate E-Mail, RSS

In-built

Good
JIRA SVN, Git, GitHub REST API Central Repository

Full-Fledged
In-built Trac Plug-ins SVN Full Support

E-Mail
TeamForge

Large array of CollabNet Connectors Suite only

SDK / API

SOAP, REST

Limited Central Repository

Support for Central Distributed Teams Repository