1. (optional) Review and update categories assigned to the team area 

Categories are used to group work items by code area, project component, or area of focus.  Default categories should have been assigned when the team area was created.  Identify additional categories if needed.

Request the Project Area Administrator to make changes (the Scrum Master does not have the right privileges).

Defining categories that work items can be filed against

2. (Optional) Create "Project initiation" work items

Now that you have a team area defined, you can create work items and assign them to the team area.

Create work items from the Project Initiation work item template to create standard work items for the first sprint. Since you (the Scrum Master) are in the midst of configuring the team area, you can assign the "Configure team area" work item to yourself."

Creating work items from a template

3. Configure team dashboard

Dashboards contain widgets that provide real-time information. You might want to add, remove, or customize widgets. This is done on regular basis, as different reports and measurements are needed throughout the project.

One way you can customize your team dashboard is to define team-based queries.  See the steps below for more information.

See Managing Dashboards to know more about dashboards and Working with Widgets to understand how widgets can be used to make your dashboard more useful and easy to access.

3.1 Customize queries for the team

Copy existing project queries and add a team area condition to create the following queries, replacing <team> with the name of your team:

• Tasks without Owners – <team name>
• Blocked work items – <team name>
• Open Defects (current sprint) - <team name>

For each team add a query, "Open Work Items - <team name>" with the following conditions:

• Status condition, check the Unresolved box
• Team area condition (set to the applicable team)
• Planned for condition, check Current Iteration box

Creating queries in the web client

3.2 Update the widgets on the team dashboard to use the new queries 

Note that the team dashboard has several role-based tabs. Each tab contains reports that users with that role will find useful during the project.  There are widgets on these dashboards, but they use standard queries with project scope.  Replace the queries for these widgets with the queries customized for the team.

Customize these widgets on the Development Team tab:

• Blocked work items - set query to "Blocked work items - <team name>"
• Tasks without owners - set query to "Tasks without owners- <team name>"
• Open defects (current sprint) - set query to "Open defects (current sprint) - <team name>"
• Open work items by type
  - set query to "Open work items - <team name>"
  - set parameter to "Type"
• Open work items by owner
  - set query to "Open work items - <team name>"
  - set parameter to "Owned By"

Accessing a project or team dashboard

Configuring widgets

4. (optional) Create plans 

This step and the following substeps are optional because you can create plans later when you perform the planning tasks.

The Agile ALM template includes default plans - a release plan and 2 sprint plans. 

If you have only one team on the project, you can use these plans for the team.  If there are multiple teams, copy these default plans to create plans for the team.   If you have additional Sprints or Releases in the timeline, then add plans for these as well. 

Configure the plans in the following steps.

Creating different types of Plans

Duplicating plans

4.1 Update plan names and owner

By default, the release plan is called Release Backlog and the sprint plans are all called Sprint Backlog.  Consider changing these names to be more project specific, such as "Release 1" and "Release 1 Sprint 01".

Set the "Owner" attribute to the appropriate team.  Include the team name in the plan.

Renaming and reassigning a plan

4.2. Add a page to each plan in order to capture additional information

Add a Product Vision page to the Product Backlog plan, a Release Plan page to each Release plan, and a Sprint Goal page to each Sprint plan.

5. Invite team members

 Add members to the teams with their respective roles.  Send invitations - Rational Team Concert will generate emails with steps on how to join the newly created project area.

Every team area should have someone with the role of Scrum Master and another with the role of Product Owner.

6. (optional) Assign Scrum Master and Product Owner work items

If you previously created work items from the "Project initiation" work item template, you can now assign the remaining unassigned tasks from this template.

Assign either the Product Owner or the Scrum Master to each task, as specified in the process guidance.

Run the Tasks without Owners -   <team name> query created earlier.

• Click each unassigned task.
• Click See detailed description to determine what role should perform (own) the work item.
• Assign the work item to the team member performing that role.

7. (optional) Connect the Rational Team Concert Eclipse Client to the Project 

The Rational Team Concert Eclipse client supports some additional capabilities that are not available in the web client (e.g., delivering code changes, requesting new builds, importing work items).

Generally, non-software developers do not need the Eclipse client (the web client contains all the features they need). However, importing existing work into the backlog is a popular way to start a new project and that functionality is only available in the RTC Eclipse client.

Connect to the project area following the instructions in your invitation email (sent out in an earlier step).

Installing Rational Team Concert clients

Connecting the Rational Team Concert Eclipse client to the server

8. (optional) Define Defect "Found in" Values

Defects have a "Found in" attribute that can be used to categorize the defect by the kind of release in which it was found.
A candidate set of release kinds you could start with are:

• Production
• User Acceptance Test
• Integration Test
• Performance Test
• Development

Defining releases in the web client that work items can be filed against.

9. (optional) Set up external web browser

Team members using the Rational Team Concert Eclipse Client can display web pages within the Eclipse IDE. But they can also choose to open web pages in their favorite web browser by modifying Preferences > General > Web browser