Scrum Process Template
This document provides an overview of the contents of the Scrum process template.
A tutorial for how to use Scrum with Rational Team Concert is available on the IBM developerworks portal.
Changes Since the Team Concert 1.0 Version
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Improved and simplified the workflows of the Stories and the Tasks work item types.
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Leveraged the Team Concert 2.0 support for custom plan types to define sprint backlog and product backlog plan types.
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Added the work item types: Epic, Track Build Item, and Adoption Item.
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Added the reports: release burndown, team velocity
Scrum Template Overview
This section provides an overview of the Scrum template contents.
Different teams work differently and Rational Team Concert supports flexible process customization. We therefore
recommend that you customize the template as needed. We recommend the following approach:
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Create a project with the Scrum template
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Customize the process in the project area editor to suite your needs, customize the work flows, add custom attributes etc.
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Create your version of the Scrum process template by creating a process template from the customized process.
Iteration Structure and Categories
In Scrum a release is subdivided into a number of fixed length Sprints. The Scrum process template defines the
following initial iteration structure:
The template creates the following initial categories to organize your work items. You will typically create and associate a category for each team area you create:
Roles and permissions
The template defines the following roles:
The project level permissions are assigned as shown below:
The set of permission that can be customized at the team area level are assigned like this:
Work Item Types
The template defines the following work item types:
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Story - defines what needs to be built. Stories are estimated in Story Points and broken down into Tasks.
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Epic - used when a story is too large to be completed in a single sprint or when there too many unknowns to estimate the amount of work.
An Epic can be broken down into several stories.
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Task - defines a unit of work planned for a sprint and is estimated in hours. Tasks are linked to a Story using a parent/child link.
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Defect - a bug, error, flaw in the implementation. Defects related to a Story can be associated with a Story using a parent/child link.
Defects and Tasks associated with the Story are shown on the taskboard.
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Impediment - used to track issues that get in the way of making progress.
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Retrospective - used to capture the findings of the Sprint retrospective meeting.
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Track Build Item - typically created from a build result to track the fixes needed for a failed build.
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Adoption Item - tracks when changes by one team need to be adopted by another team.
To learn about the attributes and work flows of these work item types use the project area editor to inspect the different configuration aspects for
work items.
Queries
The Scrum template defines a set of queries to retrieve work items. Most queries use the work item state to filter the work items.
The following queries are based on links defined between work items:
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Blocked work items - the set of open work items that depend on another work item to be completed
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Stories with open defects - the set of stories that have open defects linked to them using a parent/child link.
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Defects affecting stories - the set of open defects that are linked to a story using a parent/child link.
Plans
The template provides the following plan types:
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Product Backlog - the product back log. It provides modes to view the work items in a ranked flat list, or in a hierarchical work break down structure, and in the iteration structure.
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Release Backlog - the release back log. It provides modes to view the work items in a ranked flat list, in a hierarchical work break down structure, in the iteration structure, and in the team structure. The iterations view mode shows how the work items are planned across the sprints.
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Sprint backlog - the sprint back log. It provides modes to view the work items in a ranked flat list, in a hierarchical work break down structure, on a task board, and as planned time. The planned time view mode shows how the team members schedule their work.
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Schedule risk assessed sprint backlog (non-express editions only) - this plan expands the sprint plan so that you can enter minimal, nominal, and maximal estimates for items. The risk of completing the items on the backlog is computed based on these additional estimates.
Rules/Preconditions
Development practices are not in the scope of Scrum, but can also be enacted in a process template.
The Scrum process template adds the following preconditions for everyone when delivering changes:
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Clean workspace - no delivery with compile errors
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Descriptive changesets - change sets should be associated with a work item which is planned for the current iteration/sprint.
Reports
The Scrum template provides a set
of built-in reports that are not specific to Scrum. The following
reports are of particular interest when using Scrum:
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Burndown: the work burn down for a sprint
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Release Burndown: the burndown of story points during a release.
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Story Point by Iterations: a report that shows the story points completed per iteration.
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Team Velocity: a report that shows the velocity of a team across sprints.
These reports are also available on the dashboard.
The Sprint Burndown report is shown on the Charts tab of the iteration plan editor.
Dashboards
The Scrum template defines several dashboard templates:
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Project: shows statistics for the whole release like open impediments, or the team velocity, and statistics for the current sprint like a burndown chart, or the current build health.
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Team: burndown chart for the team (only available in non-express editions)
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Personal: assigned work items and tasks (only available in non-express editions)