For the last 3 months I have been lucky to work with tools and in an environment that is agile. My job requires lots of small projects and tasks and my job title is clear but my work is every changing. I like new challenges and creative tasks.
Recently our small team has been using http://cardmeeting.com/ an online tool to add ideas, set up tasks, and keep track of what the whole is doing and what still needs to be done.
I am looking for more tools to make our agile practices more streamlined and efficient. Any suggestions or ideas?
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I like the idea of CardMeeting, but the implementation is attrocious. There are some desperately missing features. For one, the ability to download the whole meeting in some export format (at least for backup). Also, being web-based, it’s great for when you’re on-line, but for someone like me on the road, I can’t use it for planning, as I need something that could be detachable which I could sync when I get back to the digital world.
I have used the “Stickies.app” on the Mac for some personal planning, and if someone at Apple came up with a server-fed, syncronizable version of stickies that were shareable between people, that would be an amazing app. (subscription stickies, if you will)
Frankly that could be a complete replacement for a lot of backlog management, though I think having stickies, and then list structures that could keep groups of stickies in lists would be great. Can’t think of a good way to display it, but I’ll keep thinking.
Try ScrumDesk (http://www.scrumdesk.com), please.
ScrumDesk looks great, but it’s a PC platform tool. I know that Paul (the author of the post), Christian Gruber who made another comment, and myself all use Macs. Any solutions out there for Macs?
There are a lot of tool out there that help Scrum practitioners. My favourites are Mingle (http://studios.thoughtworks.com/mingle-project-intelligence/) and Rally (http://www.rallydev.com).
In my opinion, Rally is the most feature complete solution out there.
Thank you for appreciation, Mishkin.
Hello Paul, Christian, and Mishkin,
CardMeeting is a collaborative tool that is currently under development and is not yet feature complete. That said, CardMeeting is actually quite rich on features if you know where to look.
Because interoperability is so critical, CardMeeting sports a full complement of SOAP/REST Web Services and XML Import/Export tools. So, Christian, your backup concerns should hopefully be addressed there. I encourage you to review the recently expanded documentation on this subject located at:
http://cardmeeting.com/docs/CardMeetingDataExchange.pdf
CardMeeting is designed to allow multiple users to collaborate simultaneously and in real-time, so it is currently tethered to internet connectivity and the browser by necessity. CardMeeting has been tested recently for Safari and Firefox compatibility on the Mac.
CardMeeting is also designed for “mashup” style application development, so third-parties can build upon the functionality in CardMeeting and integrate it with their custom solutions.
CardMeeting is currently free of charge and is available for your team’s review and collaboration at http://CardMeeting.com
Cheers,
Dave Woldrich
We’ve been developing Agilefant, an open source (MIT-license) tool for backlog and development portfolio management in collaboration with our partner companies at the Helsinki University of Technology.
Check out http://www.agilefant.org for more info.
We have begun an Open Source Project GNU/GPL called IceSrum (JEE web app with Ajax and Reverse Ajax).
But I’m searching for dev to help me completing the tool. Currently this is not finished and this is lacking of English translations (I’m french ^^).
Try the online demo, I will make a WAR/ Tomcat Bundled version on the week end.
Aye I haven’t given URL : http://www.icescrum.org
Hi Guys n Girls
I agree with Hugo, Rally is a very good tool for running Scrum based efforts.
I have tried a lot of tools and have even written my own and I can say hand on heart that a hosted solution is way better then any of the other options, even using an simple Excel sheet!
If you want to try Rally out with a PO and dev team then you can use the communitee edition for free!
Some team might be abe to get away with only using the communitee edition!
more
http://urlant.com/44vlbp
Thank you all for your great comments and suggestions. I have used the export feature in cardmeeting and it works well. Is there a way to place cards on a grid or something similar?
I am looking forward to trying the other tools mentioned in the comments.
The more I am involved in Agile methods and practices the more I see its usefulness in other avenues in my life.
I agree, but only as long as the the agile team continue to focus on the agile process and not the tool. The tool should facilitate the agile process, nothing more.
I personally like http://www.scrumedge.com
There’s a number of Agile Board Softwares out there and I do agree with some of you but now try this and tell me what you think. For me, it’s one of the best around!
http://reqtest.com/features/agile-board
Look forward to have your views!