Many organizations are now using Agile software development methods to deliver quality working software faster. Scrum is an especially popular Agile framework where self-organizing teams plan, work, test, and deliver software using an iterative process. The ServiceNow SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) application can help you organize Scrum development work with a flexible, easy, and visual tool.
A Scrum team consists of the following:
- a product owner that represents customer needs
- a Scrum master that facilitates the work of the team and removes roadblocks
- team members that are individual contributors such as developers and quality assurance engineers
The SDLC tool offers features for all members of the team. Product owners can manage stories and team backlogs on the planning board:
The Scrum master can use the velocity chart to plan the team's workload in future sprints and the burn down chart to view progress during a sprint.
Team members can view their stories within a sprint and mark progress on stories or tasks (if used). The example shows a coding task that is in progress with two remaining hours of work to do and an estimated total planned time of three hours.
The SDLC application gives you the flexibility to track development efforts at a level that fits your organization. Want to organize stories into epics? You can. Want to break stories into tasks? You can. Don't want to do either of those? You don't have to. The tool supports the way you choose to organize the work. Keep the following in mind:
- Assign the right Scrum roles to the right people. There are several Scrum roles and the roles grant very different powers in the tool.
- Create products that are the correct size. Products can have a narrow focus or a wide scope. Ensure that the scope of the product is appropriate so you can track the work efficiently over time.
- Write high-quality stories. Scrum stories include a short description of the requirements and acceptance criteria. Each story should be understandable by everyone on the team and provide enough information so the team can estimate how long the work will take. Writing good stories is an art and can transform a team into a high performing unit.
- Manage the sprint using all the available boards and charts. Try the story progress board, task progress board, velocity chart, and burn down chart. The progress boards are interactive, enabling users to mark their hours and change story or task state right in the boards. This is an excellent way for visual learners to track their work.
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