Scrum with Microsoft Project 2010

 

Love it or hate it, the defacto project management software tool is still Microsoft Project.  The latest version is 2010 and was featured on the Project Management 2.0 blog by Dave Garrett on this site.

The improvements I like are the easier integration with SharePoint and other Office tools, especially Excel.  The biggest change was the ribbon menu that was introduced in Office 2007 products and is now part of Project 2010.  The most interesting development to come for this new Ribbon interface, was a solution starter kit from the MSDN development team to enable you to do Scrum in Microsoft Project!  It adds a new ribbon tab when you pick a Scrum template from the “New Scrum Project” list.

This add on is focused on the desktop client and managing individual Scrum projects by a ScrumMaster to track and manage sprints by:
 

• Collecting and tracking status
• Managing the product backlog
• Managing the sprint backlog (and initial iteration planning)
• Viewing a burn down chart
• Easily exporting Scrum data to email/other apps

The add on does not have features for Project Server 2010 integration, PPM/EPM views or “higher level scenarios like integrating Scrum with EPM, or using Project to manage Scrums of Scrums (or Scrums of Scrums of Scrums…)”

Rather than provide screenshots which are already provided in the downloadable guide on the site, here’s a great overview video on how to use the add-on:
 

I know many Agile/Scrum purist would scoff at using such traditional Gantt based desktop PM tool like MS Project, but for many project managers making the transition to Agile/Scrum or existing ScrumMasters who are in an organization already using MS Project 2010, this is a great and cost effective way to do Scrum in an existing tool you are already familiar with.

Furthermore, if like me you are interested in modifying and/or extending the features of this ribbon, you can also download the source code from the site.  It is provided as a Visual Studio project file and was developed in C# using the Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) module.  When it comes to Office automation, I’m a traditional VBA guy, but have been wanting to look into VSTO but not enough time or interest to do so.  This add-on’s source code has provided motivation to do so now (Please make sure to read the license agreement for the source code to understand what you can or cannot do with the source code and add-on).

I be sure to post updates on this add-on as I experiment with it more.