MS Project and Scrum

A few words

I don't fit into the category of guys who say you can't use MS Project with Scrum. I say it depends on the size and scope of the project. It can be used well in case you have non-software development related tasks too.

Example:

Project objective statement: A casino solution for accounting, player tracking and payment processing within 1 year for 1 million EUR.

Dependencies and high level tasks:

• Hardware
• Hardware development
• Software development
• Testing phases
• Shipment dates
• Custom clearance
• Network implementation
• Installation at the venue
• Acceptance dates
• Approval dates by authority
• and many more

The development of the software (Scrum process) is just a piece of cake. The level of details in MS Project about the software development depends on how accurate one wants to track and on the breakdown of the whole project (divide and conquer). I can have one bar "Software release - New Payment System" with the start/end date based on the burn down chart or I can put in every Sprint. One has to assure to provide the right detail of the project and to make deliveries and phases manageable.

How can you make it work?

• Don't put low level tasks into MS Project, don't overload yourself with small activities, make them part of  a larger deliverable
• Choose the right level of detail
• Define the right process for the project and combine useful methods of miscellaneous management philosophies (IPMA process, PMI process, Scrum, Kanban, spiral model, etc.)

Example:

MS Project - Sprints only
Only sprints are used and later one can add other Sprints in case the project is going to be late or non software dependencies need to be tracked. The Backlog list is copy and paste from Excel.

Info
Story points	160
Stories	40
Team size	2	engineers
Sprint duration	2	weeks
Velocity	10	SP p. Sprint
Total sprints:	16	Sprints
Weeks:	32	calendar weeks
Duration p. Story Point	2	days

Burn down chart

In this case it is tracked on sprint level which is not really informative, but gives an estimate about the end date.

MS Project - Sprint level

A  more accurate option is to move the stories selected into the specific sprint before a sprint starts. The team needs 2 days for a story point. Higher tracking level means more work do update the data. It depends on the needs. Tools like Excel or MS Project should help but it shouldn't be a burden on the project manager.

MS Project - Sprint and Features aka Stories

Links:
Burndown chart - explaination