Scrum board: monitoring the progress of the User stories in the backlog

The Scrum board is one of the essential tools that a Scrum team uses to monitor the progress of its sprints and organise the distribution of tasks.

Simple in appearance, the Scrum board must in fact meet certain requirements, and above all must be adapted to the size of the team and the project.

Let's find out together what a Scrum board is, how it's organised and how to choose between an online or physical board. Finally, we'll look at an example of a Scrum board and a selection of tools to help you create your own.

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What is a scrum board?

Scrum board: definition

A Scrum board is a visual representation of the work to be done by a Scrum team during a sprint. It is an essential tool in the Scrum framework, enabling you to track the completion of user stories and tasks during the sprint in a table.

It contains at least three columns, but some more complex projects contain many more and require the mobilisation of an entire wall.

🇫🇷 The French translation of Scrum board is tableau Scrum.

Why use a Scrum board?

Its purpose is to simplify the organisation and management of projects in the fields of software development, marketing, business and human resources.

Thanks to the Scrum Board, you can isolate and organise the different tasks of the Scrum team, as well as tracking each task throughout its lifecycle, from "To do" to "Done".

In short, the Scrum board is a particularly effective project management dashboard, providing a snapshot of progress at any given moment .

Scrum board and Kanban board: what are the differences?

At first glance, the Scrum board and the Kanban board look similar because of their table structure and post-it system. But how do they really differ?

Here are the main differences:

How is a Scrum Board organised?

The Scrum Board takes the form of a physical or digital whiteboard. It displays the backlog of User stories that need to be produced to complete a given project.

Different columns are drawn, each determining a stage of progress. The most common subdivision of a Scrum Board is as follows:

• Column 1: User Stories or Backlog: this section shows the list of all the user stories in the current sprint's backlog.
• Column 2: To Do: This column lists tasks that have not yet been started.
• Column 3: In progress: this category displays tasks that are currently being carried out.
• Column 4: Done: generally corresponding to the last column on the right, this is where you see completed tasks.

In addition to these basic categorisations, the Scrum Board can sometimes be further subdivided by using additional parameters, such as :

• Not started,
• Specified,
• Tested, etc.

Coloured post-its represent the User stories and their associated tasks, and are placed in the columns according to their state of progress. The further the team progresses, the more the post-its are moved to the right. Each item to be developed corresponds to a post-it, and each post-it belongs to a member of the team responsible for working on it.

🎯 The aim? For all the post-its in the left-hand column to arrive in the right-hand column at the end of the sprint.

💡 At the end of a sprint, the Scrum Master is required to conduct a sprint retrospective, which is a session during which the overall degree of progress is assessed. In this context, the Scrum Board is very useful for providing immediate feedback on the state of progress of the project.

Choosing between an online and physical Scrum Board

You're getting ready to build your Scrum board but you're hesitating between a physical Scrum board and its digital alternative?

On the one hand, the physical Scrum board provides a clear and concrete visual support during the various Scrum ceremonies (daily meeting, retrospective, etc.). It allows team members to talk to each other in real life, and offers them perspectives.

On the other hand, the online Scrum board offers a number of advantages, such as :

• a high degree of customisation
• real-time updates
• a high degree of flexibility
• remote use, especially when teleworking
• monitoring by external parties.

The following comparison table will probably help you to choose the most appropriate type of Scrum board.

Comparison table

Have you made your choice? Great, now all you have to do is create your Scrum board.

Creating a physical Scrum board

1. Get yourself a blank board. This could be a blackboard, a whiteboard, or even a set of large sheets of paper taped to a wall.
2. Place it in a central location where all the team members can access it easily.
3. Draw the columns corresponding to the Sprint stages you intend to insert.
4. Fill in the columns with the data relating to the different stages (indication of the user's story and, in short, the objective they are aiming to achieve).
5. Assign the US and the tasks to the team members. Normally, each task is carried out by a single person. For the Scrum Board on a physical medium, for the sake of convenience, it is advisable to write the various tasks on a post-it note that can be easily moved around the board. The post-its with the tasks are initially placed in the "To Do" column.
6. When the sprint starts, you should move the post-its representing the tasks gradually (depending on the work done) from one column to another.
7. Once a task has been completed, the corresponding post-it note should be placed in the "finished" column.

Creating an online Scrum Board

To create a virtual Scrum Board, the steps you need to follow are similar to those for a physical Scrum Board. They also depend on the software you choose.

In many cases, there is already a preconfigured model in the tool, with the basic columns: "Backlog", "To do", "In Progress" and "Done".

The software will then allow you to :

• Add or remove columns in just a few clicks,
• Add team members with an account or email address,
• assign them US tasks,
• move them from one column to another on the Scrum board.

Instead of the post-its used in the physical Scrum Board, the online Scrum Board generally features "cards", but the principle remains exactly the same.

👆 Make sure you set up everyone's rights (modification and/or consultation) so that only people in the Scrum team can modify, move or add items.

Scrum board: example

Here is an example of a rather elaborate Scrum board.

It shows the backlog on the left, providing visibility of the User stories remaining to complete the project.

Next, the Story column lists the various User stories selected for the current Sprint. The Post-its in this column will remain fixed, while their associated tasks will be moved around as the project progresses.

Smaller post-its therefore represent the tasks associated with each User story, and can be found in the To Do, In Progress or Done columns.

On the far right, you can see that this team has integrated its management tools in order to have a more global view of the project, beyond the current sprint:

• the sprint objectives
• a burnup chart,
• a burndown chart.

Other useful elements have also been included, such as :

• obstacles encountered during the sprint
• the team's absence schedule ,
• topics discussed during the daily scrum.

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Free Scrum board: a selection of tools

If the digital Scrum board option seems to better suit your needs, and the current context, here are some free tools you can use:

• Redmine coupled with a Scrum plug-in,
• TargetProcess online and limited to a few accounts.

You can also opt for professional project management software, which is often more comprehensive and powerful.

Do you use the Scrum board to monitor the progress of your projects? If so, in what form? Tell us in the comments!