The fifth part of the series posts about scrum under TFS. This time we will give a final review and our conclusion about the Scrum templates under TFS2005. Read our previous parts here:
This article is also cross posted on the ordina blog.
Final review
eScrum
Advantage:
- Much SCRUM functionality on board
- Easy to use
- Lot of reports specific Scrum
- Has web front end
Disadvantage:
- Scrum à la Microsoft
- First version contains lots of bugs
- Extra libraries needed if you want to use the site also.
- Difficult installation, it’s a pain in the ass
- No help in Visual Studio
- Sometimes slow. But the test was under a VPC, but you still need a heavy server.
CodePlex
Advantage:
- Easy installation
- Guidance Explorer
- Very easy, very common as working with the standard TFS, just some renaming.
Disadvantage:
- Not a many extra’s like reports
- No daily scrum
- In fact doesn’t follow the Scrum guidelines
Conchango
Advantage:
- Implements mostly the Scrum guidelines
- Easy in use, and very low learning curve
- Several skillfull tools added
- Very good reporting
Disadvantage:
Conclusion
If you want to use Scrum in TFS, Conchango is for the moment the best (free) solution. The very good reporting with the skillfull tools makes it a pleasant experience.
eScrum has a lot of potential, but sometimes drops a stitch. A very good point is the web interface.
Codeplex in its current form has too many limits to use in practice. Although there is a final version (since September 2007) which seems to go on the good way.
So this was the fifth part. In the next part, we'll talk about the Scrum templates under TFS2008.
Your TFS Scrummasters
Bart Wullems and Sven Cipido