ScrumWorks Pro - Documentation - Desktop Client User Guide

As with all systems, please ask your database administrator to make periodic backups of the ScrumWorks Pro database. There is no "UNDO" button so user error may result in a loss of data.

Although one ScrumWorks Pro Server permits multiple users, please be careful to avoid write conflicts when simultaneously editing a single Product. Although ScrumWorks Pro receives changes from the server with each request, you can use the Refresh function to manually update your screen if you suspect it's been altered (File > Refresh or the F5 shortcut key). An automated refresh will occur periodically while the ScrumWorks Pro client is open.

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Prerequisites

Supported ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux with the KDE window manager, and Mac OS X 10.5.2+ (Leopard).
Supported Web Browsers are Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8, Mozilla/Firefox 3.0.x and 3.5.x, or Safari 4+.
The minimum hardware requirements are 256 MB of RAM and 150 MB of disk space.
Java 6 and Java Web Start (JNLP) is required to launch the ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client. If you have Java 6 or higher installed (also known as J2SE 1.6+), Java Web Start is already installed on your machine. To install Java Web Start, install the latest Java 6 JRE from Sun's web site:
http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
Intranet/Internet connection for the duration of your ScrumWorks Pro session. A broadband connection is highly recommended for accessing ScrumWorks Pro over the Internet/WAN.
The Print to Cards feature requires a program capable of reading Adobe PDF 1.4, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 or higher, or Preview in Mac OS X 10.5.2 or higher.

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Client Installation

ScrumWorks Pro is a client-server application; that is, there is a Desktop Client that reads and stores data on a centralized server. This User Guide is intended for end users, see the Server installation documentation for instructions on installing the ScrumWorks Pro Server component.

The ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client is a Java application that launches via Java Web Start. Java Web Start works by locally caching the application and obtaining updates from the server when available. All data access and storage is done on the server over a network connection, so you must stay connected to the intranet/internet during the course of your session.

Install Java 6: make sure that the JRE or JDK version 6 is installed on your computer.
Point your favorite internet browser to your server's installation:
http://hostname:8080/scrumworks
where "hostname" should be replaced with the hostname or IP address of the server where the ScrumWorks Pro server-side component is installed. If you administrator changed the port number, replace "8080" with the actual port number.
A screen should present you with two boxes, "ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client" and "ScrumWorks Pro Web Client". Click "Launch ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client" in the "ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client" box.
If your browser asks you whether to Save or Open the file, choose "Open" file. At this point, Java should begin loading.
Java Web Start will launch, and ScrumWorks Pro will download and run. The first launch will take longer than subsequent launches. When the server installation of ScrumWorks Pro is updated, clients will automatically receive the updates on their next launch. Depending on your version of Java, the initial launch may indicate it is stalled. This is normal and the program should launch within a minute or two.

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License Activation

A valid license is required to run ScrumWorks Pro. You should have received a trial license file with your download. Otherwise, you may request one through the ScrumWorks Pro web site. Trial licenses are typically valid for 35 days, and full licenses are availabe through Danube Technologies. Please contact the Danube sales office for purchasing information.

Once you have obtained a license file, please follow the directions below to activate your ScrumWorks Pro software.

Launch the ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client application as described above.

If you have not installed a valid license, a license entry dialog will appear when you first launch the ScrumWorks Desktop Client. 'Browse' for your license and click 'Save and Close' to continue with your new license.

If your license is expired, only the Global Administrator will be able to log in to update the license.

Your license is accepted if you do not receive an error. If you receive an error message, please follow the steps again and be sure that the license file was not modified in any way after receiving it. IF YOU MODIFY THE FILE CONTENTS, THE LICENSE ENTRY PROCESS WILL FAIL.

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Authentication

Please be sure that you have properly installed your license before attempting to log in.

Once you have installed a valid license file, please follow these steps:

Launch the application as described above.
At the Login prompt, enter your login name and password. Note, your login name is different than your First and Last name. Your login name and password is originally created by the Global Administrator user using the User Manager. By default, the Global Administrator's login name is administrator with password password.
Click OK to continue, or Cancel to exit.

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New Product Creation Wizard

The Create Product Wizard guides you step-by-step through the decisions necessary to set up and quickly begin using a new Product. Using the wizard as a guide to new product creation will ensure that routine setup steps have been taken such as setting up teams, roles and permissions, and product properties.

At each step in the process, a Help tab gives explanations of information you will be asked for, and provides information on changing the settings once your Product has been created.

Note that if you cancel the Wizard at any time before clicking Finish, your settings will be lost, including any Teams or Users you have created as part of the setup process.

Once the Product is created, two things happen:

Roles based on the standard role templates are created for the new Product
The Product Backlog Window appears

If you do not wish to use the Create Product Wizard, a Product may alternatively be created using the File > New > Product menu option. Note, however, that this method skips all secondary steps like user, team, and role creation. For this reason, it is recommended that new users create Products using the wizard.

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Getting Started with Products

Launch the ScrumWorks Pro Desktop Client and use it to create a new product.

Click the "File" menu, select "New", then "Product" from the drop down menu. (Only the Global Administrator may create a new product.)
You will then be prompted for various product attributes in the Product Properties window.
Product Name: Enter any characters (including spaces) to uniquely identify the project.
Backlog Effort Units: Users can define any units for Backlog Items (hours, days, function points, etc.). Scrum does not define a standard backlog effort unit. NOTE: your choice in this field can be modified later through the "File" > "Product Properties" menu.
Business Weight (BW) Units: Users can define any units for Business Weight, which is a calculation of a Backlog Item's importance to the Product and/or business. Expressed as a whole number, it is calculated by adding Benefit and Penalty values.
Enable Timesheets: Allows Users to enter hours spent on Tasks in the web client, and enables the Timesheet tab of the Sprint Detail window in the desktop client, which displays a historical record of all Team members' hours spent per Task that sprint.
Roles & Permissions: Allows the Global Administrator to restrict access and use based on roles as defined by either the Global or Product Administrator. Roles can be enabled or disabled on a Product by Product basis. Once enabled for a particular product, Product Administrators may set the default Role for Team members.
Once the Product is created, two things happen:
1. Roles based on the standard role templates are created for the new Product
2. The Product Backlog Window appears

Required Permissions: Global Administrator

Both the Global Administrator and Product Administrator may change the product properties by selecting File > Product Properties.

Users with access to the new Product can open the Product from the main menu: "File" > "Open Product".

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Default Role for Team Members

When a new Product is created with Roles and Permissions enabled, a default Role may be chosen for assignment to all members of each Team that is associated with the Product. This allows users to inherit access to a Product simply by being added to a Team. This default Role is applied to User(s) when:

A User is added to a Team that has been associated with the Product; or

A Team is associated with a Product.

Conversely, when Users are removed from a Team, their access to Products the Team is associated with may be removed. When a Team is disassociated from a Product, Team member access to that Product may be removed as well. Setting this default is a quick way to control access to a Product via Team membership, rather than having to grant Product access to each User one-by-one in the User Manager.

There are two ways to set a default Role for Team members:

In the Create New Product Wizard, Step 7 offers a dropdown to select a Default Role for Team members. The recommended default is Team member [standard], but any available Role Template may be selected.

In the File > Product Properties menu dialog, under the section Roles & Permissions, there is a dropdown for Default Role for Team members. The recommended default is Team member [standard], but any available Role Template may be selected.

Note that this is a per-Product setting, and defaults may be different between Products. While Users may be a member of a Team that has been associated to a number of Products, the Roles they inherit based on these Product settings may be very different; this is not a Team-based setting, but rather applies Roles particular to a specific Product.

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General Docking Frame Behavior

ScrumWorks Pro uses a docking framework for a number of major interfaces such as the Sprints by Team, Product Backlog, Release Planner view, Sprint Detail view, and editors for Backlog Items, Tasks, Releases, and Impediments. While some behaviors differ between each type of frame, there are some general behaviors that are shared among them.

The Product Window acts as a container for dockable frames. "Docking" refers to the behavior by which frames adhere to (dock) or detach from (un-dock) the boundaries of the Product Window and other frames. Frames belong and may only dock to their parent Product Window; For example, the Sprints by Team frame belonging to Product A may not be docked into the window for Product B. To help users keep track of frames' parentage, the titlebar of each displays the name of the Product to which it belongs.

By default, a Product Window opens with the Sprints by Team and the Product Backlog frames docked to the Product Window, sharing the available space. As other frames are opened, they dock to default locations, and frames that were already open adjust to make room for the new frame. Locations, sizes, and relationships between frames are persistent within and between Product sessions; Users may re-arrange locations and relationships of frames, and these locations are remembered by the application so that frames, when restored, return to the location where they were last opened.

Because this high degree of flexibility allows a user to create a potentially confusing arrangement of the Product Window, the default layout of frames can be restored by selecting "View/Restore Default View" from the main menu.

Toggled states: Docked, Floating, and Minimized
Frames can be activated by opening item details within a Product/Program and by selecting tools from the main menu. While some frames are permanently visible, others can be closed using the "X" icon in frame titlebars. Once activated or opened, a docking frame's state and location is controlled primarily by icons at the upper right (Windows/Linux) or upper left (Mac) of each frame. Tooltips appear upon mouseover to describe each icon's action on the frame. The following frame states are available:

Docked: Docked frames may be moved within the Product Window and docked to various locations within it. Drag a frame's titlebar to move it, and an outline of the frame shows its location, snapping to locations it may be docked as it is dragged near other frames and the borders of the Product Window. In general, docked frames cannot be dragged into a floating position. The exception to this rule is multi-tabbed frames, see below.
Floating: Frames and certain tabs may be undocked to floating frames by either double-clicking the titlebar, or by clicking the "Toggle Floating" icon in the titlebar. A floating frame cannot be dragged into a docked position. To dock a floating frame, use the "dock" icon or double click the frame title bar to restore frames that dock by default.
Minimized: A frame can be minimized to a tab by clicking the "pushpin" icon. A docked frame will minimize that frame to a tab inside the Product Window. Other frames open in the window will adjust to take up the space vacated by the frame that was minimized. The minimized frame can be restored to it's prior docked location by clicking the tab to which it was minimized. Note, floating frames cannot be minimized directly (they must first be docked).

Multi-tabbed frames: Sprints by Team, and Editors
Many frames contain tabs to separate information and allow comparison of like data sets. Some of these tabs may be undocked into floating windows or docked alongside other tabs' information.

In the Sprints by Team frame, for example, individual Team tabs may be toggled to floating frames so that Sprints for two or more Teams may be viewed concurrently. This is done by clicking and dragging a tab, or double-clicking that Team's titlebar. To dock a floating Team frame back into the Sprints by Team frame, click and drag the individual Team's frame or double-click its titlebar, and it will return to the parent frame as a tab.

The Editors frame is another multi-tabbed frame into which Backlog Items, Tasks, and Impediments open when they are opened from the backlog or impediments frames. Opening Backlog Items, Tasks, or Impediments opens a tab for each into the Editors frame. These individual tabs may be undocked into floating frames, but they cannot be docked individually alongside other docked Editors.

When a large number of frames share the Product Window, it may be difficult to find a space where a dragged frame does not want to snap to a border or another frame. Holding the CTRL button down when dragging a frame deactivates the snap-to docking feature so that the frame may be easily moved without snap-to docking suggestions.

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Editors Frame Behavior

Editor Docking
The Editors frame is a container into which Backlog Items, Tasks, Impediments, and Releases open from either backlog or the impediments frames. Opening Backlog Items, Groups, Tasks, Impediments, or Releases opens a tab for each into a parent "Editors" frame. These individual tabs may be undocked into floating frames, or docked back into the parent "Editors" frame. Individual editor tabs may not be docked apart from the parent "Editors" frame.

Using the controls at either the upper right (Windows) or upper left (Mac) corner, or by combinations of clicking and dragging the frame title bar, the Editors frame may be maximized to occupy the entire window; toggled to a floating frame; 'docked' back into the window; and minimized to a tab at the bottom of the window.

Next / Previous Navigation in Editors
When an Editor is opened from the Product Window, the row selection in the Sprints by Team or Product Backlog frames corresponds to the item displayed and selected in the Editor: Clicking on the "∧" (Previous) and "∨" (Next) buttons in the editor moves the row selector up or down while the Editor displays the information for each successive or preceding item. Row selection follows the type of item in focus in the Editors frame: When clicking the up or down buttons from a Backlog Item, row selection is moved to the previous or next Backlog Item. If the same buttons are being used from a Task Editor, row selection moves only between Tasks. To streamline editing while scrolling in this manner through multiple Backlog Items or Tasks, changes are saved automatically upon clicking the Next or Previous buttons. The Next/Previous buttons are absent on Impediments.

Keyboard shortcuts: CTRL + DOWN ARROW (Next), CTRL + UP ARROW (Previous)

Note: the "∧" (Previous) and "∨" (Next) buttons are not available in the Release Planner view.

Creating New Backlog Items
The "New" button adds a new tab of the same type to the Editors frame and focus moves to that tab so that information may be entered and saved. Information for new Tasks must be saved before the new Task appears below the last existing Task in the PBI.

Keyboard shortcuts: CTRL + N (New PBI), CTRL + T (New Task), CTRL + I (New Impediment)

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Keyboard Navigation

ScrumWorks Pro has defined the following keyboard shortcuts to allow users to quickly navigate through the application.

This information is also available as printable, tri-fold keymaps for Windows/Linux and Mac OS X

General

Windows	Mac	Action
CTRL+Q	CMD+Q	Close ScrumWorks Pro.
CTRL+W	CMD+W	Closes the current window.
ESC	ESC	Closes the current pop-up window or menu. Pop-up windows are dialogs with a cancel button. This action does not confirm changes, so be careful when using this key.

Menu bar

Windows	Mac	Action
ALT	OPT	Toggles the keyboard navigation for the main menu.
ALT+F	OPT+F	Opens the File menu.
ALT+E	OPT+E	Opens the Edit menu.
ALT+V	OPT+V	Opens the View menu.
ALT+U	OPT+U	Opens the User menu.
ALT+R	OPT+R	Opens the Reports menu.
ALT+T	OPT+T	Opens the Themes menu.
ALT+W	OPT+W	Opens the Window menu.
ALT+H	OPT+H	Opens the Help menu.
CTRL+O	CMD+O	Opens the Product chooser dialog.
CTRL+SHIFT+O	CMD+SHIFT+O	Opens the Program chooser dialog.
F5	F5	Refresh the current Product or Program.
CTRL+F	CMD+F	Opens Find.
ALT+N	OPT+N	Find the next incremental match.
ALT+P	OPT+P	Find the previous incremental match.
CTRL+U	CMD+U	Opens the user manager window.
CTRL+P	CMD+,	Opens the user preferences window.
CTRL+B	CMD+B	Opens the Release Burndown by Sprint and Sprint Change Report.
F1	F1	Opens the user guide in a browser.

Product Window

Windows	Mac	Action
TAB	TAB	Toggles between the Sprint Backlog and Product Backlog. Focus returns to the last selection.
UP ARROW	UP ARROW	Scroll up one row within the Sprint or Product Backlog.
DOWN ARROW	DOWN ARROW	Scroll down one row within the Sprint or Product Backlog.
LEFT ARROW	LEFT ARROW	Expand the row selection. This option can be applied to a Release, Sprint, or Backlog Item.
RIGHT ARROW	RIGHT ARROW	Collapse the row selection.
ENTER	ENTER	Opens the item. For the Sprint row, this will open the Sprint Detail window. For a Release, Backlog Item, or Task row, this will open the corresponding editor.
PAGE UP	PAGE UP	Scroll up one page.
PAGE DOWN	PAGE DOWN	Scroll down one page.
HOME	HOME	Scroll to the top of the Backlog.
END	END	Scroll to the bottom of the Backlog.
CTRL+N	CMD+N	Opens a New Backlog Item editor.
CTRL+T	CMD+T	Opens a New Task editor. The Backlog Item drop down menu will be pre-populated with the current selected Backlog Item. The new task will be placed at the bottom of the tasks for the selected Backlog Item.
CTRL+C	CMD+C	Copy the current selected task(s).
CTRL+V	CMD+V	Paste the copied task(s) in the selected location. If the selected location is a Backlog Item, the task(s) will be pasted after the last task. If the location is a task, the copied task(s) will be pasted directly below the selected task.
ALT+ENTER	OPT+ENTER	Opens the context menu for the selected row.
DELETE	DELETE	Delete the currently select Product Backlog Item or Task.
CTRL+E	CMD+E	Switch focus to an open Editor.

Editors

Windows	Mac	Action
CTRL+E	CMD+E	Toggle focus between open Editors.
CTRL+Shift+E	CMD+Shift+E	Reverse direction of focus toggle between open Editors.
CTRL+R	CMD+R	Switch focus to "Sprints By Team" or "Product Backlog" from an Editor.
CTRL+L	CMD+L	Locate the current item on the window it was opened from. Not available in Impediment Editors.
CTRL+S	CMD+S	Save changes and keep Editor Open ("Apply" button)
ENTER/CTRL+ENTER	ENTER/CTRL+ENTER	Save changes and close Editor.
ESC	ESC	Close Editor in focus without saving ("Cancel" button)
CTRL+UP	CMD+UP	Open previous item in Backlog in place of currently open item (only in Editors where the Next/Previous buttons are available).
CTRL+DOWN	CMD+DOWN	Open next item in Backlog in place of currently open item (only in Editors where the Next/Previous buttons are available).
CTRL+N	CMD+N	Create new Backlog Item (only in Backlog Item Editors).
CTRL+ALT+N	CMD+ALT+N	Copy description text as a new Backlog Item. If description text is selected, only the selection will be copied. If no text is selected, the whole description is copied.
CTRL+T	CMD+T	Create new Task (only in Backlog Item and Task Editors).
CTRL+ALT+T	CMD+ALT+T	Copy Task description as a New Task. If description text is selected, only the selection will be copied. If no text is selected, the whole description is copied.
CTRL+I	CMD+I	Create new Impediment (only in Impediment Editors).

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Contacting Support

Under the "Help" menu, there is an option to "Contact Support". Selecting this menu option will open the default browser to the ScrumWorks Support web site.

Some usage information about your ScrumWorks Desktop Client and Server will be submitted to the ScrumWorks Support website. The data collected is the same data shown in Help > About under the "Database counts" and "System properties" sections.

The only time the data can be used to identify your particular installation is if you choose to submit it to the ScrumWorks Support Team via the website. If you do not wish to have your usage/system information associated with your support request, uncheck the "Send System Information to Danube" checkbox on the website.

NOTE: on selecting this menu option, usage data is always submitted from your client to our server. Anonymous usage information is collected and aggregated to better meet the needs of our customers.

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Managing Products

ScrumWorks Pro allows users to have many products open simultaneously. Products are opened using the "File" > "Open Product..." menu. The "Open Product" dialog gives a quick look at each Product in ScrumWorks Pro and lets you choose which Product to open.

Opening a Product

To open a Product in ScrumWorks Pro, use the "File" > "Open Product..." dialog, or the keyboard shortcut: CTRL + O. The "Open Product" dialog has three sections:

Recently Opened Products (most recent first)
- Lists your five most recently opened products
All Products (alphabetically)
- Lists all Products in ScrumWorks Pro accessible by the user
Sprint(s)
- Shows the most recent Sprint(s) for the currently selected product

An "Active" product is one which contains a currently running Sprint, had a Sprint that finished within five days, or has a Sprint that will start in the next five days.

Selecting a product and clicking the "Open" button opens a Product Window for the product. ScrumWorks Pro lets users open more than one Product Window for the same product.

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Open Multiple Products

ScrumWorks Pro allows for multiple products to be open at once. To open another product, use the "File" > "Open Product..." dialog, or the keyboard shortcut key: CTRL + O.

Note, users can open the same Product many times. This configuration is valuable for moving Product Backlog Items large distances in the Product Backlog.

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Close an open Product

There are two ways to close a product:

Close the application by using the application window's close controls or "File" > "Quit". Any open products will be restored the next time ScrumWorks is launched.

Close the Product window (containing its Sprint and Product Backlogs) by using the product window's close controls. Your changes are saved at every step, so closing a product only serves to clear it from the screen.

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Delete a Product

Global Administrators can delete products using the "File > Delete Current Product" function.

Select "Delete Current Product" from the File menu.
Click "Yes" to confirm, or "No" to cancel the deletion.
If you would like your database to be backed up first, select 'Yes', otherwise click 'No' (default "Hypersonic" database only). 'Cancel' aborts the delete operation.

Backup the attachments by copying the following directory to your backup medium:
INSTALLDIR/server/scrumworks/data/attachments
If the backup and deletion are successful, you will receive a success message. If not, an error message will appear.

Only the Global Administrator can delete a Product.

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Product Window Overview

The Product Window by default opens as a dual-framed interface, with the Sprints by Team frame on the left containing current and historical Sprint information per Team, and the Product Backlog frame on the right containing Product Backlog Items divided by planned Releases. Note that both frames may contain Backlog Items and Tasks; they each may be created directly in either frame, or may be dragged across the divider from one frame and dropped into another.

Product Window

Using the controls at the upper right (Windows/Linux) or left (Mac) corner of each frame or by combinations of clicking and dragging the frame titlebars, each frame may be maximized to occupy the entire window; toggled to floating frames; 'docked' back into the window; and minimized to become tabs at the left or right sides of the window.

Keyboard shortcuts are available for navigating the Product Window.

The Sprints by Team Frame

This frame is typically used for planning Sprints, making daily updates to Tasks, and for Sprint reviews. It organizes Backlog Items and Tasks by Sprints (historical and currently running), and is divided by Team, each with its own tab. Individual Team tabs may be toggled to floating frames so that Sprints for two or more Teams may be viewed concurrently. This is done by clicking and dragging a tab, or double-clicking that Team's titlebar. To dock a floating Team frame back into the Sprints by Team frame, Click and drag the individual Team's frame or double-click its titlebar, and it will return to the parent frame as a tab.

For more on using the Sprints by Team frame, see Sprint Management.
For more information on docking behavior, see General Docking Behavior.

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The Product Backlog Frame

This frame is typically used for prospective release planning as well as Backlog Item prioritization. It organizes a list of outstanding Backlog Items and Tasks by Release. Product Backlog Items can be created in the Product Backlog and prioritized within and between Releases.

For more on using the Product Backlog frame, see Product Backlog Items and Release Management.

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The Product Window Status Bar

A status bar is displayed at the bottom of the Product Window, providing a quick view of statistics about selected items. It displays number counts and estimate totals of Backlog Items and/or Tasks as follows when one or more of the following items are selected:

Sprints: Status bar displays counts and estimate totals of all Backlog Items and included Tasks contained in the Sprint.

Releases: When selected in the Product Backlog frame, the status bar displays counts and estimate totals of selected Backlog Items and included Tasks; When selected in the Release Planner frame, it displays counts and estimate totals of selected Backlog Items only.

Backlog items: Status bar displays counts and estimate totals of selected Backlog Items and included Tasks.

Tasks: Status bar displays the count and hours total of all selected Tasks.

Required Permission to view Task information: View Tasks

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Print Backlog Item and Task Cards

Backlog Items and Tasks may be exported to a printable format that allows users to print Backlog Items and Tasks as story cards for use on task boards or similiar. All titles will be fully visible. If a title spans the allotted space, fields at the bottom of the card will not be visible. Remaining fields have been compressed to maintain readability. Certain unsupported characters will be displayed as "?".

Four cards will be printed on a single sheet of paper in either US Letter (8.5"x11") or A4 (210 x 297mm) format. The US Letter size formatting is compatible with the Avery brand template 8387 (5-1/2" x 4-1/4" postcards) perforated sheets.

You have the following options for printing:

Backlog Items with their Tasks

Backlog Items only

Tasks only

To print Backlog Items and/or Tasks:

Select a set of Backlog Items or Tasks.

Right-click the selection.

Select the "Print to cards" option.

In the "Print to cards options" dialog, select paper size and, if you're printing Backlog Items, whether to print those Backlog Items' Tasks as well.

Clicking "Generate Printer-ready PDF" will open a "Save PDF file" dialog where you may select a file name and location for the printer-ready format.

Once saved, the file is automatically opened by the application associated with PDF files within the Operating System. If there is no application associated with PDF files, the file Explorer on Windows or the Finder on Mac will be launched and the PDF file will be selected.

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Product Backlog Items

In Scrum, a Product Backlog Item (also called "PBI", "Backlog Item", or sometimes even "Item") is a unit of work small enough to be completed by a team in one Sprint iteration. PBIs describe what the Product Owner wishes to be done. During Sprints, Tasks are defined for each PBI which describe how the Team intends to create the functionality. Note that PBIs and Tasks are estimated using different units and all meaningful, long-term metrics within ScrumWorks Pro rely on PBI estimates. Tasks play a minor intra-team communication role in Scrum.

Create a new Product Backlog Item (PBI)

There are several ways to create a PBI in the Product Window.

Required Permissions : Create Product Backlog Item

Select the window containing the product to receive the new PBI. Click the "File" > "New" > "Backlog Item" menu item from the Product Backlog window.
Right-click on a Release on the right pane, and select the "Add new Backlog Item to this Release" option from the context menu, to create a PBI in the selected Release.
Right-click on a Sprint on the left pane, and select the "Add new Backlog Item to this Sprint" option from the context menu, to create a PBI in the selected Sprint.
From the Product Backlog, Sprints by Team, or a Backlog Item editor, use the shortcut CTRL + N on Windows or Cmd+N on Mac OS X.
From a PBI editor, select some text from the description field, right click on it, and select "Split as New Backlog Item". The selected text will be copied into the description field of the new Product Backlog Item (keyboard shortcut: CTRL + ALT + N).

When performing any of the above actions, a tabbed editing frame appears, see Editors Frame Behavior for more information. Each PBI Editor has data separated into sub-tabs.

Basic Info tab:

Enter a Title (required).
See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering a description.
Enter the Estimated effort remaining in the units specified for the product. Please note that effort estimates must be whole numbers (no decimals). The field may be left empty to indicate an unestimated Backlog Item. They appear with an estimate of "-" in the Product.
See Edit Product Backlog Item Estimates for more details about the various Backlog Item estimates.
When a Backlog Item is created using the "File" menu or a Sprint's context menu, you can select the Release associated with the Backlog Item. When created using a Release's context menu, the Backlog Item is automatically associated with that Release.

Business Weight tab:
Enter Benefit and Penalty estimates. The values entered here, in combination with the Effort estimate, generate a number of calculations by which the Backlog Item may be measured relative to its Release, Product, and other Backlog Items.
See Earned Business Value (Business Weight) for more on these calculations.

Themes tab:
Themes can be applied directly in the Backlog Item Editor by selecting unapplied Themes and moving them over to the applied side using the button controls.

History tab:
The History tab allows users with proper permissions the ability to back-date historical PBI estimates.

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Save/Close Product Backlog Items

Saving and Closing an open Backlog Item Editor can be achieved using buttons or keyboard shortcuts:

Save and Close: Click the "OK" button, or use keyboard shortcut: CTRL + ENTER
Save without Closing: Click the "Apply" button, or use keyboard shortcut: CTRL + S
Exit without Saving: Click the "Cancel" button, or use keyboard shortcut: ESC

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Delete Product Backlog Item

Product Backlog Items can be deleted in ScrumWorks Pro, but deleting PBIs can have unintended consequences when it comes to metrics. PBI effort estimate values and the historical log of changes to those values are used in Scrum metrics like the Release Burndown Reports.

Please consider carefully before deleting a PBI whether:

the PBI has outlived its use but was historically meaningful in the project; or
the PBI was a mistake and effort estimate history should not be tracked for this PBI in metrics like the Release Burndown Reports.

ScrumWorks Pro therefore gives users the option of simply removing the PBI from view or permanently removing the PBI and all effort estimation history.

For example, a user may create a "test" Backlog Item and assign it effort. The user then intends to delete the PBI because it was only a "test". In this case, the user probably wishes to permanently remove all effort estimation history in the delete operation.

As a counterexample, consider a PBI that was added by the Product Owner several sprints before the current sprint. Now, however, the Product Owner announces to the team that this PBI is no longer needed for the product because business conditions have changed. In "deleting" the PBI, the team probably wants to preserve the effort impact this PBI imparted on previous sprints because removing its history would skew historical metrics.

Required Permission : Delete Product Backlog Item

Right-click the PBI in question and choose "Delete Backlog Item" from the drop down menu.
A dialog will ask the user whether to preserve the PBI's estimation history during this operation. Choosing "Yes" will preserve the history but remove the item from view; choosing "No" will permanently delete the item and all estimation history; choosing "Cancel" will abort the operation. Warning: this is an irreversible decision; once deleted, PBIs cannot be restored or undeleted.

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Completing Product Backlog Items

Product Backlog Items can be marked "Done" to signify completion of the feature or technical task represented. Product Backlog Items are completed in Sprints, and contribute toward the team's Velocity when marked "Done" in the context of the Sprint.

Required Permission : Mark Product Backlog Item as Done

Backlog Items can be marked "Done" in one of two ways:

Using the Backlog Item Editor:
1. Double-click the PBI in question to open the edit dialog.
2. Check the box labeled "Done". Click "OK" or "Apply" to save the change.
Using the context menu:
1. Right-click on the Backlog Item to bring up the context menu.
2. Click "Mark Backlog Item as done".

The Product Window will indicate the done status with a green check mark and greyed text.

Note: Product Backlog Items may only be finished as part of a Sprint, and as such cannot be marked "Done" unless associated to a Sprint. Product Backlog Items marked "Done" cannot be moved to the Product Backlog side of the Product; the "Done" flag must first be unchecked.

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Prioritize Product Backlog Items

Backlog Items are prioritized within Sprints and Releases in a top-first manner: Those at the top of any Sprint or Release are by this position the highest priority. When the Sprints by Team and Product Backlog panes are viewed without Theme filtering, the priority of any particular Backlog Item can be seen in relation to all others. To change the priority of a Backlog Item within a Sprint or Release, simply drag and drop it to a higher or lower position amongst the others.

To prioritize Backlog Item(s) select and drag them to their desired location.

When you drop a single or group of Backlog Items into a Sprint or Release filtered by Theme, the Backlog Item(s) will be prioritized immediately below the item (i.e. Backlog Item, Sprint, or Release) above the drop indicator, displacing downward all other items whether or not they are visible.
Valid drop locations will be indicated by a horizontal black line that demonstrates the drop location. The cursor will change to a circle with a line through it (universal "Do Not" symbol) if the drop location is invalid.
Release the mouse button at the desired drop location.
You may reprioritize a block of multiple Backlog Items together. Click here for detailed instructions.
You may move Backlog Items into another Product's Product Backlog. The correct set of permissions must be assigned to the user wanting to drag-and-drop between Products. See Move Backlog Items/Tasks Between Products for more details.

Moving Backlog Items Large Distances

It maybe cumbersome to move Backlog Items large distances in the Product Backlog via drag-and-drop. Instead, use the "Move to Release" feature documented in the Associate Backlog Items to Release section.

Required Permission : Prioritize Sprint/Product Backlog

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Edit Product Backlog Items

Required Permission: Edit Product Backlog Item

Double-click the PBI row in the Product Backlog window. (Alternatively: press the ENTER key or right-click the PBI and then choose "Edit Backlog Item"). When opening a Product Backlog Item, a tabbed editing frame appears, see Editors Frame Behavior for more information.
The Backlog Item Editor dialog will open. Make changes and save with "OK." (See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering a description.)

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Edit Product Backlog Item Estimates

Early Scrum literature recommends estimating the effort of Backlog Items in ideal team days, but many of us prefer less concrete-sounding backlog effort estimation units. Alternative units might be Story Points, Function Points, or "T-shirt sizes" (1 for small, 2 for medium, etc.). The advantage of vaguer units is they're explicit about this fact: estimates at this level are rough guesses that should never be confused with concrete estimates of work time to completion.

Whatever your preference, ScrumWorks Pro allows you to specify your choice of backlog effort estimation unit when you create a product or change its properties. Note that Sprint Tasks are distinct from Product Backlog Items and Task effort remaining is always estimated in hours. As a result, ScrumWorks Pro will not sum task hours to equal backlog effort.

Required Permission : Estimate Product Backlog Item

Double-click the PBI row in the Product Window. (Alternatively: press the ENTER key or right-click the PBI and then choose "Edit Backlog Item").
The Backlog Item Editor dialog will open. Click the tab labeled "Estimates".
In the text entry box for "Effort" under the "Estimates" subsection, add a value for the estimated Effort needed to complete the PBI. The field may be left empty to indicate an unestimated Backlog Item. They appear with an estimate of "-" in the Product.

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Edit Product Backlog Item Estimate History

Required Permission : Edit Historical Estimates

Double-click the PBI row in the Product Backlog window. (Alternatively: press the ENTER key or right-click the PBI and then choose "Edit Backlog Item").
The Backlog Item Editor dialog will open. Click the tab labeled "History".
Add new entries using the text entry fields on the left and pressing 'Add'. The estimate is added to the table on the right ordered by date. No duplicate dates are allowed.
To delete an entry, select a row in the table. Right-click and select 'Delete'. Alternatively, you can press the 'Delete' key on your keyboard after selecting one or more rows.
To cancel editing, just press the 'Cancel' button. No changes will be saved.

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Backlog Item Keys

A Key is a combination of a Prefix of a user-chosen string of characters with an automatically generated number joined by a hyphen (ex: SW-234) used to uniquely identify a Backlog Item. The number portion of each Key is generated on a per product basis upon creation of each new Backlog Item. Numbers are generated sequentially and may not be changed.

The Key Prefix may be changed by a user with Global Administrator or Product Administrator permissions. When a Key Prefix is changed, all Backlog Items using that Prefix are updated.

To set or edit Backlog Item Key:

Open File > Product Properties.
For "Key Prefix", enter a string of characters (5 or fewer, no spaces, no dashes) that will allow quick identification of the Product.

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Attaching Files to Backlog Items

Overview: File types and storage

Files may be attached to Backlog Items for reference and illustration purposes. Files of any type may be uploaded, and multiple files may be attached to any Backlog Item. Multiple copies or versions of the same file may be uploaded to any Backlog Item.

On the Server, the uploaded files are stored in the "attachments" sub-directory of the ScrumWorks Pro Server data directory (INSTALLDIR/server/scrumworks/data).

The Attachments Tab

A file is attached to a Backlog Item in the Attachments tab of the editor for a Backlog Item. This tab displays a table listing all existing attachments by file name, date uploaded, the name of the person who attached the file, and the file size.

Attached files may be downloaded to a user's computer by selecting the row corresponding to each desired file and clicking the "Download" button. Similarly, files may be removed from the Backlog Item and deleted from the directory by selecting the row(s) and clicking the "Remove" button.

Adding Attachments to Backlog Items:

To attach a file:

Open the Backlog Item editor and select the "Attachments" tab. Click the "Upload File" button in the bottom left corner. A new Backlog Item must be saved before you can upload attachments.

In the resultant dialog titled "Attach File to Backlog Item", a text box appears into which you may enter the path to the desired file; or, click the "Browse" button to find the file using your operating system's file-browsing interface.

Note: If the file-browsing interface is taking a long time to appear, you may need to upgrade to the latest version of Java on the client machine. This is caused by a known Java bug that is fixed in Sun's latest Java 1.6 update.

Multiple files may be uploaded simultaneously by clicking the "Add another file" button at the bottom of the "Attach File to Backlog Item" dialog. A new file line item will be added to the upload queue. To remove any file from the upload queue, click the "Remove" button next to the file listed. The entry will be removed from the listing of files to be uploaded.

To begin uploading the queued files, click the "Upload files" button. A "Please wait..." message appears as the files are being uploaded. When the upload is complete, a notification appears listing the files that were successfully attached.

Clicking the "Cancel" button during upload will abort the attachment of any files not yet uploaded. A message will appear notifying you which files have been attached successfully, and which file uploads were aborted due to the cancellation.

Opening Attachments (Windows and Mac Clients only)

To open a file on Windows and Mac Clients:

Double-click the row of an attachment you would like to open

The file is downloaded and automatically opened by the corresponding application based on the Operating System file extension association.

If there is no application associated with the attachment's file extension, the file Explorer on Windows or the Finder on Mac will be launched and the downloaded attachment file will be selected.

Downloading Attachments (all Client platforms)

To download a file:

Open the Backlog Item editor and select the "Attachments" tab.

Select the row for each attachment that you would like to download.

Click the "Download" button to begin downloading every selected file. A "Please wait..." message appears while the files are being downloaded. When the download is complete, a notification appears listing the directory the files were saved to and the files that were successfully downloaded.

The confirmation dialog will list all of the files that were not successfully downloaded with its corresponding error.

If the filename already exists in the directory, the downloaded file will have a number appended to its filename.

Remove Attachments:

To remove an attachment:

Open the Backlog Item editor and select the "Attachments" tab.

Select the row for each attachment that you would like to remove.

Click on the "Remove" button. A confirmation dialog listing all proposed attachment removals will be displayed. To continue attachment removal, click the "Yes" button. Upon confirmation, the attachment(s) will be removed from the ScrumWork Pro data directory

Duplicate files:

There is no version management for attached files; that is, duplicate files may be attached indiscriminately, or intentionally. If duplicate files are attached intentionally, say, to maintain a record of changes to an attached document over time, the "Uploaded" column displaying the date and time files have been uploaded may be used to track versions of files using the same name.

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Task Management

In Scrum, a Task (or Sprint Task) is a unit of work generally between 4 and 16 hours. Tasks describe how Team Members intend to complete Product Backlog Items. In this sense, Tasks are subordinate to Backlog Items. Team Members volunteer for tasks. They update the estimated number of hours remaining on a daily basis, influencing the Sprint Burndown Chart. Also, excluded days are not reflected in the Sprint Burndown charts.

Note, Danube Technologies encourages splitting a task into several if the estimate exceeds 12 hours.

Required Permissions : View Task

Add Tasks to Product Backlog Items

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Task

Right-click the PBI in question and choose "Add New Task for this Backlog Item" from the drop down menu. (Alternatively: use the shortcut CTRL+T after selecting a PBI)
The Task editor dialog will open as a tabbed frame, see Editors Frame Behavior for more information.
Enter the Task Title, Task Description (See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering a description), the Point Person and Estimated Hours remaining for the task. The associated product Backlog Item will be pre-selected based on the context from which the task was created but may be changed at this time.
Note: you can use the Task Description field to list any specific "definition of done".
Click OK to save, or Cancel to abort.

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Add Tasks to an Open Product Backlog Item

If a PBI Editor is open, you can:

Press Ctrl + T (or Cmd+T on Mac OS X) to create a task belonging to that Backlog Item.
Select text from the description field, right click it, and select "Split as New Task" (Keyboard Shortcut: CTRL + ALT + T). The selected text will be copied to the new Task's description.

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Prioritize Tasks

Tasks can be prioritized within the Product Backlog Item in which they currently reside using drag-and-drop.

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Task

To prioritize a Task ahead of another Task, left-click and drag the Task staying within the confines of the current Product Backlog Item. To move a task from the current Backlog Item to another Backlog Item, drag the task outside of the confines of the current Backlog Item and into the confines of the target Backlog Item.
The cursor will change when dragging. The outline of a box will appear in places where the Task can safely be dropped. The position of the drop will be indicated by a horizontal black line that demonstrates the drop target.
The cursor will change to a circle with a line through it (no smoking) if the drop target is invalid.
Release the mouse button when the valid drop target indicates the desired priority.

Process Tip: Although the Scrum process does not encourage the prioritization of tasks by "management", ScrumWorks Pro allows users to prioritize tasks relatively using drag-and-drop. According to Scrum theory, only team members, and not managers or product owners, prioritize tasks.

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Edit Tasks

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Task

Double-click the Sprint task row in question in the Product Window. (Alternatively: press the ENTER key after selecting the task). The Task editor dialog will open as a tabbed frame, see Editors Frame Behavior for more information.
Edit as desired and click OK or Apply to save or Cancel to discard changes. See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering a description.

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Move Tasks between Backlog Items

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Task

Select one or more Tasks and drag them to your desired location.
The cursor will change when dragging. The outline of a box will appear in places where the Task(s) can be dropped. The position of the drop will be indicated by a horizontal black line that demonstrates the drop target.

Note that Tasks can also be moved between Backlog Items across Products.
The cursor will change to a circle with a line through it (no smoking) if the drop target is invalid.
Release the mouse button when the valid drop target indicates the desired priority.
You may only move Tasks into another Product with the correct set of permissions. See Move Backlog Items/Tasks Between Products for more details.

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Delete Tasks

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Task

Select one or more Tasks.
Right-click one of the selected Tasks and choose "Delete Task(s)" from the menu.
A dialog will ask you to confirm the action. Warning: this is an irreversible decision; once deleted, Tasks cannot be restored or undeleted.

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Copy/Paste Tasks

Tasks can be created by copying and pasting existing tasks to lessen the chore of adding similar tasks.

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Task

Select the Tasks you want to copy in either the Product Backlog or the Sprints by Team frame.
Right-click on any of the selected Tasks and choose "Copy Task(s)" from the menu (keyboard shortcut: CTRL + C).

The following attributes of the selected Tasks will be copied: title, description and the most recent estimate.
Select a Product Backlog Item or a Task as the target of the copy. Right-click on the selected target and choose "Paste Task(s)" from the menu (keyboard shortcut: CTRL + V).
If the target is a Product Backlog Item, the copies of the Tasks will be added at the bottom of the PBI's Task list. If the target is a Task, the copies will be added right below it.
Notes: copied tasks can be pasted multiple times. Tasks can be copied across multiple backlog items with multi-select. It is also permissable to copy Tasks between two Products. To do that, the user has to have the required Permissions in both Products.

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Sprint Management

A Sprint is an iteration of work during which an increment of product functionality is implemented. By the book, an iteration lasts 30 days; ScrumWorks Pro allows any length Sprint.

The Sprint follows a one-day Sprint Planning Meeting. Many Daily Scrum Meetings occur during the Sprint (one per day). At the end of the Sprint we have a Sprint Review Meeting, followed by a Sprint Retrospective Meeting.

According to Scrum rules, the team must not be interrupted with additional requests after a Sprint has been negotiated and started. Guaranteeing the team won't be interrupted allows it to make real commitments it can be expected to keep.

Create New Sprint

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Sprints

Click the "File" > "New" > "Sprint" menu item from the Product Backlog window.
A dialog will open asking for the start and finish dates for the sprint (you can change these later if you need to). Please note the currently acceptable date format is mm/dd/yyyy if you are in the USA (server locale is en_US). Elsewhere, the acceptable date format is dd/mm/yyyy.
You may edit the excluded days of the Sprint by clicking on the calendar icon after entering valid start and finish dates for the Sprint. For more information regarding Sprint exclusion dates, see Sprint Exclusion Dates.
Sprints can be named. Provide a text string name that will appear next to the Sprint dates in the Sprint header row.
Sprint Goals can be written in free-text format. Your text will be parsed and bullet points added where carriage returns exist. Edit the default text as desired. See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering goals.
Sprints are not explicitly associated with Releases, instead Backlog Items preserve their Release associations when they are committed to a Sprint. This change was made to enable the ability to work on multiple Releases in a Sprint.
Team: select a team which will be responsible for completing the work added to this Sprint. The Sprint pane is grouped into tabs by teams, simplifying work management for a single team. When multiple teams have been associated with the same product, each team's Sprints can be located under the respective team tab. Please read more about teams here.
Note: The list of teams displayed is limited to those teams that have been associated with the Product. If you encounter an error indicating that no Teams have been associated with the Product, please following the instructions in Adding a Team to a Product to associate one or more Teams with the product.
Click "OK" to save the Sprint.

A red colored row will appear in the Sprint side of the in the Product Window under the associated team's tab representing the new Sprint.

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Sprint Exclusion Dates

By default, weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) are excluded from newly created Sprints. All excluded days will be omitted from the date axis of the Sprint Burndown chart.

Required Permissions: Create, Edit, Delete Sprints

To edit the exclusion dates:

Create a new Sprint from the main menu, or edit an existing Sprint by right-clicking the Sprint row.
In the new or edit Sprint dialog, click on the Excluded Days calendar icon, to the right of the From/To Dates dropdown boxes. Valid start and finish dates must be entered for the Sprint in order to reach the exclusion date calendar.
Select the days you would like excluded from the Sprint.
Click "Close" on the exclusion calendar to return to the Sprint editor.
Click "OK" to save all of your changes to the Sprint.

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Adding Product Backlog Items to Sprints

Required Permissions : Prioritize Sprint/Product Backlog

Product Backlog Items can be added to Sprints in two ways:

Drag-and-drop:
1. To move an existing PBI into a sprint, drag-and-drop the PBI in question onto the bottom half of the sprint header row in question (or above/below any PBI that is already a part of the Sprint).
2. Release the PBI to add it to the Sprint.
3. You may move multiple PBIs into a sprint. Click here to learn more about multi-selection of items in ScrumWorks Pro.
Context menu:
1. Right-click on the Sprint header row you would like the Backlog Item to belong to.
2. Select "Add new Backlog Item to this sprint". Save the new Backlog Item and it will be added at the top of the Sprint.

If the user has the correct permissions, PBIs may be prioritized using drag and drop within a Sprint.

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Edit Sprint Start Date, End Date, and Goals

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Sprints

Right-click the Sprint row in question in the Product Window.
Choose "Edit Sprint" from the drop down menu.
Edit in the dialog window as desired, click "OK" to save, or "Cancel" to discard changes. See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering goals.

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Delete an Empty Sprint

Sprints that do not contain any Backlog Items or tasks may be deleted. However, to protect against deleting data accidentally, users cannot delete populated sprints.

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Sprints

Move any Backlog Items out of the sprint using drag-and-drop, or delete them using the context menu.
Right-click the sprint row and select "Delete Sprint" from the context menu.
Click "Yes" to confirm, or "No" to cancel the deletion.

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Hide Historical Sprints

With lengthy projects, it may be desirable to hide past (historical) Sprints from view:

From the "View" menu, select "Past Sprints".
Select the number of historical Sprints to be made visible.

Note: a Sprint is "past" if the last day of sprint occured before the current day. Currently running or future sprint may not be hidden from view.

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Release Management

A Release is commonly defined as the transition of an increment of potentially shippable product from the development team into routine use by customers (internal or external). Releases typically happen when one or more Sprints has resulted in the product having enough value to outweigh the cost to deploy it.

"The product is released to customer or marketplace obligations. The release balances functionality, cost, and quality requirements against date commitments." (Schwaber/Beedle, Agile Software Development with Scrum, p. 80)

ScrumWorks Pro allows you to define two kinds of releases - Product and Program - and group Backlog Items into them. Product Releases are designated in the main Product Window by dark blue rows. Program Releases are designated by black rows. This section discusses Product Releases only. For a discussion of features specific to Program Releases, see the section Programs section.

A Product Release in ScrumWorks Pro can have dates/schedules associated with it. Alternatively, a "Release" can be used without dates to imply a free-form sub-grouping of the Product Backlog. Releases without schedules implied will not show up in progress reports.

Create New Release

There are two ways to create a new Release in the Product Window.

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Releases

Click "File" > "New" > "Release".
Right-click on the blank area under the title bar of the Product Backlog frame and click "New Release".

When performing one of the above actions, a tabbed editing frame appears, see Editors Frame Behavior for more information.

Basic Info tab:

Enter a Release Name (required).
Optionally, you can also enter a Release start and end date. These are used for reporting purposes. Press OK, or cancel to abort.
The Release will be represented as a blue row in the Product Backlog frame of the Product Window.

Epics tab:
Epics are an optional feature of a Release. For more information see Product Epics.

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Associate Product Backlog Items to a Release

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Releases

There are three ways to associate PBIs with releases:

Drag-and-Drop Existing Backlog Items:
1. Users may move multiple, existing PBIs from one Release into another via drag-and-drop. Alternatively, PBIs can be moved out of a Sprint and into a Release on the Product Backlog. Click here for detailed instructions on multi-selection.
"Move to Release" right-click menu:
1. In the Product Backlog, right-click the Backlog Item(s) and mouse-over the "Move to Release" menu option.
2. The Backlog Item(s) will move to the bottom of the selected release and can be prioritized as desired using drag-and-drop. The User's focus in the Product Backlog will not change. The moved Backlog Item(s) will remain selected after the move is completed.
Backlog Item Editor (only for PBIs in Sprints):
1. If a Backlog Item is in a Sprint, the associated Release can be modified from the editor.
2. Open the Backlog Item for editing.
3. Change the Release field as desired and save to commit the change.

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Archiving Releases

Releases can be archived by any user with the Create/Edit/Delete/Archive Releases permission in order to hide them from default view in the Product Backlog and Release Plan by Theme frames. To be archived, a Release must not contain any uncommitted Backlog Items, and must not be the last remaining Product Release in the Backlog. When a Release is archived, it is effectively deactivated, and a number of functions are disabled:

Backlog Items may not be added to, moved to, or created in Archived Releases.
Backlog Items may not be imported into Archived Releases.
Records from external applications such as JIRA or Bugzilla may not be downloaded to Archived Releases.

Archiving a Release has no effect, however, on its appearance in reports.

There are two ways to archive a Release:

Right-click a Release bar and select "Archive Release" from the context menu.
Double-click a Release to open the Release Editor and check the box "Archive this Release".

Only Product Releases can be archived.

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Viewing and Restoring Archived Releases

Archived Releases by default are hidden from view in the Product Backlog and Release Plan by Theme frames. They may be made visible by selecting "View/Archived Releases" in the main menu. When displayed, archived Releases are differentiated from active Releases by a greyed-out title and entries for various statistics total such as Backlog Effort, ROI, and rBV. Despite being visible, archived Releases are still unavailable to various actions and interfaces that are disabled by their archived status.

There are two ways to restore an archived Release:

Right-click an archived Release and select "Restore Release" from the context menu.
Double-click an archived Release to open the Release Editor and check the box "Archive this Release".

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Delete an Empty Release

Releases that do not contain Product Backlog Items may be deleted; users cannot delete populated Releases. Also, there must be at least one Release per project at all times.

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Releases

Move any Backlog Items out of the Release using drag-and-drop, re-associate PBIs to other Releases via the Editor, or delete them using the right-click context menus.
Right-click the release row and select "Delete Release" from the context menu.
Click "Yes" to confirm, or "No" to cancel the deletion.

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Product Epics and the Release Planner

Product Epics

Epics may be used to define primary, high-level areas of work for a particular release. They consist of Themes specified with a description or "Done Criteria" and an effort budget to clarify the intent or expectation for that Theme in that Release. The same Theme can thus be used as an Epic in multiple Releases, but - with different scope definitions each time it is used as an Epic - it can be made to represent a unique set of features or capabilities from release to release.

Epics are most useful in the context of the Product Release Planner. Refer to its documentation for more information.

To add an Epic to a Product Release:

Double-click a Release row in either the Product Backlog frame or the Release Planner frame. In the resulting Edit Release frame, Epics are listed in a table in the Epics tab.
Click the "Add" button, and in the resulting "Add Epic to Release" dialog, select the Theme on which the Epic will be based from the dropdown menu. New Themes may be created here by clicking the "New Product Theme" button.
Enter a description or done criteria and an effort budget for the work categorized by that Theme to be completed for the Release.
Click "OK" in the dialog to add the Epic.

Only one Epic may be added per Theme in a Release. All changes made will be saved by clicking "OK" or "Apply" at the bottom right side of the Edit Release dialog. Clicking "Cancel" will discard all changes made since opening the Edit Release dialog.

Editing Epics in a Product Release:

Epics may be edited directly from the Edit Release frame, or from within the "Epics" tab of an open Release Editor:

From the Release Planner frame, double-click the Epic row, or right-click and select "Edit Epic";
From the "Epics" tab of the Release Editor, double-click the Epic row, or select it and click the "Edit" button.
Select a different Theme on which to base the Epic and/or edit the description and effort budget.
Click "OK" to save the Epic. Changes to the Epic are saved immediately.

Removing Epics from a Product Release:

To delete an Epic, open the Edit Release dialog and in the Epics tab, select the desired row from the table. Clicking "Remove" deletes the Epic from the list. Click "OK" or "Apply" to save this change and effect the deletion.

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Product Release Planner

The Release Planner frame provides an Epic-oriented viewpoint of Releases, with Product Backlog Items (PBIs) scheduled for Releases grouped by Epics. Epics are Theme-derived goals for a Release. They consist of a description or "done criteria" and an effort budget added to Themes to define a Release planner's intended high-level goals for the Release. The PBIs associated with any given Epic are listed in priority order as it has been determined within the Product Backlog frame. The Epics themselves are also listed in priority, as determined in the Epics tab of the Release editor. For more information, see Prioritizing Epics.

Epics are designated by green folders appearing under each dark blue Release row. When an Epic is created for a Release, all the PBIs scheduled for that Release that are marked with the defined Theme will appear under that Epic in the Release Plan view.

Releases will likely require the addition of PBIs that do not correspond directly to the primary high-level Release goals and therefore are not included in any Epic. To house any work that does not correspond to an Epic, such PBIs are grouped into a designated black folder titled "Uncategorized". Before any Epics have been defined for a Release, this folder will contain all PBIs that have been scheduled for the Release. The sum of the Uncategorized Backlog Items' effort is displayed in the Backlog Effort column of the Uncategorized row. This sum should be considered when determining the status of the Release and committing more work to Epics. A budget for this sum may be set in the Epics tab of the Release editor, similarly to how budgets may be set for Epics.

As in the Product Backlog frame, all Releases not archived appear in the Release Planner frame. For a given Release, the Release Plan view shows the total Backlog effort currently slated for inclusion in the Release for each Epic, and in the Uncategorized folder. The status of each PBI is also listed in this view (not started, in progress, done, etc.) providing an at-a-glance picture of overall status by Epic.

Display:

The Release Planner frame is not visible by default and must be opened from the View menu, or by clicking the "Release Planner" button from the Product Backlog frame. By default, the frame opens underneath the Product Backlog frame, in the lower right corner of the Product Window. It may be dragged and docked to any other position within the window, un-docked to a floating position, or minimized to a tab on the right side of the Product Window. "Restore default view" from the View menu will restore an open Product Release Planner frame to the lower right corner. Clicking the "X" control in the upper right corner of the frame closes it.

As Backlog Items associated with Epics are added to the Release, Epic effort budgets, effort estimates, and progress toward completion are reflected in the following columns:

Backlog Items by Release/Epic column:

For Epics and the Uncategorized folder: At right, displays the effort budgets that have been set for each. When the total effort of scheduled backlog items for any Epic or the Uncategorized exceeds its budget, the corresponding budget figure displays in red until the total effort is reduced or the budget is increased to accommodate the total effort.

Backlog Effort column:

For Releases: Displays the total of all effort estimates in the Release, adding the sums in all Epics and the Uncategorized folder.
For Epics/Uncategorized: Displays the sums of the estimates for all Backlog Items contained by the Epic and Uncategorized folder. When these sums exceed the specified effort budget, they are displayed in red.
For Backlog Items: Displays the effort estimate for each Backlog Item

Note: In the instance wherein a PBI scheduled for a Release is marked with multiple Themes being used as Epics, the effort of this PBI will appear multiple times in the Backlog Effort column under each Epic it is associated with, contributing to each Epic's total Backlog Effort, and correspondingly counting against each Epic's effort budget. At the Release level, however, this effort is not double-counted when calculating the total Backlog Effort for the Release; To arrive at the total for the Release, the effort of any one PBI is counted only once, regardless of how many Epics is appears under. This allows work to be loosely included in multiple Epics at once without distorting the sum total of Backlog Effort scheduled for a Release.

Status column:

For Releases: Displays a bar indicating the ratio of effort units completed (marked as "Done") to those not yet completed (marked "Not Started", "In Progress", or "Not Done") in the entire Release.
For Epics/Uncategorized: Displays a bar indicating the ratio of effort units completed (marked as "Done") to those not yet completed (marked "Not Started", "In Progress", or "Not Done") within each Epic and the Uncategorized folder.
For Backlog Items: Displays the status of the individual PBI in four states - "Done" if it was marked as Done; "Not Done" if it is in a past Sprint and not marked as Done; "In Progress" if it is in a current Sprint; "Not Started" if it is uncommitted or in a Sprint that has not yet started.

In the status bar for all rows (except PBIs), a vertical line expresses the theoretical percentage of effort units that should be done for the time elapsed in the Release, assuming work was completed at an even rate throughout the release and all scheduled work would be complete by the Release end date. Releases without start and end dates will not display this line.

Creating/Editing/Deleting Backlog Items:
Managing Backlog Items in the Release Planner frame is similar to doing so in the Product Backlog and Sprints by Team frames, with the following notable differences:

When adding Backlog Items to an Epic, the new Backlog Item automatically inherits the Theme on which the Epic is based;
When adding a Backlog Item to a Release via the Release Planner, the new Backlog Item appears at the bottom of the Release in the Product Backlog frame;
Since Tasks are not reflected here, no Tasks may be created for Backlog Items in the Release Planner frame;
Similarly, no Tasks may be created from within a Backlog Item editor that was opened from the Release Planner frame.

Note that drag-and-drop is not available in the Release Planner frame.

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Program Releases and Epics in the Product Window

Because Programs typically organize work across multiple Products, Program-level Releases are accessible from certain Product interfaces. In order for a Program Release to be available to a Product, that Product must first be included in a Program. This inclusion is made in the Program editor (see Create Program and Include Products).

Once a Product has been included in a Program, that Program's Releases appear in all Product interfaces where Releases are expressed: in the Product Backlog, the Release Plan by Theme frame, and various Release selectors such as found in the Backlog Item editor Basic Info tab. Program Releases are differentiated by a black Release Row where Product Releases use a blue row, and by the display of the originating Program's name in parentheses after the Release name.

From the Product Window, users with Edit Product Release permissions can add both Product- and Program Epics to Program Releases, appending Program Epics with descriptions and effort budgets specific to their particular Product. This allows Product Owners to clearly delineate which parts of a Program Epic are their responsibility, and to set individual Product-level goals for a Program Release.

Note: In the Release Planner frame, Program Epics are denoted by the same green folders as Product Epics, but are differentiated by bold type used for the Epic name, whereas Product Epic names are displayed in regular type.

To add an Epic to a Program Release:

Double-click a Release row in either the Product Backlog frame or the Release Plan by Theme frame. In the resulting Edit Release dialog, Epics are listed in a table in the Epics tab.
Click the "Add" button, and select the type of Epic to be added:
- Product Epic: Product Epics are based on Product Themes. An Epic can be defined for any Product Theme in a Product context.
- Program Epic: Program Epics are based on Program Themes. All Epics that have been defined for the Program Release are available for appending with Product-level descriptions, budgets, or done criteria.
Enter a Product effort budget and description for the Epic. When adding a Program Epic, Program-level done criteria is uneditable.
Click "OK" to save the Epic and add it to the Release.

Editing Epics in a Program Release:

Program and Product Epics may be edited just as they are in Product Releases. When editing a Program Epic in a Product context, only the Product Description and effort budget is editable. The Epic name and Program-level done criteria is read-only because these attributes were set at the Program level.

Removing Epics from a Program Release:

Program Epics may be removed from Product Releases just as Product Epics are. Note, however, that removing a Program Epic from within a Product Window context merely removes that Product's association to the Program Epic; the Program Epic itself is not deleted, and remains a feature of the Program Release, available for use by any included Product. In contrast, removal of a Product Epic deletes that Epic and its description and budget entirely.

Column displays for Program Releases in the Product Window are similar to those for Product Releases, with the following difference: Where displayed, amounts for Backlog Effort (and effort budgets where specified) denote the totals from that Product only, not for all Products contributing to the Program Release.

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Prioritizing Epics in a Release

A Product Owner may wish to give priority to backlog items in a certain Epic over those in other Epics. For this reason, Epics can be prioritized by their order of appearance within the Epics tab of the Release Editor, similarly to how positioning of Backlog Items in the Product Backlog or Sprints by Team implies priority. This priority is determined by the order of listing in the Release Editor. When an Epic is created, it is by default added to the bottom of the list, and therefore is of least priority. The listing order in the Release Editor dictates the listing order in the Release Planner view.

To change an Epic's priority order in the Release Planner:

In the Epics tab of the Release Editor, select an Epic.
Drag the selected Epic to the position desired. Note its new priority number is reflected in the Priority column.
Click "OK" to save the new priority. Changes are saved and reflected immediately in the Release Planner view.

NOTE: Local Priorities of both Product and Program Epics may be set in the Product Release Planner view. Relative priorities between Program Epics set within a Product apply only to that Product, and are neither reflected in nor affect the Program's priority for those Program Epics.

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Using and Customizing the Product Window

The following section details how to use the features of the Product Window, as well as some tips for customizing the window to suit.

Column Displays

The Product Window uses a configurable docking framework that allows frames to be rearranged, minimized, or removed from view entirely. Please see the General Docking Behavior section for detailed instructions on docking behavior.
Columns displayed may be set and ordered separately for the Sprints by Team and Product Backlog frames.
Under the View main menu, select Column Settings. The dialog is divided into left and right halves corresponding to the Columns displayed in the Sprints by Team and Product Backlog frames of the Backlog Planner Window, respectively.
Select the checkboxes that correspond to columns you wish to be displayed, and deselect checkboxes for columns you'd like hidden. The two always-on columns are Committed Backlog Items/Tasks and Uncommitted Backlog Items/Tasks. These columns may be ordered, but may not be hidden.
Set the order in which columns appear in the Sprints by Team and Product Backlog panes by selecting a column name and using the "Move up" and "Move down" buttons. Columns whose checkboxes are unchecked may still be ordered in this way, but will not appear in the Product Window until their checkboxes are checked.
The default columns displayed and their default order may be reset by clicking the Restore Defaults button.
Dragging/Dropping Column location: Once activated, Columns may be repositioned within their respective panes of the Product Window by dragging and dropping individual columns. Any settings made by dragging and dropping will be reflected in the Column Settings window, and may be overridden by subsequent changes to the Column Settings window.

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Backlog Effort Column

The Backlog Effort column is the estimated effort remaining for individual PBIs. There are also some cumulative summary rows: the Sprint Rows and the Release rows. These values are the summed total of PBI estimated effort remaining for PBIs in specific Sprints as well as PBIs in the Product Backlog (respectively). These values are based on PBI estimated effort remaining even though a PBI has been decomposed into Sprint tasks with their own estimated effort remaining. ScrumWorks Pro intentionally tracks these values separately as they are used to generate different metrics.

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Task Effort Column

This column represents the estimated effort remaining for each task created.

Required Permissions : View Task

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BW Column

This column represents the Business Weight for individual PBIs. Please see the Edit Business Weight section for more information on Business Weight.

Required Permissions : View Business Weight

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rBV Column

This column represents the Release Business Value for an individual PBI, which is the percentage of the sum of all Business Weights per Release. Please see the Release Business Value section for more information on Release Business Value.

Required Permissions : View Business Weight

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ROI Column

This column represents a Return on Investment (ROI) index for an individual PBI, which is the rBV divided by the percentage of Backlog effort. Please see the Return on Investment section for more information on ROI.

Required Permissions : View Business Weight

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Description Field Editing and Syntax

URLs in the description fields for Backlog Items, Tasks, Impediments, and Sprint Goals are clickable, like in a browser.

Hypertext links can be added to description fields simply by entering a URL. For example:

http://danube.com
mailto:name@company.com
file:///c:/My%20Documents/MyFile.txt
ftp://ftpserver.com/
http://www.google.com/search?q=scrumworks

Note that if you want to enter a URL which contains spaces, you have to replace them with the character sequence '%20'.

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Collapsing Backlog Items

If a Sprint contains Backlog Items, it can be collapsed to hide the Backlog Items. Similarly, Releases can be collapsed if they contain Backlog Items and Backlog Items can be collapsed if they contain Tasks.

To collapse a Sprint, Release, or Backlog Item, click the '-' (minus) icon next to the title. To expand the item, click the '+' (plus) icon.

Alternatively, use the LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW to collapse and expand respectively Sprint, Release, and Backlog Item rows.

When a Backlog Item is collapsed, the sum of its tasks' hours will appear in the 'Task Hours' column.

The list of items you have collapsed is stored on the server. The next time you open the product, the Sprints, Releases, and Backlog Items you collapsed in the last session will still be collapsed. Each user's preferences are stored separately so you don't have to worry about having your changes stepped on.

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Selecting Multiple Backlog Items and Tasks

Within the Product Window, users may select multiple Backlog Items for dragging and dropping between Sprints in the Sprints by Team frame, or between a Sprint and the Product Backlog frame. Users may also drag and drop multiple Backlog Items within the Product Backlog for prioritization or release planning.

Multiple Tasks may also be selected and moved between PBIs.

You may select a set of adjacent Backlog Items or Tasks, or noncontiguous groups:

To select a set of adjacent Backlog Items or Tasks, single click on a Backlog Item or Task with the left button. Then move the mouse cursor over the last Backlog Item or Task to be selected, and while holding down the <Shift> key, left click the target Backlog Item or Task. ScrumWorks Pro will highlight all the Backlog Items or Tasks from the first one selected through the last.
To select noncontiguous Backlog Items, single click on the first Backlog Item with the left mouse button. Then move the mouse cursor over the next Backlog Item to be selected, and while holding down the CTRL/COMMAND key, left mouse click the target Backlog Item or Task. Repeat the last step for each Backlog Item to be selected.
You may remove Backlog Items from the selection by moving the mouse cursor over a selected Backlog Item, holding the CTRL/COMMAND key, and the left mouse clicking the target Backlog Item or Task.

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Find in the Product Backlog

You can search for text within the Key, Backlog Item or Task title using the menu item "Edit" > "Find..." (shortcut: CTRL/COMMAND+F).

Use the Find bar at the bottom of the screen to find any item in the product backlog which contains the search term entered in its title. The Find function is limited to searching PBI and Task titles only.

Users can navigate through the results using the "Next" and "Previous" buttons, or the following shortcut keys:

Next result: ALT+N
Previous result: ALT+P

If no match is found, the Find field background color will change to red.

When done, you can close the Find dialog using the red X button on the bottom left (shortcuts: ALT+C, Esc).

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User Properties

User specific properties may be set using the "User Preferences" dialog. To open the "User Preferences" dialog use the "User" menu and select "User Preferences", or use the shortcut key CTRL+P (Windows/Linux) or CMD+, (Mac).

Name and Password

In the User Information section of the User Preferences dialog, you can change your password, display (first and last) name, and e-mail address.

If your organization uses a directory server to manage login information, these fields will be disabled.

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Change Log E-mail Notifications

Users may receive notifications of Change Log entries via e-mail, filtered by Backlog Item, Tasks, and Team ownership criteria. In order to use this feature, the ScrumWorks Pro server must first be configured to send e-mail notifications to users based on certain events. The notification feature in the ScrumWorks Pro client will be disabled if a mail server is not configured. To enable this functionality, see the Mail Server Configuration section.

Once the mail server has been configured, users may set notification preferences:

In the main menu, select User/User Preferences. Click the Notifications section in the left-hand column.
Enter the e-mail address at which you wish to receive notifications.
In the section "Product Notifications and Settings", click "Add". In the resultant "Add Product Notification" dialog, make selections in the following categories:
1. Select Product: Select the Product for which you'd like to receive notifications. All Products to which the user has at least View Backlog Item or View Task access are available for selection.
2. Notification Types: Select the types changes you'd like to be notified of - Backlog Items and/or Tasks. For each notification type, a checkbox selection determines whether descriptions are included in the change notification e-mails. Since descriptions often contain a great deal of text, omitting descriptions can significantly reduce the size of the notification e-mails.
  
  When Task changes are selected, a choice is available to either receive notice of changes to all Teams' tasks, or to filter for changes to only specified Teams' Tasks. Only Teams associated with the Product are listed. If you choose to filter Tasks by Team, you will not receive notifications for Tasks associated with uncommitted Backlog Items.
3. Notification Period: Select that period at which you wish to receive notification of changes - immediately when each change occurs, or a once-daily listing of all accumulated changes.
Click "OK". The notification is added to the list in the User Preferences screen.
To save the listed notifications and their settings, click "Save and Close" or "Apply". To remove a notification, select the row and click "Remove". To edit a notification, select its row, click "Edit", and follow the above steps.

NOTE: Multiple notifications may be set for any Product due to the combinations of choices available. Individual notifications may be suspended by unchecking the box in the "Active" column next to its description.

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Themes

Themes are the primary mechanism in ScrumWorks Pro for categorizing Backlog Items. Rather then use a hierarchical system like folders for categorizing the Product Backlog directly, Themes provide a means to associate specific keywords to Backlog Items. Themes group all items together that have been tagged with a specific Theme. And unlike a folder system, you can add as many Themes to a Backlog Item as desired.

Hierarchical categorization does not work well for Scrum Product Backlogs because all Product Backlog Items must ultimately be prioritized in a one-dimensional list. By nesting folders or hierarchies, the priority of individual items nested below the first level is obscured.

Themes can be used to filter and highlight the backlog for easy identification.

There is no right or wrong way to use themes in ScrumWorks Pro. You can use themes to identify feature sets, the source of backlog items, or just about any other reason you can think of. Themes can be a single word, many words, numbers, or characters.

Creating Themes

Required Permissions : Create and Apply/Remove Theme

There are two ways to create themes and apply them to product backlog items:

Right click the Backlog Item to which you wish to apply a new Theme and choose "Apply Themes". In the resultant dialog, click the "New" button at bottom. In the New Theme dialog, enter a Theme name, then click "OK".
From the Themes main menu, select "Edit themes" and then "New Theme". Enter a Theme name, then click "OK". The new Theme can then be applied to Backlog Items by any of the methods listed in Applying Themes.

Program Themes cannot be created from the Product's Theme editor.

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Applying Themes

Required Permissions : Apply/Remove Theme

Themes may be applied to Backlog Items in three ways:

Right click the Product Backlog Item to which you wish to apply a Theme. Choose "Apply Theme" and then select the Theme you wish to apply.
Select and right click the Product Backlog Items to which you wish to apply Themes and choose "Apply Themes". In the resultant dialog, click the checkbox next to each Theme you wish to apply. If a Theme is already applied to all the selected Backlog Items, it will not appear in the list of Themes to apply. All Themes checked will be applied to all Backlog Items selected.
Open the Backlog Item for editing. Click the "Themes" tab at the top of the editor. Themes not yet applied to this Backlog Item are listed on the left. The right side contains Themes that are currently applied to this Backlog Item. To add a Theme, select one or multiple from the left list and click the right arrow button. To remove a Theme, select one or multiple from the right list and click the left arrow button.

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Editing and Merging Themes

Required Permissions : Create Themes

Themes can be edited (renamed) as follows:

From the Themes menu, select "Edit themes".
Select the theme you wish to alter and click the "Edit" button.
Make the desired changes and click the "OK" button to save, or "Cancel" to abort.

Themes can easily be merged together. For example, the Themes "abc" and "xyz" can be merged into one, in this case say "abc", by editing the "xyz" theme and renaming it "abc". If a single item had both "abc" and "xyz" Themes, only the "abc" theme shall remain after this operation.

Program Themes
Program themes appear in bold with the Program name in parentheses (e.g., "theme (program)". Program Themes cannot be edited or merged from the Product's Theme editor.

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Removing Themes

Required Permissions : Apply/Remove Theme

There are three ways to remove associations between Themes and product Backlog Items:

Select and Right click the product Backlog Items you wish to disassociate from a Theme and choose "Remove Themes". In the resultant dialog, any Theme that is associated with any of the selected Backlog Items will be listed. Click the checkbox next to each Theme you wish to remove from the Backlog Items, and click "OK".
Open the Backlog Item for editing. Click the "Themes" tab at the top of the editor. Themes applied to this Backlog Item are listed on the right. To remove a Theme, select one or multiple from the right list and click the left arrow button.
Delete a Theme entirely: When a Theme is deleted, it will be removed from any Product Backlog Item to which it has been applied.

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Deleting Themes

Required Permissions : Create Themes

Themes can be deleted entirely as follows:

From the Themes menu, select "Edit themes".
Select the theme you wish to delete and click the "Delete" button.
Click "Yes" to confirm or "No" to cancel.

Deleted themes will no longer appear associated to any product Backlog Item. Be careful, as there is no "undo" for this operation.

Program Themes cannot be deleted from the Product's Theme editor.

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Show and Hide Themes

Themes are visible as text labels in square brackets prepending Product Backlog Item titles. Themes are visible by default. A user may choose to hide Themes:

From the Themes menu, uncheck "Show Themes" by selecting it.
To make Themes visible again:
From the Themes menu, check "Show Themes" by selecting it.

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Highlight Themes

To aid visual identification, Backlog Items marked with specific Themes may be highlighted in the Product Window.

From the Themes menu, select "Filter or Highlight...".
At the top of the resulting dialog, select "Highlight".
Choose the action you would like to use to highlight Backlog Items.

"for all checked Themes": Highlights Backlog Items marked with every one of the selected Themes. If "(no Theme assignment)" is selected, Backlog Items with no Theme assignment will be highlighted along with those with all of the other selected Themes.

"for any checked Theme": Highlights Backlog Items marked with any of the selected Themes. If "(no Theme assignment)" is selected, Backlog Items with no Theme assignment will be highlighted along with those with any of the selected Themes.

"exclude checked Themes": Highlights all Backlog Items except those marked with any of the selections. If "(no Theme assignment)" is selected, Backlog Items with no Theme assignment will be excluded along with those marked with the selected Themes.
Select the Themes you wish to highlight, then click "OK".

Product Backlog Items matching the selections will be highlighted with a green background color. Highlighting affects both the Sprints by Team and Product Backlog frames of the Product Window. Note that highlighting does not affect the Release Planner frame. To indicate highlighting status, the chosen selections will be displayed at the top of the Sprints by Team and Product Backlog frames.

Highlighting similar Backlog Items
There is a convenient way to highlight a Theme or group of Themes based on a particular Backlog Item. Existing Themed Backlog Items can be used to quickly highlight all other Backlog Items containing all of the same Themes.

To Highlight Backlog Items like selected:

Select the product Backlog Item you wish to use the Themes from and then right click to choose the "Highlight Backlog Items like selected" menu item.
The system will obtain all of the Themes contained within your selected Backlog Items.
All other Backlog Items that contain all of the selected Themes will be highlighted.

Remove highlighting:

From the Themes menu, select "No Filter/Highlight".

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Filter Themes

The Product Backlog and Sprints by Team frames may be filtered for particular Themes:

From the Themes menu, select "Filter or Highlight...".
At the top of the resulting dialog, select the "Filter" option.
Choose from the following three filter options:

"for all checked Themes": Displays only those Backlog Items marked with every one of the selected Themes. If "(no Theme assignment)" is selected, Backlog Items with no Theme assignment will be shown along with those with all of the other selected Themes.

"for any checked Theme": Displays only those Backlog Items marked with any of the selected Themes. If "(no Theme assignment)" is selected, Backlog Items with no Theme assignment will be shown along with those with any of the selected Themes.

"exclude checked Themes": Displays all Backlog Items except those marked with any of the selections. If "(no Theme assignment)" is selected, Backlog Items with no Theme assignment will be excluded along with those marked with the selected Themes.
Select all Themes you wish to filter for or exclude, and click "OK" to apply the filter.

Product Backlog Items matching the selections will be displayed in the Product Backlog and Sprints by Team frames. To indicate the status, the chosen selections will be displayed at the top of the filtered list.

Prioritization in a filtered list
Even though the list is filtered, prioritization drag-and-drop actions are permissible (dropped items will receive a priority immediately subsequent to the item above it in the filtered context).

Remove filters:

From the Themes menu, select "No Filter/Highlight".

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The Sprint Detail Frame

The "Sprint Detail" frame is used to track Sprint level details such as the progress of individual tasks. It also houses the Sprint Burndown Chart and the Team Member Load chart. It is only accessible to those with permission to view Tasks.

Open the Sprint Detail Frame

To open the Sprint Detail frame, double-click any Sprint header row in the Sprints by Team frame.

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Add Sprint Tasks

Once PBIs have been added to Sprints from the Product Window, open the Sprint Detail window by double-clicking the Sprint header row and click the "New Task" button.
Alternatively, right-click the Backlog Item you intend to create a Task for. Select "Add New Task for this Backlog Item".
Enter the Title, Description (note: this space can be used to list the "definition of done"), the point person, the status of the task, Estimated Hours remaining for the task, and choose the associated PBI.

Required permission: Create/Edit/Delete Tasks

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Edit Sprint Tasks

Double-click the Task title in question in the Sprint Detail frame.
Alternatively, right-click the target Task and select "Edit".
Edit as desired and click OK to save or Cancel to discard changes.

Required permission: Create/Edit/Delete Tasks

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Volunteer for Sprint Tasks

Right-click the target Task and select "Take Task".

Note: if someone else is currently point person, the context menu will notify you.

Required permission: Create/Edit/Delete Tasks

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Delete Sprint Tasks

Right-click the target Task and select "Delete Task".

Required permission: Create/Edit/Delete Tasks

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Mark Sprint Tasks as Done

Right-click the target Task and select "Mark as Done".

Note: If an estimate has been entered, hours remaining will automatically change to zero.

Required permission: Create/Edit/Delete Tasks

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Update Sprint Task "Hours Remaining" (Estimated Time Remaining)

There are two ways to update task hours remaining:
Either Edit Sprint Task as described above and modify the Estimated Hours Remaining field, or:

Select the Sprint task row in question in the Sprint Detail frame.
Double-click into the "Hours Remaining" field. The field is now editable. Update the estimated hours remaining using whole number increments (integers).
Click or tab out of the field to save. To leave the field without saving changes hit the "Esc" key before doing anything else.

While "Hours Remaining" is displayed as a single number per task, ScrumWorks Pro records all previous values and the dates modified. These changes are reflected in the sprint burndown graph.

Required permission: Create/Edit/Delete Tasks

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Sprint Burndown and Team Member Load charts

In the upper right section of the Sprint Detail Frame a choice of two reporting graphics are available: The Sprint Burndown graph or a Team Member Load chart. Select the radio button next to the desired display. To refresh and update the data, select View/Refresh in the main menu or F5.

Sprint Burndown Graph
The Sprint Burndown graph plots daily changes to Tasks in two metrics: Number of Tasks remaining and Task hours remaining.

Data for number of Tasks remaining is drawn on the graph in blue, according to the left Y-axis which is scaled in number of Tasks. As remaining Tasks are revised, a line is drawn through each day's data point.

Data for Task hours remaining is drawn on the graph in red, according to the right Y-axis which is scaled in hours. As remaining Task hours are revised, a line is drawn through each new day's data point.

Notes:

Data shown: This graph shows only data for one specific Product and Sprint, and expresses the aggregate estimated remaining hours and Tasks for the Team as a whole.

Historical estimates: The Sprint burndown only takes into account historical estimates in the current Sprint. That is, if a task is moved from an old Sprint to a new Sprint in progress, then the historical estimates made during the "old" Sprint will not be reflected in the current burndown chart. The Sprint burndown is purely a reflection of task activity in the current Sprint.

Omitting Task estimates: When hours estimates are not used - such as when teams simply track Task completion on a binary done/not done basis - neither the data points nor line for Task hours remaining will appear on the graph.

Team Member Load Chart
The Team Member Load chart displays three figures for each member of the Team:

The dark orange bars represent claimed hours for the specific Sprint in focus
The lighter bars represent the claimed hours for all other currently ongoing Sprints on all Products
The number above each user's bar totals the claimed hours among all currently ongoing Sprints on all Products.

As a Team member takes ownership of Task hours for various Products he is working on (via the Point Person dropdown in a Task editor), those hours are added to his total workload and expressed in the Team Member Load chart. Thus, the chart offers views of the relative loading of each Team member. This information may be used to balance workloads amongst Team members and between Products.

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Filtering

Users can filter the table for specific contents of the columns: Backlog/Task Title; Point Person; and Task Status. Filters are additive, acting in combination with filters selected for other columns, narrowing the information shown as each successive filter is applied.

Click the dropdown icon in the column by which you want to filter. A checklist of all existing entries for that column appears in a dropdown list.
Select the checkbox next to each entry for which you want to filter. Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the dropdown. Alternatively, if only a single filter option is desired, double-clicking that option will select it while at the same time deselecting all others.
Repeat the process for each column by which you want to filter rows. As successive filters are added, the number of row listings will be reduced.
To remove a filter for a column, click the dropdown icon in the column header and select the checkbox for "All".

NOTE: The dropdown for the Backlog/Task Title column lists and may only be filtered by Backlog Items.

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Sorting by Single and Multiple Column Entries

Users can sort Tasks by each column in the Sprint Detail window.

Click desired column once to sort descending.
Click desired column a second time to sort ascending.
Click desired column a third time to sort by the default.

Default sort is by "Point Person Descending". You can sort by multiple columns by holding the CTRL/CMD key and clicking additional column headers. For example, first click on Point Person, then hold CTRL/CMD and click the Hours Left column to sub-sort by Hours Left.

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Historical Task Estimation Data

By default, the ScrumWorks Pro Sprint Detail window hides historical task estimate data and displays only the most current "Hours Remaining" for a given task. Checking the "Show Estimate History" box will expand the task list horizontally by adding a column for each day of the sprint. User should scroll horizontally to see the complete data set. Numbers correspond to a specific task's historical estimate for the given day. Blank fields indicate no change.

Required permission: Edit Historical Task Estimates

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Revise Historical Task Estimates

Historical task estimates can be revised. Revisions will affect the Sprint Burndown Chart once applied.

From the Sprint Detail frame, check "Show Estimate History".
Scroll horizontally and locate the date column and respective task row to be altered.
Double-click into the estimate field, even if blank. The field will become editable. Make changes as desired.
To save, press the Enter key, or click anywhere outside the edit field. Note, the Sprint Burndown Chart will change to reflect the estimate revision.

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Re-size Sprint Frame Window Panels

The Sprint Detail frame is made up of three panes that can be re-sized independently. Click the divider bars between the panes and drag to resize as desired.

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Timesheet

Enable Timesheets
Timesheets can be enabled or disabled on a per Product basis. By default Timesheets are disabled for new Products and Products in upgraded installations. To enable Timesheets, check the "Enable Timesheets" checkbox in the "File">"Product Properties" dialog. See the Getting Started with Products section for more information.

Usage
The Timesheet tab on the Sprint Detail frame lets the Team Members view and edit the time they spent on the Tasks in the sprint.
Users can view the Timesheets of each Team Member, but can only edit their own. The Global Administrator and Product Administrators are allowed to edit each Team Member's Timesheet.

To edit a Timesheet entry for a Task and day, double-click on the table cell in the row of the Task and the column of the day to be edited. The time spent on a Task can be entered in hours as a non-negative decimal value.

The view also provides a summary of the total time spent on the Tasks by the entire Team. The summary can be viewed by selecting "All Team Members" in the "Show Hours for" selection box.

The Timesheets can be saved as an Excel document by clicking on the "Export" button. The document contains each Team Member's Timesheet as well as a summary.

Required Permission : View Task

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The Impediments Frame

The Impediments frame is only accessible to those with permission to view and create impediments. It can be opened by clicking on the "View Impediments" button in the Sprints by Team frame.

Add Impediments

Open the Impediments frame by clicking the "View Impediments" button at the top of the Sprints by Team frame.
Click the "New Impediment" button. The Impediment editor dialog will open as a tabbed frame, see Editors Frame Behavior for more information.
Enter a Summary, Detail, Reporter, and Entry Date. See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering details.
Click Apply or OK to save and close, or Cancel to discard.

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Edit/Resolve Impediments

Open the Impediments frame.
Double-click the row corresponding to the impediment in question. The Impediment editor dialog will open as a floating tabbed frame, see Editors Frame Behavior for more information.
Edit the text fields, or click the "Resolved" checkbox to indicate that the impediment is resolved.

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Earned Business Value (Business Weight)

The concept of Earned Business Value was first introduced to the Scrum community by Danube's own Dr. Dan Rawsthorne. Earned Business Value (EBV) is a metric that measures how "done" we are from a business perspective. Using EBV the business can see when the project is providing diminishing returns - when the additional business value provided is not worth the cost of the work being done. This could indicate that the project needs to move into a stabilization phase and released.

ScrumWorks Pro implements this theory using "Business Weight". Business Weights represent a Product Backlog Item's business value index, a relative value used to compare the business value of PBIs.

Required Permissions : View Business Weight

Edit Business Weight

ScrumWorks Pro allows users to associate a "Business Weight" to individual Product Backlog Items. Certain PBIs will therefore have more Business Weight than others. The relative business value of PBIs can therefore be compared using Business Weights.

Business Weight units are user defined and can be anything from real currencies (U.S. dollars, Euros, etc.) to relative point systems. The units are set in the Product Properties window as described in Getting Started with Products

ScrumWorks Pro calculates the Business Weight of a PBI by summing two user defined values: Benefit and Penalty.

Required Permission : Edit Business Weight

Double-click the PBI row in the Product Window. (Alternatively: press the ENTER key or right-click the PBI and then choose "Edit Backlog Item").
The Backlog Item editor dialog will open. Click the tab labeled "Business Weight".
In the text entry box for "Benefit (of inclusion in Product)" under the "Estimates" subsection, add an assessment of the PBI's benefit to the Product and/or business. This value should be a whole number, and is expressed in units defined for Business Weight (BW) in the Product Properties window as described in Getting Started with Products.
In the text entry box for "Penalty (of omission from Product)" under the "Estimates" subsection, enter an assessment of the penalty to the Product and/or business of not including or completing the PBI. This value should be a whole number, and is expressed in units defined for Business Weight (BW) in the Product Properties window as described in Getting Started with Products.

The numbers entered in the "Estimates" subsection contribute to the values in the "Calculations" subsection to the right.
Business Weight (BW): A calculation of a Backlog Item's importance to the Product and/or business, determined by adding its Benefit and Penalty values (see below). BW is expressed as a whole number, in units defined by the Team and set in Product Properties.

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Release Business Value (rBV)

Required Permissions : View Business Weight

Release Business Value (rBV): A Backlog Item's Business Weight expressed as a percentage of the sum of all Business Weights per Release. rBV is expressed and displayed as a whole number percentage in the Backlog Item Editor and in the Product Window. It is calculated automatically by summing Business Weights in a Release.

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Return on Investment (ROI)

Required Permissions : View Business Weight

Return On Investment (ROI): This is a cost-benefit analysis involving Business Weights (benefit) and Backlog Effort Estimates (cost). It is an auto-calculated ratio of a given Backlog Item's Release Business Value divided by its Backlog Effort Percentage. This gives an ROI number that is 'normalized' by comparison with the other Backlog Items in a Release. It is expressed as a number to a user-specified precision (see the Product Properties), from a whole number to a real number up to two decimal places.

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Data Management

ScrumWorks Pro offers Excel formatted data importing and exporting to and from ScrumWorks Pro:

The full product export format can be re-imported as a new product.
Product Backlog Items and Tasks may be imported into a specific Release.
Task details can be exported on the Sprint Detail window.

Exporting ScrumWorks Pro data

You can export an entire Product into an Excel document, using the "File" > "Export" menu.

Required Permissions : Export the Product

The resulting Excel document contains several worksheets that contain all of the information necessary to recreate a product, including estimate histories. This export does not include the files attached to Backlog Items. To retrieve attachments, they must be manually copied from the following directory: INSTALLDIR/server/scrumworks/data/attachments.

The following describes the full contents of the Product Excel Export file:

All Sprints
The Sprint Estimate history. This is the sum of task estimates on the given day. This sum is used in calculating Sprint burndown charts.
All Releases
All Backlog Items, in both Sprints and the Product Backlog, including deleted (inactive) PBIs, if estimate history was preserved on delete event.
The estimate history for each Backlog Item
Parent history for Backlog Items. This tells you when PBIs were dragged between Releases and Sprints.
All data regarding attachments associated to Backlog Items.
All Tasks
The estimate history for each Task
Impediments, both resolved and open

Elements in the Excel document are associated by their IDs. For example, if you look at the 'PBI' sheet, it has a 'Sprint ID' column. If there is an ID listed there, it is the same ID listed on the 'Sprints' sheet.

In sheets where some columns are not the primary data source (such as PBIs listed in the 'Tasks' sheet), the columns use an Excel reference to point to the primary data source.

The export format includes several fields that are useful for creating reports or seeing the relationships between sheets. The same sheet can be used for importing into a new product. See Importing into a new Product for instructions on what can be safely modified.

If your Product is part of a Program, Program Themes and Releases will be exported with the Program name in parentheses. For example: if you had a Program theme called "Bugs" in the Program "Card Games", it will be exported as: "Bugs (Card Games)". The Product's relationship to the Program is not exported.

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Importing into a new Product

You can create a new Product by importing its data from an Excel document. The specific format of the Excel document is detailed below. An example file has been bundled with this documentation.

Steps:

To import a new product based on the product export, click "File" > "Import" > "Into New Product...".

To import a product with its attachments, manually copy the following directory and its contents to the location:

Select the Excel file you would like to import and click 'Open'.

Give the product a name different from other products in your system.

If there are no errors, a 'Success' dialog is presented. If there are errors, you will be presented with a dialog containing the following information:
- Sheet
- Cell
- The problem

Perform the export, import, and copy the attachments directory as close in time as possible to ensure that there is no additional data changes.

Once a Product has been imported with all its attachments, you may delete the product folder at {ScrumWorks server's install directory}\server\scrumworks\data\import-attachments. All attachments from this directory have been copied to the imported Product. For the exact name of the product folder, refer to the Product Info sheet of the product's Excel export file.

Attachment File Problems

If you receive a notice that not all attachments were imported, and you do not wish to continue with an incomplete set of attachments, you must delete the imported Product and repeat the export and import processes. To ensure that the import and export files are referencing the same attachments and data, follow the steps in the import process immediately after exporting the Product, without making any other changes in ScrumWorks between steps. Making changes to attachments or data in ScrumWorks between an export and an import process greatly increases the chances for corruption, synchronization problems, and missing files.

Formatting:

ScrumWorks Pro requires an imported Excel document to be formatted according to the guidelines below. The format matches that of the ScrumWorks Pro Product Excel Export to make it convenient to move products from one server installation to another using Product Export and Import.

Note: server versions must be identical when moving data between two servers using the Product Export/Import technique.

It is also important that the IDs of PBIs, Tasks, Sprints, and Releases be numeric fields that are unique among items of the same type.

The following worksheets are expected in the import format, along with the provided column names:

Product Info:
- Product Name: used as a suggestion for the new Product's name. You cannot create two products with the same name.
- Key Prefix: REQUIRED - used as a suggestion for the new Product's key prefix for Backlog Items. This must be unique for each product.
- Backlog Item Effort: used as a suggestion for the new Product's effort units.
- Business Weight Units: used as a suggestion for the new Product's business weight units.
- Track Time Spent: REQUIRED (Yes/No) - setting for enabling/disabling tracking hours spent on tasks.
- ScrumWorks Pro Version: REQUIRED Only used to verify the version of the spreadsheet matches the version of the server. Don't change this field.
- Exporting User: The name of the user who did the export.
- Export Date: The date the export was created.
- Product ID: REQUIRED (Unique) - ScrumWorks generated value used to reference this Product.
Releases:
- Row: Doesn't affect the import.
- Release Name: REQUIRED - The name of your Release.
- Active: REQUIRED (Yes/No) - ScrumWorks Pro doesn't delete Releases. It marks them inactive to keep an accurate record of work completed.
- Archived: REQUIRED (Yes/No) - Yes if the Release has been archived using the Archive Release feature or No if it has not.
- Release Start Date: An optional field that marks the start of work on a Release. If you specify this, you must specify the end date.
- Release End Date: An optional field that marks the end of work on a Release date. If you specify this, you must specify the start date.
- Release ID: REQUIRED (Unique) - It is used to reference this Release in other sheets.
Sprints:
- Sprint Name: An optional name of the Sprint.
- Goals: REQUIRED - The goals of the Sprint.
- Active: REQUIRED (Yes/No) - ScrumWorks Pro doesn't delete Sprints. It marks them inactive to keep an accurate record of work completed.
- Begin Date: REQUIRED - The starting date of the Sprint.
- End Date: REQUIRED - The ending date of the Sprint.
- Team Name: REQUIRED - The name of the team working on the Sprint. If the team does not exist within ScrumWorks Pro, it is created.
- Sprint ID: REQUIRED (Unique) - It is used to reference this Sprint in other sheets.
Sprint Estimate History: This is data the Sprint Burndown Charts are generated from.
- Sprint Name: An optional field that matches the name from the Sprints sheet.
- Sprint ID: REQUIRED - The ID of the Sprint from the Sprints sheet.
- Sprint Estimate Date: REQUIRED - The date of the estimate. It should fall between the Sprint start and end dates.
- Sprint Estimate - The estimate. This should be the sum of the task estimates for the given date, or empty if there were no estimated tasks on this date.
- Undone Task Count - The number of undone tasks on this date. This should be the number of undone tasks on this date, or empty if this information is not known.
PBI:
- Row: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI Key: REQUIRED - The unique identifier of the PBI. The prefix must match the Product Key Prefix. Imported PBI Keys will be preserved in the newly created product.
- PBI Title: REQUIRED - The title of the Product Backlog Item that will be created.
- PBI Description: An optional field to describe the PBI.
- PBI Current Effort Estimate: The current estimate of the PBI. The export creates these as references to the 'PBI Estimates' sheet pointing at the latest estimate. If you change this value, an estimate will be created with today's date. If you leave the field empty, it will be created as an unestimated PBI.
- Product Themes: An optional field representing a comma separated list of Product themes associated with this PBI. If the theme(s) don't exist, they will be created.
- Program Themes: An optional field representing a comma separated list of Program themes associated with this PBI. If the theme(s) don't exist, they will be created.
- Benefit: An optional field representing an assessment of the PBI's benefit to the Product and/or business.
- Penalty: An optional field representing an assessment of the penalty to the Product and/or business of not including or completing the PBI.
- PBI Active: REQUIRED (Yes/No) - ScrumWorks Pro does not give the option of truly deleting PBIs. It marks them inactive to keep an accurate record of work completed. See Delete Product Backlog Item for more information.
- PBI Done: REQUIRED (Yes/No) - Whether or not the PBI is considered 'Done'.
- PBI Completion Date: REQUIRED if 'PBI Done' is Yes - The date the PBI was completed.
- Release Name: Doesn't affect the import.
- Sprint Begin Date: Doesn't affect the import.
- Sprint End Date: Doesn't affect the import.
- Team Name: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI ID: REQUIRED (Unique) - It is used to reference this PBI in other sheets.
- Sprint ID: REQUIRED if the PBI belongs to a Sprint - The Sprint the PBI belongs to.
- Release ID: REQUIRED - The Release the PBI belongs to.
PBI Estimates:
- PBI Title: Doesn't affect the import.
- Date: REQUIRED - The date of the estimate.
- Estimate: The estimate in the units specified on the Product Info sheet.
- PBI Active: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI ID: REQUIRED - The ID of the PBI this estimate belongs to.
PBI Parent History:
- PBI Title: Doesn't affect the import.
- Change Date: REQUIRED - The date the PBI was moved.
- Release Name: Doesn't affect the import.
- Sprint Name: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI ID: REQUIRED - The PBI this history item belongs to.
- Sprint ID: The Sprint this PBI was moved into (or empty if the PBI was moved out of a Sprint).
- Release ID: REQUIRED - The Release this PBI was moved into (or no change if the Sprint changed).
PBI Attachments:
- PBI Key: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI Title: Doesn't affect the import.
- Attachment File Name: REQUIRED - Name of the attachment file.
- Attachment File Size: REQUIRED - Size of the attachment file in bytes.
- Attached By: REQUIRED - The name of the user that uploaded the attachment to the server.
- Attachment Date: REQUIRED - Date that the file was uploaded to the server.
- Attachment ID: REQUIRED (Unique) - Used to reference the file in the product's attachment directory.
- PBI ID: REQUIRED - The PBI this attachment is associated to.
Tasks:
- Row: Doesn't affect the import.
- Task Title: REQUIRED - The title of the Task.
- Description: An optional description of the Task.
- Point Person: The person the Task is assigned to. If the field is left empty, the Task will be (unspecified).
- Status: REQUIRED (Not Started/In Progress/Impeded/Done) - The status of this Task.
- Current Estimate: The current estimate of the Task. The export creates these as references to the 'Task Estimates' sheet pointing at the latest estimate. If you change this value, an estimate will be created with today's date. If the field is left empty, the task will be unestimated.
- PBI Title: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI Description: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI Current Effort Estimate: Doesn't affect the import.
- Benefit: Doesn't affect the import.
- Penalty: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI Active: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI Done: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI Completion Date: Doesn't affect the import.
- Release Name: Doesn't affect the import.
- Sprint Begin Date: Doesn't affect the import.
- Sprint End Date: Doesn't affect the import.
- Team Name: Doesn't affect the import.
- PBI ID: REQUIRED - The ID of the PBI this task belongs to.
- Sprint ID: Doesn't affect the import.
- Release ID: Doesn't affect the import.
- Task ID: REQUIRED (Unique) - It is used to reference this PBI in other sheets.
Task Estimates:
- Task Title: Doesn't affect the import.
- Date: REQUIRED - The date of the estimate.
- Estimate: The estimate. If omitted, the task is unestimated on this date.
- Task ID: REQUIRED - The ID of the Task this estimate belongs to.
Impediments:
- Impediment Summary: REQUIRED - A summary of the Impediment.
- Detail: An optional description of the Impediment.
- Entry Date: REQUIRED - The date the Impediment was entered into the system.
- Last Modified Date: REQUIRED - The date the Impediment was last modified.
- Resolved: REQUIRED (Yes/No) - Whether or not the Impediment is resolved.
- Date Resolved: REQUIRED if Resolved is 'Yes' - The date the Impediment was resolved.
- Reporter: The name of the person who reported the Impediment. If it is left empty, the reporter is (unspecified).
- Team Name: REQUIRED - The name of the team that reported the impediment. If the team does not exist within ScrumWorks Pro, it is created.

If your Product was part of a Program and had Themes and Releases from that Program, they were exported with the Program name in parentheses. When imported, the Themes and Releases will be imported as part of the Product, not part of the Program. For example: if you had a Program theme called "Bugs" in the Program "Card Games", it will be imported as a Product Theme: "Bugs (Card Games)". The Product's relationship to the Program is not restored.

Only the Global Administrator can import into a new Product.

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Importing Backlog Items and Tasks

The purpose of the import feature is to provide a simple interface for importing Backlog Items and Tasks into ScrumWorks Pro. The import feature uses a simple, four column Excel format.

The import feature can be accessed from the Product Window's file menu:
"File" > "Import" > "Import into Release of Current Product"

Select a Release on the left side of the window. Once imported, the Backlog Items and Tasks will be added to the top of this Release.
Use the "Browse" button to select an Excel document which contains the Backlog Items and the Tasks to import. When the file is selected, the content of the file will appear in the center "Preview" panel.
To import the Backlog Items and Tasks shown in the preview, click "Import". The import window will be closed and the Backlog Items and Tasks will be added to the selected Release in the same order as they appeared in the "Preview" panel.

Import file format:

The import uses Excel file format. The rows of the spreadsheet correspond to either Backlog Items or Tasks. Tasks titles are indented one column (column B) and are subordinate to the last Backlog Item in the file before them. As the content of the import files are imported into Releases, every task in the import files need to belong to a Backlog Item (i.e., the first row in the file must be a Backlog Item row).
The columns are formatted as follows:

A: Backlog Item Title. Must be empty if the row represents a Task.
B: Task Title. Must be empty if the row represents a Backlog Item.
C: Backlog Item/Task Description.
D: Backlog Item/Task Estimate. If populated, must contain a non-negative integer.

Example:

A	B	C	D
Backlog Item Title		PBI description	5
	Task 1 title	Task 1 description	7
	Task 2 title	Task 2 description	3
Backlog Item 2 Title		PBI 2 description	9
	Task 3 title	Task 3 description	2

Required Permissions : Import into Release

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Backing Up ScrumWorks Pro Data (Hypersonic database)

For instructions on backing up and restoring all ScrumWorks Pro databases please see the Data Backup documentation.

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Move Backlog Items/Tasks Between Products

ScrumWorks Pro supports moving Backlog Items and Tasks from one product to another via drag-and-drop.

Required Permissions :

Source product requires the 'Drag Backlog Items/Tasks from Product' permission
Destination product requires the 'Drop Backlog Items/Tasks into Product' permission

Open both products and arrange them in a way that the source and destination products are visible. The "Window" > "Tile" menu item is good for this.
Drag the Backlog Item or Task from the source product to the desired location in the destination product.

When moving Backlog Items across products:

You cannot drag them into a Sprint
The Backlog Item's tasks will be moved as well. If those tasks were part of a Sprint, the estimates of remaining work for the Sprint will change for the current day
Effort units between the source and destination product may differ. Be sure to re-evaluate the Backlog Item estimates when moving Backlog Items.
You will be prompted about the history of the backlog item:

Move the history to the new Product - The entire estimate history for the Backlog Item will be moved. This will affect the Release Burndown Reports for the source and destination Products.
Start a new history - The estimate history for the Backlog Item will stay with the source Product and a new history will start in the new Product.
Cancel - Aborts the move.

When moving multiple Backlog Items between Products, you will be prompted with a choice about the histories of the Backlog Items. This choice will be applied to all Backlog Items of the multi-selection.

Note regarding attachments:

When moving Tasks across products:

If the Tasks are part of a Sprint, the estimates of remaining work for both the source and destination Sprints will change for the current day.
Past Task estimates will not be moved with the Task. A confirmation dialog will ask if you still want to move the Task.
If you want to go ahead with the move, Sprint Burndown Charts will be affected:
- Source Sprint: Estimates prior to today will not be able to be viewed or changed, even if you move the Task back into the Sprint.
- Destination Sprint: A new Task estimate history starts today.

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External Application Integration

ScrumWorks Pro synchronizes with select applications whose information may be downloaded into Backlog Items. Download is available from the following applications: Bugzilla v3.0 and above, JIRA v3.9 and above

Downloading Data from Bugzilla 3.0 and above

From the main menu, select "File" > "Access External Application" > "Download...".

In the following dialog select "Bugzilla" from the Application dropdown. Enter the server address for the data you wish to download, and if required, enter a Username and Password for an account with access to the server specified. Click the "Connect" button to access the server.
In the "Specify Release and Retrieved Fields" dialog, choose an existing ScrumWorks Pro Release as a destination for downloaded data: For each record selected for download, an individual Backlog Item will be created and placed at the bottom of the specified Release. Check the box next to each field you want downloaded from the server and included in each record's Backlog Item. Except for the fields marked "(always retrieved)", only data for the Fields you select will be downloaded.

The following Bugzilla Fields are always retrieved for each record:
- Bug #
- Comment (including Description)
- Resolution
- Status
- Summary
Note on Custom Fields: In order to access custom fields from Bugzilla, ScrumWorks Pro expects to find "query.cgi" at the root of your Bugzilla installation ("https://bugzilla.server.com/query.cgi"). This page must accept the parameter "format=advanced" and list the custom fields in the "Advanced Searching Using Boolean Charts" section. This is the default Bugzilla configuration.
In the "Search Bugzilla Database" dialog, specify filters for data retrieval from the selected database. All fields in the database may be filtered, regardless of which fields have been chosen for download into ScrumWorks Pro. Select a Field, an operation, and a Value, and click the "Add" button to add that criteria to the list on the right. Certain operations support multiple words as the value. If the operation text is plural, then you can append different search values by separating them with a comma. For example: "Bug # contains any of the words 4,11" will search for the word 4 or 11 within the Bug # field and return Bug # 4 and Bug # 11.

Individual filters may be removed by selecting the line from the list and clicking the "Remove" button. Click the "Search" button to search the specified database according to the listed filters. A "Retrieving Items" dialog displays the status of your search. Clicking this dialog's "Cancel" button stops the search. When the search is complete, a list of items matching specified filter criteria are displayed in the table below.
To download individual items found, select those items and click "Download Selected Items". To download the entire returned list, click "Download All".

A Backlog Item will be created for each downloaded record. The Backlog Item Title fields will be populated with the Bugzilla Summary field and the Backlog Item Description field will be populated with data from the the Bugzilla Comments field (including Description). All other Downloaded data is displayed in the "Imported Data" tab in the Backlog Editor. Otherwise, only data for fields you've specified will be retrieved and included in the "Imported Data" tab of each Backlog Item. All Backlog Items created from downloaded records will be inserted at the bottom of the selected release.

Required Permissions : Create Backlog Item

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Refreshing Data Downloaded from Bugzilla 3.0 and above

To refresh multiple items at once, from the main menu, select "File" > "Access External Application" > "Refresh from server...".

In the following dialog select the application from the Application dropdown, and check the box next to each server from which you want to download the latest data and click "OK".
For each server selected, a list of items previously downloaded is displayed in a Refresh from Server dialog. To refresh these items, click "Refresh" and enter a valid Username and Password for the server in the resulting connection dialog. A "Refresh Successful" notification will be generated when the refresh from each server is complete. To continue to the next servers' item listing and connection dialog, click "Next Server". If you wish to skip a refresh action from any server you've selected, click the "Skip" button in the Refresh from Server dialog to continue to the next selected server in the list.
After all selected servers have been refreshed or skipped, a Refresh Summary dialog lists the servers from which data was refreshed and those from which it was not.

For each server selected, all undeleted items from all prior downloads will be refreshed with the latest data. Only those fields specified in prior downloads will be refreshed.

To refresh data in individual Backlog Items, in the Downloaded Data tab of the Backlog Item editor, click the button "Refresh from server". If you have an active session login to the server, the data will be refreshed with the most recent server information. If you do not have an active session login or if for some reason the prior login information cannot be passed to the server, you will be asked to authenticate before the data is refreshed from the server.

Required Permissions : Edit Backlog Item

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Editing Data Downloaded from Bugzilla 3.0 and above

Data in items downloaded from external applications may not be edited in ScrumWorks Pro. To edit the data in an item downloaded from Bugzilla, open the Backlog Item for that issue and in the "Downloaded Data" tab, click the button "Edit directly in Bugzilla". If you have an active session login to the server, the item will be opened directly in Bugzilla. If you do not have an active session login or if for some reason the prior login information cannot be passed to the server, you will be asked to authenticate before the item is opened directly in Bugzilla.

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Configuring JIRA v3.9 and above to work with ScrumWorks Pro

ScrumWorks Pro assumes that the JIRA installation accepts SOAP calls at the default location: <path_to_jira>/rpc/soap/jirasoapservice-v2. Each JIRA server you wish to work with ScrumWorks Pro must be set to accept calls from remote applications at this location.

Sign on to the server using an account with Administrator privileges. In the top menu bar, click "Administration".
In the left side menu, under the section "Global Settings", click "General Configuration". The body of this page displays various settings under the following section headings: "Settings", "Internationalisation", and "Options".
Under the "Options" section, Find the item "Accept remote API calls". This item should be set to "ON".
If this item is set to "OFF", click "Edit Configuration" in the grey bar at the bottom of the page, which enables editing for all items under all sections. Scroll back down to "Accept remote API calls" under the "Options" section, and select the radio button for "ON". Click the "Update" button at bottom of the page to save your configuration changes.

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Configuring ScrumWorks Pro to work with JIRA and Self-Signed SSL Certificates

Java and WebStart don't work with self-signed SSL certificates by default. There is a workaround that can be done until more complete support is implemented. The instructions below use Windows and Internet Explorer for getting the server's certificate. After you have the certificate, you can import it into any supported ScrumWorks Pro client platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).

These steps will only need to be performed once for each computer that needs to download data from JIRA. Replace "<path_to_java>" and "<server_name>" with their appropriate values for each computer. Note that if you have multiple versions of Java installed, you will need to replace "<path_to_java>" with the one that runs ScrumWorks Pro via WebStart.

Open a secure connection to your JIRA server (https://jira.company.com) using Internet Explorer. If you are using Windows Vista, you will need to run Internet Explorer as an Administrator.
If Internet Explorer prompts you to accept the certificate, click "View Certificate". If it does not prompt you, you can double click the gold lock icon to open the certificate. Alternatively, you can go to the "View" -> "Security Report" menu option.
Click the "Details" tab.
Click the "Copy to File..." button.
Save the certificate as a "DER encoded binary X.509 (.CER)" file. Remember where you save the file.
You can now close Internet Explorer and use this certificate on any client that needs to download data from JIRA.
Open up a command prompt.
Run the command: <path_to_java>\bin\keytool -import -trustcacerts -keystore "<path_to_java>\jre\lib\security\cacerts" -storepass changeit -alias <server_name> -file <file_you_saved.cer>
When prompted to "Trust this certificate?", enter "Yes"
You should now be able to download from the JIRA server which uses that key.

You will need to restart the ScrumWorks Pro client in order to connect to the JIRA server.

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Downloading from JIRA v3.9 and above

From the main menu, select "File" > "Access External Application" > "Download...".

In the following dialog select "JIRA" from the Application dropdown. Enter the server address for the data you wish to download, and enter a Username and Password for an account with access to the server specified. Click the "Connect" button to access the server.
In the "Specify Release and Retrieved Fields" dialog, choose an existing ScrumWorks Pro Release as a destination for downloaded data: For each record selected for download, an individual Backlog Item will be created and placed at the bottom of the specified Release. Check the box next to each field you want downloaded from the server and included in each record's Backlog Item. Except for the fields marked "(always retrieved)", only data for the Fields you select will be downloaded.

The following JIRA Fields are always retrieved for each record:
- Key
- Description
- Resolution
- Status
- Summary
Notes on Custom Fields:

The JIRA API limits access to custom fields via ScrumWorks Pro to only those with Administrator privileges in JIRA. Even if you normally have access to custom fields in JIRA, if you do not have Administrator privileges, you will not be able to retrieve custom fields from within ScrumWorks Pro.

Because the JIRA API does not identify data type for certain custom fields, internal JIRA code may populate a custom field in ScrumWorks Pro with the internal code rather than an appropriate display value. In such cases, values can only be viewed by accessing the issue directly in JIRA.
In the "Seach JIRA Database" dialog, choose from among the three search methods: Free text, Key name, or Filters. Only Filters previously saved in JIRA are available. If you have no searches saved in JIRA, you can not use this method to search the database; Search Filters must be created directly in JIRA to be available for use in ScrumWorks Pro. Click the "Search" button to search the specified database according to the selected method. A "Retrieving Bugs" dialog displays the status of your search. Clicking this dialog's "Cancel" button stops the search. When the search is complete, Returns matching specified search criteria are displayed in the table below.

A Backlog Item will be created for each downloaded record. The Backlog Item Title fields will be populated with the JIRA Summary field and the Backlog Item Description field will be populated with data from the the JIRA Description field. All other Downloaded data is displayed in the "Imported Data" tab in the Backlog Editor. Otherwise, only data for fields you've specified will be retrieved and included in the "Imported Data" tab of each Backlog Item. All Backlog Items created from downloaded records will be inserted at the bottom of the selected release.

Required Permissions : Create Backlog Item

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Refreshing Data Downloaded from JIRA v3.9 and above

To refresh multiple items at once, from the main menu, select "File" > "Access External Application" > "Refresh from server...".

In the following dialog select the application from the Application dropdown, and check the box next to each server from which you want to download the latest data and click "OK".
For each server selected, a list of items previously downloaded is displayed in a Refresh from Server dialog. To refresh these items, click "Refresh" and enter a valid Username and Password for the server in the resulting connection dialog. A "Refresh Successful" notification will be generated when the refresh from each server is complete. To continue to the next servers' item listing and connection dialog, click "Next Server". If you wish to skip a refresh action from any server you've selected, click the "Skip" button in the Refresh from Server dialog to continue to the next selected server in the list.
After all selected servers have been refreshed or skipped, a Refresh Summary dialog lists the servers from which data was refreshed and those from which it was not.

Editing Data Downloaded from JIRA v3.9 and above

Data in items downloaded from external applications may not be edited in ScrumWorks Pro. To edit the data in an item downloaded from JIRA, open the Backlog Item for that issue and in the "Downloaded Data" tab, click the button "Edit directly in JIRA". If you have an active session login to the server, the issue will be opened directly in JIRA. If you do not have an active session login or if for some reason the prior login information cannot be passed to the server, you will be asked to authenticate before the issue is opened directly in JIRA.

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Known Issues with JIRA Downloads

The JIRA API does not provide access to the following fields and data for them will not be retrieved:

Work Log
Change History
Watchers
Time related (Original estimate, Remaining Estimate, Time Spent)

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Team Management

To help manage the development of large Products, more than one Team may work against the same Product Backlog. ScrumWorks Pro allows Global and Product Administrators to create an unlimited number of Teams. Each Team has one or more Team Members associated with it, working on the Sprints created for the Team.

Global and Product Administrator users can add new Teams, change Team composition, and delete Teams using the Team Manager, found in the main menu under:
"User" > "Team Manager"

A single Team can work on Sprints in multiple Products simultaneously.

Creating a New Team (Product Admin only)

Click the "New Team" button.
Enter the name of the new Team in the "Team Name" text field.
Select the Team Members of the new Team from the list "Available Team Members". If you didn't create any Users yet, this list will be empty. See User Management on how to create Users.

Note: adding Users to a Team will give them a default Role, set in Product Properties, for each Product to which the Team is associated. Removing a User's Team membership will remove that User's default Role on Product with which the Team is associated.
Click "<<", to add the selected persons to the Team.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save, and "Cancel" to abort.

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Update a Team's name or Team Members (Product Admin only)

Select a Team from the "Teams" list by clicking on the Team's name.
Edit the name of the Team in the "Team Name" text field, as desired.
To add new Team Members to this team, select the ones to be added from the list "Available Team Members". Click "<<" to add the selected persons to the Team.
To remove Team Members from the team, select the ones to be removed from the list "Current Team Members". Click ">>" to remove them from the Team.

Note: adding Users to a Team will give them a default Role, set in Product Properties, for each Product to which the Team is associated. Removing a User's Team membership will remove that User's default Role on Product with which the Team is associated.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save, and "Cancel" to abort.

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Deleting a Team (Product Admin only)

Select the Team to be deleted from the "Teams" list by clicking on the Team's name.
Click the "Delete Team" button below the "Teams" list.
Click "Yes" on the pop-up dialog to confirm the deletion.

Note: You can only delete a Team if it was never assigned a Sprint. This restriction is necessary to preserve integrity of historical information.

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Associating Teams with Products

If desired, first Create a New Team. Users must have Product Admin privileges to do this.
Open the Product for which you wish to add an existing team, so that the Product Window is in view.
Select the +/- Team button located in the upper right-hand corner of the "Sprints by Team" frame of the Product Window.
All available teams are listed in the resulting "Add Team to Product" screen. Check the box corresponding to any Team the user desires to associate with the Product. Any Team already associated with the Product will be checked.
To remove any Team currently associated with the Product, uncheck the corresponding checkbox.
Click "OK" to add the selected team to this product, or "Cancel" to abort.
The new team will appear in the list of Team Tabs on the Sprints side of the Product Window.
If removing an existing team with currently running or past Sprints, a warning will notify the user that the Sprints will not be removed or deleted. Instead, removing the team will hide this data from view. If deletion is instead desired, the user should re-associate the Team and remove all Backlog Items and Sprints manually.

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User Management

User access to features in ScrumWorks Pro is divided between two major feature sets of the tool: Products and Programs. Since users of each feature set may differ widely in how they use the tool, access to Products is given independently of access to Programs. However, because these features are related and share information, access and permissions given with regard to Products may affect a user's access and capabilities with regard to Programs and vice versa.

With regard to Product Access, there are three types of users in ScrumWorks Pro: Global Administrators, Product Administrators, and Users with Role-based access. Global Administrators have universal Product access and are the only users that can create, edit, or delete other users. Product Administrators may grant other Users Product Administrator access and Role-based access. Users with Role-based access have permissions determined by their assigned Role(s) and may not grant any product access to other Users. Any user may set their own password and preferences. The default Global Administrator login is "administrator" with password "password".

With regard to Program Access, there are three types of users: Global Administrators, Program Administrators, and Program Viewers. Global Administrators have universal Program access, and are the only users that can create or delete Programs. Program Administrators may include Products (viewing the names of all Products that exist in the system regardless of individual Product access), create and assign Groups, and grant Program access to other users for Programs they administer. Access to Product Backlog Item information is determined by per-Product access rights and Roles. A Program Viewer may view the names of only those Products that have been included in the Program.

Add Users (Global Administrators Only)

Global Administrators can add new users to the system.

From the main menu, select "User" > "User Manager" (shortcut key: CTRL+U).

If you are using directory authentication, add the user to the group designated for access to ScrumWorks Pro. Users will populate ScrumWorks Pro's User Manager automatically based on directory group membership.

See the Directory Authentication section for more information.

If you are not using directory authentication, click the "New" button under the list of existing users and enter the Login Name, Password, and Display Name of the user. Display Names are used in Task Point Person fields.

Note: Usernames may not contain the colon : character. This holds for ScrumWorks authenticated as well as directory authenticed users.

Provide access rights to products as described Grant Product and Program Access section.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save, and "Cancel" to abort.

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Import Users from Spreadsheet (Global Administrators Only)

Multiple Users may be imported into ScrumWorks Pro at once from a spreadsheet file in Microsoft Excel® (97 - 2003) format (.xls). The new Office®/Excel® 2007 format .xlsx is not supported.

The proper spreadsheet format is:

one row for each User
four columns corresponding to the three fields for each User in the User Manager, in this order: Display Name, Login Name, Password, and E-mail address.
Column headings are unnecessary, and if included will be imported as if they were entries for a User.

Example format:

Johnny Lawrence	jlaw	p3amfk1s	jlaw@cobrakai.com
Terry Silver	tsilver	w2gb7jq
Daniel LaRusso	dlarusso	waxonwaxoff	daniel@miyagi.com

The proper cell format for all field entries must be a string of letters, or letters and numbers: for any field in the spreadsheet, a cell populated only with numbers will cause an error and the import will be rejected. The first three cells for each user must contain a value or the import will be rejected. The e-mail address field is optional.

Upon successful import, Users will appear in the User Manager in alphabetical order by Display Name.

Note: Usernames may not contain the colon : character. This holds for ScrumWorks authenticated as well as directory authenticed users.

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Edit User Login Credentials (Global Administrators only)

The Global Administrator user may edit other Users' Display Names, Usernames, Passwords, and E-mail addresses, but only for users created and authenticated within ScrumWorks Pro. If the ScrumWorks Pro server is integrated with an organization directory server (such as LDAP/Active Directory), the Global Administrator cannot edit these attributes; changes must be made directly in the directory server.

From the main menu, select "User" > "User Manager" (shortcut key: CTRL+U).
The "User Manager" window appears. Select a name from the "Users" list on the left side of the window by clicking on the corresponding row. Note the "Authentication" column which indicates whether a User's login information is controlled by ScrumWorks Pro or via a directory server.
In the "Login Information" tab, update the Display Name, Login Name, Password, and E-mail address as desired for ScrumWorks Pro authenticated users.

Note: Usernames may not contain the colon : character. This holds for ScrumWorks authenticated as well as directory authenticed users.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save, and "Cancel" to abort.

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Delete Users (Global Administrators Only)

Global Administrators can remove users from the system. Once Users are removed, any tasks or impediments will remain associated with the User's Display Name until edited. Note: once a task or impediment associated with a deleted User is edited it can no longer remain associated with the deleted User. To escape mistaken field edits, hit the "Esc" key twice before doing anything else.

From the main menu, select "User" > "User Manager" (shortcut key: CTRL+U).
Select the User slated for deletion and then click the "Delete User" button.
Confirm the deletion by clicking "Yes", or "No" to abort.

If the user is authenticated using the organization directory, the user can not be removed from within ScrumWorks Pro. Global Administrators may not remove themselves from ScrumWorks Pro.

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Manage Logged-in Users (Global Administrators Only)

Global Administrators may log users out of the system to perform maintenance functions, or - in the case of Concurrent User licenses - free up user slots in the system so that other users may log in.

Concurrent User License behavior:
When the licensed number of Concurrent Users is reached, user logins will be blocked until slots become available. At this point, only those with Global Administrator privledges will be able to login, and access will be limited to the User Manager, managing logged-in users, or changing the license.

To manually log users out (requires Global Administrator privledges):

From the User menu, click "Manage logged-in users".

In the resultant dialog, all currently logged-in users are displayed along with the time since their last activity. The "Clients in Use" column describes which client, Desktop or Web or both, the user is currently logged into*.

Check the box next to each User to be manually logged out.

Click "Log-out User(s)". The list of logged-in users will refresh to reflect the changes made.

* Users under a Concurrent User license may log into multiple instances of both the Desktop and Web Clients, occupying an additional Concurrent User slot for each subsequent instance of each client.

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Directory Server

ScrumWorks Pro can use an organization's directory service for authentication. If a user is authenticated through the directory service, their attributes are not editable in the User Manager. There is a column in the user list to indicate whether the user is authenticated by ScrumWorks Pro or by the Directory.

User Attributes
After selecting a user, their user attributes will be shown, but disabled, and their authentication type will be displayed as an indicator for why they are disabled.

Adding Users
If you are using directory authentication, users in the group designated for ScrumWorks Pro access as set up by your directory administrator will automatically gain access. ScrumWorks Pro synchronizes with the directory server for a list of users every few minutes.

Removing Users
To remove a directory user, simply remove them from the group designated for ScrumWorks Pro access in the directory server. ScrumWorks Pro will detect the change shortly and remove the user(s) from the User Manager.

Please see the Directory Configuration documentation for more information on configuring ScrumWorks Pro Server to authenticate against LDAP or Active Directory.

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Switching Users between ScrumWorks and Directory Authentication (Global Administrators Only)

Users authenticated by ScrumWorks Pro may be switched to authentication by directory service and vice-versa in the User Manager.

Switching to Directory Authentication

Make sure your ScrumWorks server has been configured for directory authentication. If the server has not been configured, the ability to switch to directory authentication will be disabled. Please see Directory Configuration.

In the User Manager, from the list of Users on the left, select the User whose authentication type you wish to switch.

In the Login Information tab on the right, the User's Authentication type is listed. Click the "Switch to directory" button to the right of the listing. ScrumWorks will compare the Login Name of the selected User to the User IDs in the directory.

If a directory User ID matching the ScrumWorks Login Name is not found, a notification stating so is displayed. If the directory User ID is known, the ScrumWorks Login Name may be changed to match it, so that ScrumWorks identifies it when the process is attempted again.

When a directory User ID matching the ScrumWorks Login Name is found, the User ID, First and Last Name, and e-mail address (if any) is displayed for confirmation as the intended User record.

Click "Confirm" to switch the User's authentication type to directory using the displayed User ID. Note the Login Information is replaced and read-only as described in the Directory Server section.

Switching to ScrumWorks Authentication

In the User Manager, from the list of Users on the left, select the User whose authentication type you wish to switch.

In the Login Information tab on the right, the User's Authentication type is listed. Click the "Switch to ScrumWorks" button to the right of the listing.

A dialog appears requesting entry of a ScrumWorks authentication password to be used instead of the directory password. Note: This password is used only for ScrumWorks authentication of the selected User, and does not alter or affect that User's directory password.

Click "OK" to to complete the switch to ScrumWorks authentication using the provided password.

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Enabling or Disabling Product Roles and Permissions

User access to a Product may be controlled by enabling the Roles and Permissions feature for that Product in the Product Properties dialog. Enabling this feature activates a system for assigning Roles to Users that determines their permissions to access features and manipulate Product data. Disabling this feature leaves access to that Product open to any User in the ScrumWorks Pro User Manager. By default, Roles and Permissions are disabled for newly-created Products.

To Enable Roles and Permissions for a new Product:

Use the File > Product Properties menu or the Create Product Wizard, for Roles and Permissions, select the radio button for "Enabled".

Click "OK".

To enable Roles and Permissions for an existing Product:

Go to File > Product Properties.

For Roles and Permissions, select the radio button for "Enabled".

Click "OK".

Required User Type: Global Administrator

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Granting Global Administrator access (Global Administrators)

Global Administrators can grant other users Global Administrator privileges. Users granted Global Administrator privileges are not bound by Product level roles/restrictions, although role settings are preserved.

Logged in as a Global Administrator, from the main menu select "User" > "User Manager" (shortcut key: CTRL+U).
The "User Manager" window appears. Select a name from the list of "Users" on the left side of the frame by clicking on the corresponding row.
In the "Login Information" tab click the checkbox labeled "Grant Global Administrator privileges to user".
Click the "Apply" button to save the changes. Global Administrator privileges are effective upon next login.

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Granting Product Administrator or Roles to Users (Global Administrators and Product Administrators)

Global Administrators and Product Administrators can grant either Product Administrator or Role-based access to Users through the "Product Access" tab of the User Manager dialog.

Global Administrators can grant Product Administrator or Role-based access to any product in the system.
Product Administrators can grant Users access to only those products for which they themselves are administrators.

From the main menu, select "User" > "User Manager" (shortcut key: CTRL+U).
The "User Manager" window appears. Select a name from the "Users" list on the left side of the window by clicking on the corresponding row.
In the "Product Access" tab, scroll to the product you want the selected User to access. In the Product Access and Roles column, select either Product Administrator or one or more of the listed Roles for that Product. Product Administrators have read/write permissions over all data and fields for that Product, including managing and assigning Roles to users. When Product Administrator is selected, the listed Roles are disabled since they are no longer relevant to the selected User. To revoke Product Administrator status and instead assign one or more Roles, uncheck Product Administrator, then check one or more of the Roles that exist for that Product.
If a new Role is desired, click "Manage Roles" in the "Roles and Permissions" column corresponding to the desired Product.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for each User you wish to grant Product access.

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Assign Roles to Multiple Users (Global Administrators and Product Administrators)

When a Product's Roles & Permissions are enabled, Global Administrators and Product Administrators can assign Roles for that Product to multiple users at once from within the Role Manager, or via the "User" menu.

Required User Type: Product Administrator or Global Administrator

Open the Product for which you would like to assign Roles. If Roles and Permissions are not yet enabled, be sure to do so before proceeding to the next step.
From the User menu, select "Role Manager". This menu option is disabled for Products with Roles and Permissions disabled.
From the "Roles" section at left, select a Role you wish to assign to multiple Users.
Click the "Assign Role to Multiple Users" button at the bottom of the screen.
The "Assign Role to Multiple Users" dialog will be displayed. It will contain a list of all Users in the system. The selected Role will match that chosen within the Role Manager. Click the checkbox next to each User to which you wish to apply the selected Role. Note: Product Administrators will not appear because they have all permissions.
Uncheck the checkbox to remove the selected Role from a User.
Click "Save and Close" to save, "Apply" to apply current changes or "Cancel" to abort.
From here you can choose to make assignment changes for any of the existing Roles for a User. Select a different Role, and check or uncheck the box next to each User to apply or remove that Role. Note: If changes were made to a Role's assignment you must either apply or discard the changes before moving to the next Role. Changes are saved to the server for that Role when the "Apply" button is pressed. They are also saved to the server when the "Yes" option is chosen for any unsaved changes when switching to a different Role.

You can also open the "Assign Role to Multiple Users" dialog using the menu item "User" > "Assign Role to Multiple Users". Note: When the dialog is opened from the "User" menu, the selected Role will be the current default Role for the Product. If no default Role is set for this Product via the properties setting, then the first Role in the list will be selected.

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Grant Program Access to Users (Global Administrators and Program Administrators)

Global Administrators and Program Administrators can grant Users program access and designate their User Type through the "Program Access" tab of the User Manager dialog.

Global Administrators can grant Users access to all programs in the system; Program Administrators can grant Users program access and designate User Type for only those programs for which they are Program Administrators.

From the main menu, select "User" > "User Manager" (shortcut key: CTRL+U).
The "User Manager" window appears. Select a name from the "Users" list on the left side of the window by clicking on the corresponding row.
In the "Program Access" tab, under the "Login Information" section, select the checkbox in the Access column for each program you want the selected User to access. The default User Type is Program Viewer, which provides read-only access to that Program, its Groups, and Products that have been included in the Program.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save, and "Cancel" to abort.

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Role Management

In addition to limiting access by Product, ScrumWorks Pro allows administrators to create Roles which act to limit Users' access to specific data or features. Roles define a specific set of permissions. Roles are Product specific; a single Role applies to just one Products. Administrators may then grant Users access to specific data or features by associating Users to Roles.

Roles and Permissions are optional on a Product by Product basis. Disabling Roles and Permissions leaves access to that Product open to any User in ScrumWorks Pro. By default, Roles and Permissions are disabled for newly-created Products.

Roles apply only to Products; Roles are not applicable to Programs.

To ease administration, Role Templates can be created that are available to each Product in ScrumWorks Pro.

Enabling or Disabling Product Roles and Permissions

Before Roles can be created for a given Product, the Roles and Permissions feature must be enabled in the Product Properties dialog. When Roles and Permissions are disabled, any User in ScrumWorks Pro has access to read and modify the data. By default, Roles and Permissions are disabled for newly-created Products.

To Enable Roles and Permissions for a new Product:

In the New Product Wizard or the Product Properties dialog, for Roles and Permissions, select the radio button for "Enabled".
Click "OK".

To enable Roles and Permissions for an existing Product:

In the main menu, go to File > Product Properties.
For Roles and Permissions, select the radio button for "Enabled".
Click "OK".

Required User Type: Global Administrator

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Role Permissions

The following permissions can be included in Roles and Role Templates:

Business Weight

Edit Business Weight
View Business Weight

Drag and Drop Between Products

Drag Backlog Items/Tasks from Product
Drop Backlog Items/Tasks into Product

Impediments

View, Create, Edit, Delete Impediments

Import/Export

Export the Product
Import into Release

Product Backlog Items

Create Product Backlog Item
Delete Product Backlog Item
Edit Historical Estimates
Edit Product Backlog Item
Estimage Product Backlog Item
Mark Product Backlog Item as Done
Prioritize Sprint/Product Backlog

Releases

Create, Edit, Delete Releases

Reports

Manage Web Reports
View Reports

Sprints

Create, Edit, Delete Sprints

Tasks

Create, Edit, Delete Task
Edit Historical Task Estimates
View Task

Themes

Apply/Remove Theme
Create

Certain Permissions depend on others being selected first. For example, "Create", "Edit", and "Delete Task" all depend on "View Task". If a user selects a Permission for which dependencies exist, ScrumWorks Pro will automatically prompt the user to accept all dependencies or abort the selection.

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Create Roles

Roles can be created manually, copied from existing Roles, or copied from system-wide Role Templates.

Required User Type: Product Administrator or Global Administrator

Create new Role manually:

From the User menu, select "Role Manager".
In the "Roles" section, click "New".
Under "Role Information", provide a name and description of the new Role.
Select desired permissions for the role. Note, selecting a parent permission provides access to its subordinate permissions.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. The newly created Role will appear in the "Roles" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort.

Copy an existing Role:

From the User menu, select "Role Manager".
Select an existing Role from the "Roles" section.
Click "Copy". Note, if you fail to click "Copy" before continuing, you will be modifying an existing Role, not creating a new one.
In the "Role Information" section, modify the existing name and description.
In the "Permissions" section, modify the existing permissions as desired.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. The newly created permission will appear in the "Roles" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort.

Copy Template to new Role:

From the User menu, select "Role Manager".
In the "Role Template" section select a desired Role Template. Note, once selected a read-only preview of the Role Template's permission set is made available in the "Permissions" section.
Click "Copy Template to New Role". Note that the "Role Information" and "Permissions" sections are now editable.
Make desired changes to the name, description and permission set.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. The newly created permission will appear in the "Roles" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort.

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Edit Roles

Product Roles can be edited by the Global Administrator or the Product Administrator. If permissions are modified for a Role that is currently assigned to Users, the Users' permissions will also be modified to match the Role.

Required User Type: Product Administrator or Global Administrator

From the User menu, select "Role Manager".
Select an existing Role from the "Roles" section.
Modify the name, description, and Permissions as desired.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. If changes were made to the Role name, the change will be visible in "Roles" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort the edit.

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Delete Roles

Existing Product Roles can be deleted. If a Role is deleted to which Users are already assigned, the Users will lose the the permissions granted by only the Role in question.

Required User Type: Product Administrator or Global Administrator

From the User menu, select "Role Manager".
Select an existing Role from the "Roles" section.
Modify the name, description, and Permissions as desired.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. If changes were made to the Role name, the change will be visible in "Roles" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort the edit.

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Role Template Management

Role Templates are not usable Roles themselves; rather, they are just templates that can be used at the Product level as starting points for the creation of actual Product Roles. Role Templates are accessible to all Products defined in ScrumWorks Pro.

Standard Role Templates

Four standard Role Templates are provided as a guide for getting started with Roles and Role Templates. The standard Role Templates can not be modified. However, they can be copied to custom Role Templates or Roles which can then be modified.

The standard Role Templates include:

Product Owner
ScrumMaster
Stakeholder
Team member

These Role Templates embody Permission sets based on best Scrum practices. For general descriptions of the Scrum terms on which they are based, see the Glossary of terms at: http://danube.com/scrumworks/glossary.

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Create Role Template

Role Templates can be created manually or copied from existing Role Templates.

Required User Type: Global Administrator

Create new Role Template manually:

From the User menu, select "Role Template Manager".
In the "Role Templates" section, click "New".
Under "Role Template Information", provide a Template name and description of the new Role.
Select desired permissions for the role. Note, selecting a parent permission provides access to its subordinate permissions.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. The newly created permission will appear in the "Role Templates" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort.

Copy an existing Role Template:

From the User menu, select "Role Template Manager".
Select an existing Role Template from the "Role Templates" section.
Click "Copy". Note, if you fail to click "Copy" before continuing, you will be modifying an existing Role Template, not creating a new one.
In the "Role Template Information" section, modify the existing name and description.
In the "Permissions" section, modify the existing permissions as desired.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. The newly created permission will appear in the "Role Templates" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort.

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Edit Role Templates

Existing Role Templates can be edited, unless it is a standard template. Because Role Templates are copied into Product level Roles, modifying Role Templates will not have an effect on existing Roles in the system.

Required User Type: Global Administrator

From the User menu, select "Role Template Manager".
Select an existing Role from the "Role Templates" section.
Modify the name, description, and Permissions as desired.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. If changes were made to the Role Template name, the change will be visible in "Roles" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort the edit.

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Delete Role Templates

Existing Role Templates can be deleted, unless it is a standard template. Because Role Templates are copied into Product level Roles, deleting Role Templates will not have an effect on existing Roles in the system.

Required User Type: Global Administrator

From the User menu, select "Role Template Manager".
Select an existing Role Template from the "Role Templates" section.
Modify the name, description, and Permissions as desired.
Click "Save and Close" or "Apply" to save. If changes were made to the Role Template name, the change will be visible in "Role Templates" section. Alternatively, click "Cancel" to abort the edit.

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Programs

Overview

In software parlance, the term "program" often refers to related project teams or groups with overlapping features and release dates. In ScrumWorks Pro, the "Program" entity is an umbrella for multiple related Products. Programs can have their own Releases with release dates, as well as Program Themes defining high level features or "epics". When Products are included in Programs, those Program Releases and Themes are inherited by the Product. In this way, multiple Products can be coordinated with a single, collective release date and by using a common set of Program Themes defining the high-level features for a multi-Product Release.

How do Programs work? Products can be included in the Program at creation or when editing a Program. Program-level Releases can then be defined, indicating anything from internal milestones to production releases. All constituent Products will inherit these Program Releases. Then, Program-level features can be defined by creating "Themes". Themes are effectively tags or keywords used to mark or categorize Backlog Items.

How do Program Themes interrelate with Program Releases? A Program Release represents a milestone for the Program. Program Themes can be targeted as Epics for work in specific Releases. Themes become Epics when specified with descriptions or "Done Criteria" to clarify the intent or expectation for that Theme in that Release. An Epic, therefore, represents a high-level requirement for the Release in question. Because Done Criteria for an Epic is specific to a particular release, a Theme that has continuity throughout the Program can nevertheless be made to represent different scopes of work from release to release.

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Create Program and Include Products

Programs are created from the File menu by selecting the New > Program option.

A Title must be entered that is unique among other Program Titles.
See Description Field Editing and Syntax for tips on entering a description.
Products may be included in the Program by selecting the appropriate checkbox. Products may be included in multiple Programs; a column to the right of each Product name lists the Programs in which a Product has already been included. When a Product is included in a Program, that Program's Releases, Epics, and Themes become available for use by the Product.

Required Permissions: Global Administrator

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Edit Program

Double click the Program row or right-click the Program name and then choose "Edit Program".

Program Administrators can edit all of the fields that were available during Program creation: title, description, and assigned products.

Program Viewers can view all of the attributes, but editing is disabled.

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Open/Close Program

Existing Programs are opened from the File menu by selecting the Open > Program option.

Select the desired Program from the dropdown menu.
The "Included Products:" box displays those Products that have been included in the selected Program.
If no Programs exist in the system, a new Program can be created by clicking the "New" button.

Each Program opens into its own Program window that displays the Program Release Planner.

Installations including Programs created before the 4.0 release will display the deprecated Legacy Group Structure frame as well as the Program Release Planner frame. New installations and those without Program data upgraded or migrated from an older installation will display the Program Release Planner frame only. For more information on the Legacy Group Structure and how it relates to Programs, see Migrating Programs: The Legacy Group Structure frame.

While multiple Program windows can be open at the same time, users can only see and open Programs they have access to as described in the User Management section of this guide. Global Administrators can see and open all Programs.

Any open Program will be restored the next time you open ScrumWorks.

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Delete Program

An open Program can be deleted by selecting the "File" > "Delete Current Program" menu item.

After selecting the menu item, ScrumWorks Pro will confirm the Program deletion.

Program deletion will delete all Themes, Releases and Epics belonging to the Program, removing these items from appearance in any included Products. In cases where installations contain Program information from versions of ScrumWorks Pro older than 4.0, Program deletion will delete all Groups for the Program that exist in the Legacy Group Structure frame. All Product Backlog Item associations with the Program will be deleted as well. In all cases, Product Backlog Items will not be deleted.

Only Global Administrators can delete Programs.

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Create Program Theme

Program Themes are created from the File menu by selecting the Themes > Edit Program Themes option. Click on the New button to display a dialog to enter a theme name with the following restriction:

A Title must be entered that is unique.

A Program Theme will be displayed in each of the Program's included Products.

Required Permissions: Program Administrator

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Edit Program Theme

Program Theme names may be edited from the File menu by selecting the Themes > Edit Program Themes option, selecting a Theme, and clicking the "Edit" button. Edits to a Program Theme will reflect in the Program and all constituent Products.

Required Permissions: Program Administrator

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Delete Program Theme

Program Themes are deleted from the File menu by selecting the Themes > Edit Program Themes option. When selecting Themes to delete from the list, consider that Products included in the Program may have assigned the Theme to Backlog Items, and deletion of the Theme will remove it from those Backlog Items. Also note that Themes being used as Epics for any Program Release cannot be deleted.

Required Permissions: Program Administrator

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Program Theme appearance and application in Products

When a Product is included in a Program, Program Themes for which Program Epics have been defined become usable by the Product for assignment to Backlog Items, while filtering, in reports, and other places Themes are used. In interfaces where Themes are edited, applied, removed, filtered, and highlighted, the Program of origin is identified in parentheses after the Theme name, as follows: Theme (Program name). In space-limited interfaces such as PBI rows, the "Print to cards" feature, and the ScrumWorks Pro web client, Program Themes appear in name only, without listing the Program of origin.

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Create New Program Release

Program Releases enable the Products included in a Program to work toward a shared Release date while contributing to common goals and features identified by Program Themes. When a Program Release is created, it appears as a black bar in the Program Release Planner as well as the Product Backlog and Release Planner frames of all Products included in that Program.

To create a new Program Release in the Program Window:

Click "File" > "New" > "Program Release...".

A dockable tabbed editing frame appears. See Editors Frame Behavior for more information.

Basic Info tab:

Enter a Release Name (required).
Optionally, you can enter a longer text description. The description can be used to capture the essence of the release goals or for any other descriptive purpose.
Optionally, you can also enter a Release start and end date. These are used for reporting purposes.

Epics tab:

Epics are Themes that have been specified with a description or done criteria in order to clarify the intent or expectation of that Theme for that Release. See Program Epics for more information on using Program Epics.

Click the "Add" button above the table listing Epics and their descriptions.
In the resulting dialog, select a Theme on which to base the Epic (required). New Program Themes may be added to the list by clicking the "New" button.
In the "Description" field, enter a description or done criteria for the work characterized by the selected Theme that should be completed by the Release date. This description constitutes high-level goals for that Theme for only that Release. Note that each Product working on this Epic will be able to add sub-descriptions from the Product Release editor.
Click "Ok" to save the Epic.

To save the Program Release, click "Apply" or "OK". The new Program Release will be represented as a black row in the Program Release Planner. To abort and discard all changes (including defined Epics), click "Cancel".

Required Permissions : Create, Edit, Delete Program Releases.

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Delete Program Release

Program Releases can be deleted only when they no longer contain Backlog Items, either in a Product Sprint or Uncommitted Backlog. To delete a Program release:

In the Program Release Planner, note any Products whose PBIs still remain in the release you wish to delete.

In the Product windows of each Product whose PBIs remain in the release, either remove or delete all Backlog Items from the release.

In the Program Release Planner, right-click the release and select "Delete release". An alert message will ask to confirm the operation. Click "Yes" and the release will be deleted.

Required Permissions : Program Administrator

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Program Epics

Program Epics represent high-level requirements for a Program Release. Epics are Themes that have been specified with a description or done criteria in order to clarify the intent or expectation of that Theme for that Release. While the Theme on which an Epic is based may have broad and general continuity throughout the Program, the addition of a description or done criteria gives it specific applicability to a single, finite release - making an Epic essentially a high-level requirement for the Release in question.

Program Epics are created in the Epics tab of the Program Release editor. In this tab is a table listing Epics (by their Theme name) that have been defined for that individual Release. The first column lists Epic/Theme names, the second column displays the first few lines of the description entered.

To create a Program Epic:

Click the "Add" button. In the "Add Epic for Release" dialog, select the Theme on which the Epic will be based. To base an Epic on a new Theme, click "Create new Theme" and enter a name. The newly-created Theme will then populate the Theme selection dropdown.
In the "Description" field, enter a description or done criteria for the work characterized by the selected Theme that should be completed by the Release date. This description constitutes high-level goals for that Theme for only that Release. Note that each Product working on this Epic will be able to add sub-descriptions from the Product Release editor.
Click "Ok" to save the Epic.

To edit an existing Epic:

Select the row corresponding to the Epic to be edited.
Click the "Edit" button.
In the "Edit Epic for Release" dialog, make changes to the Theme used and/or the description and click "OK" to save. Changes made will be reflected in the Program Release editor in the Program window, and in any included Products.

To remove an existing Program Epic:

Select the row corresponding to the Epic to be edited.
Click the "Remove" button to delete the Epic from the list.

Required Permissions: Program Administrator

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The Program Release Planner frame

The Program Release Planner frame displays all Releases scheduled for a given Program. It is open by default for all Programs. The frame is organized first by Releases, then by Epics that have been defined for the Release, next by included Products, and finally lists Backlog Items.

Epics shown are those that have been defined for each Release. Under each Epic, only those Products that have created Product level Epics related to the Program Epic in question will appear; that is, only Products that have indicated an intention to work on the given Program Epic will appear. Likewise, if a Backlog Item is scheduled for a Program Release without being included in any Program Epic, it will appear in the Program Release Planner under the Uncategorized folder. Backlog Items scheduled for a Release are displayed under their Product in the Epics with which they have been marked, or in the Uncategorized folder. Note that if a Backlog Item has been marked with multiple Themes being used as Epics, it will appear multiple times in the tree, within its Product under each Epic.

The Program Release Planner frame contains the following columns, reflecting different views of effort estimates and Products' effort budgets represented at each level of organization:

Backlog Items by Release/Epic column

For Products: At the right side of the column, displays the effort budgets that have been set by each Product for the containing Epic. When the total effort of scheduled backlog items for each exceeds its budget, this figure displays in red until either the total effort is reduced or the budget is increased to accommodate the total effort.

Note: These figures express budgets as they are defined by the individual Products contributing to that Program Epic; They are not budgets determined at the Program level. Because included Products may use widely varying estimation scales, and moreover because individual Product Owners are arguably best equipped to determine budgets for their own Products, effort budgets are not defined at the Program level. They are, however, expressed in the Program Release Planner to reflect the decisions of Product Owners contributing to a Program release.

Backlog Effort column

For Releases: Displays the total of all effort estimates of all PBIs in all Products in all Epics defined for the Release.
For Epics: Displays the total of all effort estimates of the PBIs in all Products contributing to the Epic.
For Products: Displays the total of all effort estimates of the PBIs for that Product of that Epic.
For Backlog Items: Displays the effort estimate of the PBI.

Note: In the instance wherein a PBI scheduled for a Release is marked with multiple Themes being used as Epics, the effort of this PBI will appear multiple times in the Backlog Effort column under each Epic it is associated with, contributing to each Epic's total Backlog Effort. At the Release level, however, this effort is not double-counted when calculating the total Backlog Effort for the Release; To arrive at the total for the Release, the effort of any one PBI is counted only once, regardless of how many Epics is appears under. This allows work to be loosely included in multiple Epics at once without distorting the sum total of Backlog Effort scheduled for a Release.

Status column

For Releases: A status bar indicates the ratio of effort units completed (marked as "Done") to those not yet completed (marked "Not Started", "In Progress", or "Not Done") for all PBIs in all Products in the entire Program Release.
For Epics/Uncategorized: A status bar indicates the ratio of effort units completed (marked as "Done") to those not yet completed (marked "Not Started", "In Progress", or "Not Done") for all PBIs among all Products.
For Products: A status bar indicates the ratio of effort units completed (marked as "Done") to those not yet completed (marked "Not Started", "In Progress", or "Not Done") for all PBIs of a given Product among all Epics in the Release.
For Backlog Items: Displays the status of the individual PBI in four states - "Done" if it was marked as Done; "Not Done" if it is in a past Sprint and not marked as Done; "In Progress" if it is in a current Sprint; "Not Started" if it is uncommitted or in a Sprint that has not yet started.

In the status bar for all rows (except PBIs), a vertical line expresses the theoretical percentage of effort units that should be done for the time elapsed in the Release, assuming work was completed at an even rate throughout the release and all scheduled work would be complete by the Release end date. Releases without start and end dates will not display this line.

For more information on how PBIs relate to Program Epics, see Program Epics.

Required Permissions: Program Administrator

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Legacy Program Group Structure

Deprecation of Program Breakdown Structure

As of ScrumWorks Pro release 4.0, the Program Breakdown Structure feature, along with the concept of "Groups" has been deprecated and is replaced by the new Programs feature. Programs provide grouping capabilities by introducing Program-level Themes. The addition of Program Releases and Epics enable cross-product scheduling and goal setting.

The old Program Breakdown Structure is available as a read-only interface in release 4.0. This is intended to provide users with the ability to migrate from Groups to Program Themes. Please see the Migrating Groups to Program Themes section below for specific migration instructions.

The following is a summary of major differences between the old Programs/Groups structure and the new Program relationships in ScrumWorks Pro 4.0:

New	Old
Many-to-many Product-to-Program relationship: A Product may be included in multiple Programs	Many-to-1 Product-to-Program relationship: A Product may belong to only one Program.
Backlog Items of Products included in the Program are organized by Program Theme and Included Product; Concept of Groups is no longer used.	Backlog Items of included Products are organized by Groups into a hierarchical tree structure.
Program Releases can be scheduled (spanning multiple Products); High level feature goals can be defined for releases.	No concept of Program Releases or Release goals

Beyond the migration steps, this section provides documentation for the now deprecated Program Breakdown Structure. Please note that as of release 4.0, this section is provided as reference only, as the Program Breakdown Structure is a read-only interface. The Legacy Group Structure will be removed entirely in releases subsequent to ScrumWorks Pro 4.0.

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The Legacy Group Structure Frame

The Legacy Group Structure frame is a read-only expression of the now-discontinued Program Breakdown Structure feature of ScrumWorks Pro versions 2.1 through 3.3. The Legacy Group Structure frame displays all the organization that users of the Program Breakdown Structure may have built, but in a read-only format intended to be used only as a reference for reorganizing Programs and Products according to the new and expanded relationships in ScrumWorks Pro 4.x. When a user of the prior Programs feature upgrades or migrates data from an older version of ScrumWorks Pro to version 4.x, the Program and Groups structure is preserved and expressed in the Legacy Group Structure frame of the Program window. If no Programs or Groups exist in the older version of ScrumWorks Pro, there is no data to be expressed, and the Legacy Group Structure frame is unnecessary and therefore unavailable.

This frame opens by default for those users whose upgraded or migrated installation contains Programs and Groups from a prior version. It is a frame that may be docked to the Program Window, or undocked to a floating state. When closed, it may be reopened from the "View" main menu when the Program window is open and active. When a Program is closed, the Legacy Groups Structure frame that expresses the legacy organization of that Program closes with it. While the tree-structure is read-only and may not be edited, the tree controls are enabled, and Programs and Groups in the frame may be opened into read-only editors for viewing purposes. Most importantly, the Apply Themes / Remove Themes right-click menu is available in the Backlog Item list which is a crucial function for migration to Program Themes.

Note on removing Products from Programs:
While Program, Group, and Product relationships may not be edited from the Legacy Group Structure frame, changes to Product-to-Program relationships made elsewhere in ScrumWorks Pro 4.x will be reflected in this structure, altering the original 'snapshot' of the migrated Program & Groups organization. For example, if a Product included in a legacy Program is disassociated from that Program from within the new Program Editor, the Groups formerly associated with that Product will be deleted permanently from the Legacy Group Structure frame. However, because in ScrumWorks 4.x Products may be included in multiple Programs - as opposed to only one Program in ScrumWorks 2.1 - 3.3- this deletion of legacy Groups will only be an issue when Products are removed from Programs. It is therefore advised that when building new Program relationships based on old ones from the Legacy Group Structure, Products are at first only added to Programs until it can be certain that removal of Products from Programs will not delete useful records of legacy Product-to-Program and Group organization.

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Migrating Groups to Program Themes: Legacy Program Group Structure

The intent of the Legacy Group Structure is to provide a mechanism for migration from the old Group structure to Program Themes. The following steps detail the process of setting up new Program Themes and applying them in bulk to Product Backlog Items currently contained in Group structures.

Create Program Themes based on Groups
Open the Program to be migrated and make sure the Legacy Group Structure frame is open. Examine the Groups and decide which Groups should be migrated to Program Themes. This can be leaf-node Groups or higher tier Groups. While Themes are essentially "flat" the Program Epic capability will enable focused goals to be set on a per-Release basis. As a result, higher tier Groups are often better candidates for Program Themes. Create a set of Program Themes to approximate your Group structure.

Select Backlog Items in Groups
Using the Legacy Group Structure frame, select a Group to be migrated on the left side (the group tree) of the frame. Notice that all Backlog Items related to that Group are now visible in the focus pane on the right side of the frame. Using your mouse select the top Backlog Item. Scroll to the bottom of the list, and while holding the shift key, select the bottom most Backlog Item.

Apply a Program Theme to selected Backlog Items
With a group of Backlog Items selected, right click the selected items and choose "Apply Themes". Select the Program Theme that correlates to the Group in question.

Repeat for all Groups
Repeat this selection and Theme application process until all Backlog Items are themed with appropriate Program Themes.

Once fully migrated, the Legacy Group Structure frame may be closed.

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Desktop Client User Guide for Release 4.3

Getting Started

Managing Products

Product Window Overview

Product Backlog Items

Task Management

Sprint Management

Release Management

Product Epics and the Release Planner

Using and Customizing the Product Window

User Properties

Themes

The Sprint Detail Frame

The Impediments Frame

Earned Business Value (Business Weight)

Data Management

External Application Integration

Team Management

User Management

Role Management

Role Template Management

Programs

Legacy Program Group Structure