What is a Scrum Board? – A Deep Dive [2022]

The process for developing and planning a software product is a “Scrum.” The idea of the Scrum and Scrum board was introduced in 1995 by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. It began as a productivity improvement method and now manages the development of software products.

Jeff Sutherland, the founder of Scrum, envisioned an agile development process with four key principles:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
Working software over comprehensive documentation.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
Responding to change over following a plan.

Several years later the founder of Scrum, Ken Schwaber, called for a change of approach.

In a world where software is a moving target and fast production is critical for development teams, Schwaber called for a change in software development.

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He called it The Seven Principles of Agile namely:

Delighting Customers
Self-organizing Teams
Client-Driven Iterations
Delivering Value
Radical Transparency
Continuous Self-improvements
Interactive Communication

The Scrum approach continues its tremendous impact on the world of software development that began 20 years ago as companies around the globe adopt these principles and are now faster and more effective in their work.

In this article, we are going to discuss the following:

What is a Scrum Board?
Importance of Scrum Board in Project Management
Scrum Boards – Physical vs Digital
Wrapping Up
Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Scrum Board?

A Scrum Board is a simple way to track and manage the status of a development project. It is a board that displays everything that is happening in the product backlog. They display different sprints, customer backlogs, and sprints as separate columns. You can display this type of backlog board on a whiteboard, on a wall, or on a computer. It is similar to a Kanban board but is often used in a product room or Scrum room.

It consists of the following columns in the visual board:

Stories:

Stories in this board are the most important parts of the scrum process. Stories give context and provide proof that the team is achieving product requirements through sequence and milestone-driven delivery capabilities. The team accomplishes this through both physical and digital scrum board processes.

To-do:

A scrum board is also a digital document that a team displays for themselves and their stakeholders, like the project manager and product owner. It provides a single source of to-dos for the latest information such as the current status of the project, progress, task assignments, and time estimates. This tool often includes items such as the team’s list of tasks and the estimated time to complete them, the product backlog, and the project timeline.

In-Progress:

Scrum boards are an agenda-based tool for tracking and displaying activities in-progress as an individual or team. It display information about who is working on what and at what time. At a glance, the scrum board view allows team members to quickly scan the board and gain an understanding of current progress, which keeps the team aligned, on track, and progressing.

Done:

Scrum boards in a dry-erase board visual allow teams to prioritize tasks, keep track of work, and provide visibility of work in progress so that everyone is working on imperative tasks. It also support the overall goal of the scrum approach by reducing impediments and delivering value as efficiently as possible, by providing visibility and clarity of the rate of the task’s completion.

Importance of Scrum Board in Project Management

There is a reason why Jeff Sutherland, the founder of Scrum, chose the Scrum Board as the most important of the four Scrum Principles. He believed that there is never a better time than right now.

You must develop team management skills if you want to be more productive in the future. You need to manage your software project the same way you would a football team. You should manage the project and the system you should use to manage your project only includes a tiny portion of this, as your team must perform the work.

Agile methodology theory is not necessary for a straightforward project manager to understand. However, the team may need to explain a small part of the system to the inexperienced manager. For a manager new to the agile way of working, the first meeting is enough to understand what is going on and what he must do first.

The lifetime of software development is simple and does not require any complex technologies and helps to develop complicated apps. You may start by working in a very basic manner, which is a fantastic foundation for your team if you wish to manage an agile project.

Scrum Boards – Physical vs Digital

Physical Scrum Boards:

Physical scrum boards have the other name of “waterfall boards” as they let all of the work effectively “flow” in one place. They are viewed as better than digital versions of scrum boards because the team members can see easily what the status of the project is at any given moment.

If you decide to use a physical Scrum board, then you must ensure to have solid communication plans in place so no one forgets any job and that the status of each task is constantly current. Utilizing the benefits of the Sprint planning meeting and retrospective and maintaining discipline with Daily Scrums are two ways to do this.

Fortunately, physical boards tend to encourage face-to-face communication, which is crucial because Scrum depends on a close-knit team that communicates often and takes ownership of their work.

Digital Scrum Boards:

Digital scrum boards are popular in the traditional project management world. Most teams use a chat room for status updates and create spaces for features and bugs. This is very popular and works well, despite the shortcomings that users find in this system.

Online boards frequently perform well for teams working in software or technology, for teams that work quickly, for teams with remote employees, or in situations where external stakeholders (management, and clients) want updates on the status of a project.

Online Scrum boards can help physical Scrum board users overcome some of their obstacles, but they won’t necessarily resolve all of your team’s communication issues. The best strategy to guarantee that your team finishes everything by the conclusion of each Sprint is to maintain the Daily Scrum and prioritize communication among team members.

Wrapping Up

The Scrum board is crucial in project management because it is a temporary board that is built to only show the stories and tasks that are currently in progress. This allows the project manager to focus on the current sprint and move away from what is already finished. Scrum boards are physical in nature, but also come in digital forms Some organizations use more physical boards while others choose to use digital boards. Now that you understand these boards and their uses, you can seek them out with confidence.

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For more information on project management software and methodologies read our blogs.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who should be using Scrum Board?

People frequently ask themselves this question when debating whether to adopt a Scrum Board. Everyone working on the project should, in theory, utilize a Scrum Board. Scrum Boards should help in your project areas where you identify product owners and product managers in practice.

2. What are the benefits of using digital scrum boards?

A Scrum Board is a physical or digital tool that a team develops with the goal of tracking project progress and adding new tasks to the project’s Kanban board, or process storyboard. A Scrum Board is a physical tool because it represents the tasks, stories, or requirements for a particular project. A Scrum Board is a digital tool because it shows small, actionable tasks and/or stories.

3. Do I have to be a scrum master to use a scrum board?

For the team to succeed with Scrum, the Scrum Master position is crucial. A scrum team manages itself so a scrum master does not serve as a project manager. In actuality, the success of the project’s outcome isn’t the scrum master’s responsibility. However, the entire scrum framework would collapse in the absence of a scrum master.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!