Getting the Most Out of Agile Scrum Boards

A scrum board is a valuable tool for agile teams to visually track work during sprints. This comprehensive guide explains what scrum boards are, why they’re beneficial, and best practices for using scrum boards to enable agile project success.

What Exactly is a Scrum Board?

A scrum board is a central, visual project management tool used in agile scrum methodology to track work during a sprint. Physically, a scrum board is often a whiteboard or wall with columns representing the different stages of a sprint. Tasks, features, and user stories are captured on cards, tickets, or sticky notes that move across the board from left to right to show progress during the scrum sprint.

Digital scrum boards recreate this workflow to allow for remote agile team collaboration. They provide an always up-to-date overview of the sprint backlog status and sprint progress for the entire scrum team.

Key Components of an Agile Scrum Board

Scrum boards have a simple, flexible structure centered around visibility that facilitates daily standups, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives. Key components include:

Scrum Board Columns

The columns represent different stages of work, typically “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” Additional columns can be added as needed (e.g. “Blocked”, “Waiting on Customer”). Columns show where items are in the scrum process.

Scrum Board Rows

The rows can represent sprints, milestones, projects, individuals, or functional teams. This enables flexibility in organizing backlog items.

Scrum Board Cards

Cards represent granular pieces of work – often user stories or development tasks that have been broken down. They move across columns to show status and progress during the agile sprint toward the sprint goal.

So in summary, agile scrum boards use these basic building blocks to provide a visual, centralized place to track work for scrum teams during sprints.

Why Use a Scrum Board?

There are several key benefits that make scrum boards effective for agile project management:

Improves Visibility

By making workload, status, and priorities visually clear to the entire scrum team in one place, issues can be identified faster. Real-time understanding of blockers is possible. Team accountability and camaraderie also improves.

Facilitates Coordination

Since daily standups take place around the scrum boards, collaboration happens more naturally. All team members know what others are working on and can identify dependencies.

Boosts Productivity

Work is made transparent for daily scrum meetings, keeping the agile team focused on the current sprint goal. Progress toward delivering maximum business value is also clear to see.

Promotes Flexibility

Items can shift between columns, allowing agile teams to respond to changing customer needs and business priorities. Additional tasks can be added to the appropriate column.

Understanding Agile Scrum Board vs. Kanban Board Differences

Scrum boards are a basic agile project management tool, often used in combination with kanban boards. So what’s the difference between using scrum boards vs. kanban boards?

• Scrum boards strictly manage the sprint backlog and track progress for the fixed duration of a specific agile sprint

• Kanban boards focus on work-in-progress limits and consistent flow of work long-term vs. a specific timeframe

• The scrum framework operates in fixed length sprints, while kanban management is continuous 

• Scrum boards only allow additions/changes between sprints, while kanban is always open

For these reasons, many agile teams combine scrum and kanban, using kanban to visualize and manage backlogs, and scrum to execute sprints.

Similarities Between Scrum Boards and Kanban Boards

While scrum and kanban boards have some differences, it’s important to note their similarities:

• Both utilize an agile, lean approach to work item management

• Each provides transparency into status and assignments

• They can reflect priorities and sequence of work

• Daily standups happen around both boards 

So in summary, scrum and kanban boards have more commonalities than differences. Often combining these practices helps agile teams ship better products.

Best Practices for Using Scrum Boards Effectively

Follow these tips for maximum benefit when using scrum boards for your agile team:

Start with an Actual Physical Scrum Board

For co-located teams, a physical scrum board (whiteboard or wall) makes in-person collaboration easier during daily standups and sprint rituals. Index cards, sticky notes, etc. are also visible to promote discussion. Consider going digital once most of team is more distributed.

Keep Scrum Board Columns Simple

Only have enough columns to break down work into logical stages without getting overly complex. Stick to bigger steps that clearly move items toward done. For example, “To Do,” “Developing”, “Code Review” and “Done.”

Define Clear Entry and Exit Column Criteria

Make sure the scrum team agrees on definitions of done for what must occur for task cards to move between specific columns. This reduces confusion down the line on status.

Use One Shared Team Board

Don’t manage testing tasks on a separate scrum board. Everything should be on the one shared board so team focus stays on meeting the current sprint goal vs. getting siloed.

Limit Work-In-Progress

Set WIP limits by having a max number of items per column. Too much overwhelms team members and causes process chokepoints. The scrum master can help optimize these limits. 

Review Frequently with Standups

Run daily standups around the scrum board and have team members move cards so real-time status is ultra clear. Also review progress at the end of each week in the sprint.

Using Digital Scrum Boards Over Physical

While physical scrum boards have benefits for co-located teams, digital scrum boards empower remote and hybrid teams. Digital boards like Jira, Trello, and Monday.com provide these advantages:

• Store backlogs in an accessible, central place

• Manage sprints without wall space limitations

• Access real-time data on card distribution and cycle times

• Collaborate across locations by updating cards

• Don’t require physical maintenance of a board

• Integrate directly with other agile tools seamlessly

The best digital scrum boards retain the flexible, visual power of traditional boards while expanding capabilities for distributed agile teams. This enables product Owners, scrum masters, and dev teams to make informed decisions quickly.

Who “Owns” the Scrum Board Columns?

Scrum team members collectively own advancing items across columns during the agile sprint:

• Product Owners groom and prioritize backlogs to queue up work in the “To Do” column

• Development team pulls task cards into “In Progress” as bandwidth permits

• Dev Team coordinates code reviews and testing to hit “Done”

• Scrum Master facilitates progress through daily standups and removals blockers

It's a shared responsibility, but the Scrum Master focuses closely on the health of the scrum board columns and flow.

Common Scrum Board Setups

Beyond establishing columns, consider what rows will provide your team and stakeholders the most meaningful view into progress:

• By Agile Sprint – The most common approach for monitoring single sprint execution

• By Team or Individual – Visual way to track capacity and balance work 

• By Project Phase – Useful for large initiatives spanning sprints or teams

• By Epic or Feature – Provide visibility for stakeholders into product delivery

As needs change, restructuring your digital scrum board rows to serve its main purpose – meaningful transparency into teamwork – keeps things flowing smoothly.

FAQs About Scrum Board Best Practices

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about how to use scrum boards successfully:

How many columns should a scrum board have?

3-5 columns is optimal for most teams. Have at least “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” Only add more if additional process step visibility is needed.

Does every agile team need a scrum board?

Yes - even co-located teams benefit greatly from maintaining a scrum board for organizing tasks, tracking work in process limits, and encouraging focus during daily standups.

Who owns updating cards on the scrum board?

The whole scrum team owns the board, but it’s the product owner and scrum master’s job to facilitate card updates. Often tasks get updated after daily standups based on any status changes.

Can multiple agile projects be on one scrum board?

One board typically tracks just one sprint backlog. However, some teams use rows or hierarchy to reflect statuses of other complementary projects sharing resources.

When should I update my scrum board columns?

Team members should update columns daily, with task card movement reflecting any status changes after daily scrum meetings. Updates mid-sprint are also encouraged.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

• Scrum boards provide transparency into team workload, priorities, and progress through sprint execution

• Understand the core components: columns for workflow visualization; rows for organization; cards for tasks

• Use scrum boards to facilitate better standups, coordination, visibility, focus and flexibility

• Combine scrum boards with kanban boards to manage continuous work across several sprints

• Implement best practices for getting the most out of scrum boards 

Adopting scrum boards takes some adjustment, but brings tremendous benefits for agile teams in simplifying project management. Try implementing a digital scrum board for your next sprint using the recommendations in this guide. As needs evolve over time, continue refining your approach toward agile nirvana!