QuickScrum Tips and Tricks

1 Creating an Account

You can create a free account at quickscrum.com. Use your JMU eID followed by the letters "JMU" (e.g., bernstdhJMU) for your "Company Name".

Note that when you create the account, you may be asked for information about your work schedule. This information will be used as default values during the planning process. So, the more accurate this information is now the less entering/editing you will have to do later.

2 General Topics

2.1 Bubble Help

The on-off slider can be used to control the popup/bubble help. Click on the white area to toggle the slider.

2.2 Dates

QuickScrum sometimes uses little-endian dates (i.e., DD/MM/YYYY) and sometimes uses big-endian dates (i.e., YYYY/MM/DD).

2.3 Working on a Project

The landing page at quickscrum.com is for marketing purposes. To actually use QuickScrum, click on Scrum tool on the top menu and then click on Access Tool. If you have access to more than one account (e.g., you have your own "Company" and are a "Team Member" for another) you will be asked to select one. (There may be a substantial delay after you do so.) Then, expand the list of projects (at the upper-right, just under your user ID) and select the one you want to work on.

3 Organizing a Team

One member of the team must (at least temporarily) take a lead role and invite other members to join the team. Specifically, for each team member, click on Admin (on the top-most menu), click on the + icon (for "Add Team Member"), and enter the person's name and email address.

Note that product owners (e.g., the professor or outside client) must be added as team members.

4 Starting a Project

4.1 Creating a Project

To create a new project, click on Admin (on the top-most menu) and then click on the + icon (for "Add Project"). Then, fill in the relevant fields in the "Basic Information" and "Resource Allocation" sections. (Note: Dates are in DD/MM/YYY format.) Remember to select the team members that will be working on this project.

Next, in the "Sprint Configuration" select "Manual" and enter the ending date.

Finally, click on Save.

4.2 Identifying Product Owners

For each product owner (after they have been added to the team), click on Admin (on the top-most menu), click on the + icon (for "Add Client"), and enter the product owner's name.

5 Working on Projects

5.1 Adding Sprints

To add a sprint, click on Sprint planning and then click on the + ("Add Sprint") in the "Sprint" section.

5.2 Adding User Stories

To add a user story, click on Product Backlog and then click on the + ("Add User Story"). Next, choose the type (i.e., the level of detail) of story. (Note: "Story" is what many people call "Sprintable" or "Implementable".)

If you mouse-over the story, icons will appear. Click on the pencil icon to edit the story.

Note: The "Estimation" field is measured in story points.

5.3 Assigning User Stories to Sprints

To assign a story to a sprint, click on Sprint planning, mouse-over the story of interest, and click on the pencil icon to edit the story. Finally, in the "Sprint" field, select the sprint to assign the story to.

Note that QuickScrum will allow you to assign Features and Epics to sprints even though they are not sprintable.