scrum Questions - FogBugz Knowledge Exchange

Subtotal for Case List - Grid View - Outline, sorted by Assigned To

2012-01-18T00:17:15Z

Note that we are needing to view Subtotals of Remaining Time for each developer in the Case List - Grid View - Outline, sorted by Assigned To.

FogBugz will provides a total for the entire grid view. However, to load balance work tasks between developers during a scrum, a subtotal of remaining work for developer is really required.

Is there a way to do this?

Assign case to multiple releases/milestones?

2010-06-16T21:41:59Z

we use scrum with monthly sprints and we produce a software release every few sprints. we'd like to assign a case to multiple milestones - one for the software release and one for the sprint. for example a case should be done for release "MyProduct-v2.7" AND for "Sprint #28, July 2010".

we have tried to use tags and custom fields but neither worked very well (for several reasons - like no reports, typos, no pre-defined fields,....).

what could we do to get reports, filtering, easy entering of releases/milestones,.. for our software releases and sprints?

right now we either move cases around between milestones or we duplicate them and assign one to the release and one to the sprint and link them together. a whole lot of work that everyone hates. :(

thanks

Feature request: Set a priority from case context menu

2009-12-27T12:50:30Z

Why can't i do that?

Set a miletone - yes, but not a priority?

It's a common task of a team lead or manager - to rearrange work by priority.

Case FC1423832

Is there a BugMonkey script to enter "time remaining"?

2011-06-17T09:24:49Z

http://fogbugz.stackexchange.com/questions/133/feature-request-enter-estimate-for-time-remaining

Asks for the ability to enter time-remaining rather than updating the estimate for the total time. This is the SCRUM way of working and is much more natural.

Could it be done with a bug-monkey script? If so can anyone give any advice on how to do it?

Can I have a global backlog?

2010-08-24T21:00:56Z

We are an internal corporate shop supporting dozens of internal only applications, where every part of the business wants whizzbang features added to their part of the internal world all the time.

We use a modified Scrum system where our sprints are made up of backlog items from across the spectrum of apps. "This sprint the billing app will get a new processing module, the reporting app will have these 3 reports written, and the public websites will have the search module rewritten to use Ajax" etc.

So we use only global milestones (each sprint) and also want to use a global backlog ordering (so the business owners can all sit it a room and argue with each other about which feature gets implemented first in our next sprint), but it seems there is only project specific backlogs. Is there a way to use the backlog globally?

Feature request: an option to tell EBS to take unestimated cases into account

2009-12-31T06:04:56Z

The main question is here.

Okey, as recommended, i've learned to divide tasks by 3-8 hours length. I have a group estimation process.

So now i'm entering new tasks and trying to do some rough date planning on that data.

I don't want to estimate tasks by myself, because i want the team (or concrete devs) to have final estimates so they can learn to estimate and because fogbugz uses only original estimate for all the real things.

I want EBS to take unestimated tasks with some reasonable historic averages (monte-carlo on historic data would do greate, i think) and produce me rough planned dates.

I guess that could be done with a "simple" checkbox on reports page.

Case FC1836751

How does EBS works with not estimated tasks?

2009-12-30T06:48:59Z

Does it take the into account at all?

Does it take some average (random?) task length estimate for them?

Does it take some average (random?) real task length?

Please note, that this tasks are mainly assigned to 'up for grabs' virtual user.

Case FC1865640

Scrum: capturing sprint and build information

2010-02-07T04:42:51Z

I am trying model how we are going to use Scrum in FogBugz and combine this with logging build numbers from nightly builds etc. I have been looking at the implementation from Daniel Root http://www.danielroot.info/2009/08/how-to-apply-scrum-using-fogbugz-7.html. I would like a way testers and users can easily filter to see what issues or features have been addressed from the previous day's work.

So if we use milestones to identity a sprint, how would we identify a specific build in which a feature or bug was addressed? Could we should we use Tags? Perhaps we could create and field using the Custom Field plugin called Build Number? The issue seems that in FB milestone includes the notion of 'Fix For' a nightly build number, a slightly larger sprint, and even a next release product version.

A little more analysis has it that: A product version will be the result of one or more sprints (so a parent-child type relationship) An incrementing build number may well fall in this category as well, but I don't think changing the milestone after every build makes sense?

Does anyone have any experience with this and could shed some light or offer suggestions.

TIA

Agile/Scrum plugin available?

2011-03-15T20:37:33Z

I'm trying to decide whether to use JIRA or FogBugz for developers working in an agile environment. My impression is that JIRA has more functionality but is more clunky, while FogBugz is more limited but is cleaner and simpler at what it does have.

I'd love to use FogBugz if possible, but the breaking point is that right now I can't seem to find a good agile plugin that will allow FogBugz to use agile terminology and have agile functionality like stories, story points, etc. I know there's the Project Backlog, which is a start, but it only provides one element.

working schedule : 15 minutes past the hour ?

2010-11-12T15:44:04Z

How can we force FogBugz' working schedule to work with multiples of 15 minutes ?

For instance, I want my daily schedule to start at 8:45 AM, stop at 11:45 AM, restart at 1:00 PM and end at 5:15 PM

Fogbugz will let me type in the time I want but then auto-jumps to the next 30-minutes boundary. This is a bit annoying, especially since we do 15-minutes scrum sessions every day. Those 15 minutes here and there add up through a 2-week sprint !

Case FC1971288

Fogbugz (and Kiln): Using it together with Scrum?

2010-09-17T15:52:01Z

How good does FogBugz (and Kiln) work together with the Scrum methodology? (Scrum is a method for project management often seen in agile software development)

Do anyone use it together with Scrum in everyday life? If yes, what experiences have you and your team made?

Thanks, in advance!

Feature request: provide EBS data on per-case basis

2010-01-23T20:17:38Z

It's a common need of PM to know when particular task is going to be done.

We have an estimate, the person working on (assigned to) the case.

Can't we tell 5 / 50 / 95% predicted case length? Would be very handy for planing on particular cases.

Especially in cases when EBS provide only burn downs.

Ideally there should be such columns available, such info in case view / preview screens, and totals in case list summary (the table at the bottom of any case list).

Obviously, this data is already calculated by EBS and is usefull by itself, not only for EBS charts. Why can't we use it everywhere in the system?

At least, that should be doable via a plugin?

Feature request: improve filtering by users (non virtual, or other groups)

2010-02-18T15:50:26Z

I'd like to see tasks assigned to non virtual users (or only to virtual users). For example - all tasks not assigned to "up for grabs".

Seems like and obvious easy filter improvement (provide a special value - "non virtual").

Well, would be ideal, if i could somehow group users (managers, devs, etc) and find tasks assigned to particular group of users.

But simple "non virtual" option would be very handy.

Case FC1857443

The Burn Down report does not seem to be reporting properly

2010-03-31T16:44:01Z

We're trying to implement Scrum with Fogbugz and use the burndown chart.

To test this we've set up a few tasks to be delivered in a sprint ending in the future (9th April and starting in the past (28th March). (this is a milestone).

We have then added estimates and due dates for tasks - and also entered some 'work done' consisting of at least 2 or more days of a couple of hours work per task by the same developer.

The EBS probability chart looks reasonable.

The Burndown chart however does not - it shows no historic data (only current) and only single points.

I was expecting the work done to show - am I expecting the wrong thing?

Thanks, Ian

How does EBS work with virtual users?

2009-12-26T16:37:46Z

As recommended, we use virtual "up for grabs" user for scrum-like process.

So here is the question: how does EBS work with the case when most of the work is assigned to a virtual user? Where does it take estimation history from?

Does it take all this cases into account?

Adding subcase and taking time away from parent cases original time estimate

2010-03-03T00:03:17Z

The FogBugz Project Planning page on Outline Tasks states:

Creating a detailed project outline is fast and simple in FogBugz. You can create a high-level case for each feature you're planning to implement, and then fill in the detailed work that needs to be done -- the functions you’re going to write, the code you’re going to refactor, the algorithms you'll need to implement, and so on.

I'd like to use FogBugz in this manner, but I'm stumped on how to deal with the time estimates. If I assign a rough time estimate for the high-level case and then add detailed subcases later, the time estimates for the detailed subcases get added to the original time estimate for the parent case.

What I'd prefer is that the subcase time be taken from the parent case's time, but I understand why this isn't done currently.

Are there any suggestions for how to work around this? I can always remove time from the parent case manually, but I'm not sure how that messes up the EBS

Pulling from the Backlog for a Sprint

2010-01-08T16:15:24Z

A customer asks:

"I have been trying to use this Backlog plugin. We generally add tasks to the backlog, then when a sprint starts, we move tasks from the backlog to the current sprint. This plugin doesn't seem to let me add to the backlog, but only assign a backlog number to some task that goes into the main sprint. I can't even make it display all the backlogged items. Can you tell me how to get what I need with this plugin?"

Feature request (big): another way of EBS to better handle project multitasking

2009-12-31T06:45:50Z

The main information is contained in following question:http://fogbugz.stackexchange.com/questions/1199/does-project-milestones-report-take-into-account-other-projects-work/1249#1249

Note: Global milestones are not used or discussed there, because it's still uncertain to me what is this and how this really works.

We have a developer team with multiple unconnected projects. The project milestones are also unconnected with each other (except, maybe, milestones in same project with hard dependencies).

What we want is a way to tell EBS to use global priorities for work ordering instead of milestones.

So this would look like this:

Each person should do all of their cases in order of priority (with hard milestone dependencies satisfied) and putting a single low-priority case into an early milestone will make it finish at some time far in the future.

On the contrary, putting a single high priority case in late milestone (but with no unsatisfied dependencies) should make this task delay other ones, even in the earliest milestones.

The work management will be done with active priority rearangement (perhaps, with a case context menu :) ). That way a team can effectivly manage multiple projects simultaneously and at any given moment have a good calendar date predictions for each of per project milestones (and not just burn down as today).

So i can adjust some priorities in global case list and immideately check how this changes ship dates in different projects, and then adjust it again and again, cutting / delaying the features to finally satisfy all of the ship dates.

The hard per project time protection should not be used in this case. Means user must complete all his 1st priority tasks before moving to priority 2 tasks regardless of project or milestone of this tasks (except, again, hard stated milestone dependencies)

How should "planned" tasks be managed

2009-12-26T17:42:20Z

There are some PMs who enter the tasks for their projects and some devs who do the tasks. the tasks are divided by multiple projects / milestones.

So how should managers enter new planned tasks (which should not yet be seen and done be developers).

How can i do the following: create a "work to do filter" that will show me all the tasks in development in all projects and all milestones, but except that "planned tasks".

It seems the only way to do it is to use max priority value (7) and exclude it from "work to do" filter with "<" priority condition. But this does not seem right. Another thing that came to my mind is to create cases as some kind of resolved status (which isn't good also, because requires one additional step in task creation process)

This gets even worse because a virtual user "up for grabs" will still recieve email notifications even for planned tasks (which, of course, should not happen).