GitLab Project Management - Hands-On Lab: Create And Manage A Scrum Board

This Hands-On Guide walks you through creating and managing a Scrum board via an issue board.

Estimated time to complete: 30 minutes

Objectives

In this lab you’ll configure a Scrum board and populate it with the same issues you used for the Kanban board. A Scrum board is a board that is used to keep track of the progress in a sprint. To learn more about Scrum, click here.

Task A. Make Scrum-specific labels

Compared to Kanban boards, Scrum boards normally require 2 extra labels to represent the project and sprint backlogs.

  1. Navigate to the Awesome Software project.

  2. In the left sidebar, click Manage > Labels

  3. Click the New Label button in the top right.

  4. Type in Status::Project Backlog into the title field.

  5. Feel free to pick a color for the label and type in a description. When you are satisfied, click Create label.

  6. Click the New Label button in the top right.

  7. Type in Status::Sprint Backlog into the title field.

  8. Feel free to pick a color for the label and type in a description. When you are satisfied, click Create label.

Task B. Put all issues in the Project Backlog

  1. In the left pane, click Issues.

  2. Using the bulk issue edit technique you learned in the last lab, apply the Status::Project Backlog label to all issues. Because this is a scoped label, it will remove any other Status labels that are already applied to any issues.

Task C. Make an iteration (sprint)

  1. Iterations can only exist at the group or subgroup level. Using the breadcrumb trail, navigate to the PM Workflows subgroup.

  2. In the left pane, click Plan > Iterations.

  3. Click New iteration cadence.

  4. Type Sprint 6 in the Title section.

  5. Select today’s date via the calender in the Start Date section.

  6. Select 2 as the number of weeks in the Duration section.

  7. Select 2 as the number of iterations in the Upcoming Iterations section.

    For the purposes of this lab, we will not worry about rollover, so there is no need to mark it.

  8. Click Create cadence.

Task D. Add some issues to the next sprint

This step simulates the “sprint planning” ceremony, where your team decides which issues it will work on in the upcoming sprint.

  1. Navigate to the Awesome Software project.

  2. In the left sidebar, click Issues.

  3. Pick a handful of issues that you want to work on in the next sprint and assign them to the Sprint 6 first iteration. You can do this either with the bulk issue edit feature (selecting only the relevant issues), or by visiting each issue’s details page.

  4. Apply the Status::Sprint Backlog label to those same issues. You can do this either with the bulk issue edit feature (selecting only the relevant issues), or by visiting each issue’s details page.

Task E. Make a Scrum board for the next sprint

  1. In the left pane, click on Plan > Issue Boards and view your existing Kanban from the last lab.

  2. Click Group by > Epic if the board is not already showing that view.

  3. At the top of the page, click the dropdown to view the Switch boards menu.

  4. Click Create new board.

  5. Title the new board Sprint 6

  6. Deselect the Show the Open list checkbox, as we do not need to have an Open list for this kind of board.

  7. Leave the Show the Closed list checkbox selected.

  8. Next to Scope, click Expand.

  9. In the scope pane, click Edit near Iteration option. Select Current iteration.

  10. Click Create board.

    We will now create three new lists for the board: a list with a Status::Sprint Backlog label, a list with a Status::WIP label, and a list with a Status::QA label.

  11. In the top right corner, click Create list.

  12. Check that the Label radio button is selected in the Scope section of the list configuration pane.

  13. Open the Value drop-down, and select Status::Sprint Backlog.

  14. Click Add to board.

  15. In the top right corner, click Create list.

  16. Check that the Label radio button is selected in the Scope section of the list configuration pane.

  17. Open the Value drop-down, and select Health::Needs Attention.

  18. Click Add to board.

  19. In the top right corner, click Create list.

  20. Check that the Label radio button is selected in the Scope section of the list configuration pane.

  21. Open the Value drop-down, and select Status::QA.

  22. Refresh the browser page to force the 3 new lists to appear in the same order that you created them.

    At this point, you have a complete board set up, but it is still recommended that you practice using this board as you would in production. For example, practice dragging and dropping your issues across different lists as their at-risk status increases or decreases. Or, simulate completing some issues by dragging them into the Closed list. Make sure to click on the issues themselves to confirm they are closed.

Task F. View your sprint progress

  1. In the left pane, click Plan > Iterations.

  2. Click into your Sprint 6 iteration, and then click on the first week in the list.

  3. Note the progress of issues in the burndown and burnup charts.

Suggestions?

If you’d like to suggest changes, please submit them via merge request.

Last modified April 26, 2024: Update Lab Descriptions (05f28a88)
View page source - Edit this page - please contribute. Creative Commons License