Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0

It is very helpful when during a Sprint we can see what is currently being worked on at the PBI level. The state In Progress is very helpful to get visibility at the PBI level since the queries we use to view the Sprint Backlog also include the PBIs. Currently, we are forced to inspect every PBI breakdown to get a sense of what's happening.

Similarly, during Sprint the state Ready for Test is also helpful as it gives visibility to The Team to tackle these right away in order to close PBIs as soon as they are ready.

Are their any plans to add states such as In Progress and Ready for Test to the PBI? These would be applicable between Committed and Done.

Thanks Leo.  There aren't plans at this point.  My feeling has always been that it feels like overkill... you can do this with a directed links query to look for stories with tasks that have been started.  How do others feel?

Leo and Aaron,

We're trying to find a good approach to determine when  PBI is ready for test.  During our last project, we set up a directed links query to show us a listing of PBIs and the associated tasks which <> Done.  If we see a PBI shows up with no children tasks listed, it is ready for test.  This has proven challenging to our team members.  They have to scan through many PBIs, check children tasks, etc.  I'm curious to hear how others are working through this as it seems to be our primary area of confusion (when is a PBI ready for validation).  Thanks much,

Scott Walker

I am in the process of starting a new project with the Scum 1.0 template and having used the Agile template on previous projects I'm trying to make sense of how the Scrum template handles work items that are "ready for test".  The Agile template included "Fixed In" field which the automated builds updated for work items that were marked resolved since the last build.  This allowed for easy tracking of what work items are ready for test.  When a PBI is marked as Done it is difficult to see how the team will easily query for a list of PBI's that have been incorporated into a QA build.  How are others using the Scrum 1.0 template to provide the Test team with a query showing only the PBI's that are available in the latest (or any previous) QA build?  Maybe I'm just not wrapping my Agile template head around the Scrum template yet.  Thanks for any suggestions! Steve

"ready for test" is a very useful state.
We had a query which showed all items which were fixed and which required testing. At the end of our Sprints a test team would simply look at this query and test each item, then marking them as Complete.

How should we show which items need external/regression testing?

Has no item of type user story?

No, the term used by the scrum template is Product Backlog Item, but they are essentially the same.
For more info about Product Backlog Item, please refer to this post http://blogs.technet.com/b/chrad/archive/2011/02/06/tfs-2010-msf-agile-vs-visual-studio-scrum-1-0-smackdown.aspx

Hi,

I wanted to segregate "Project Owner" role. The purpose behind this is to control and approval and removal of backlog items. 

Are there any settings to apply security on the "State" and other fields in Backlog item?

Any help with this is highly appreciated. 

You could create a tfs group "ProjectOwner" and then modify the PBI tempalte by only allowing the ProjectOwner group to make certian transistions, using the for syntax 

<TRANSITION from="Resolved" to="Closed" for="[Project]\ProjectOwner"> 

Can we create multiple sprints for same date range? We would like to see burn-down chart for each sprint.

Yes, but you need to bind those sprints to different iterations, and the burndown will still select a sprint as default. 
If you need to support multiple teams I would recomend you to create Iteration trees for the different teams, and then modify the BurnDown report by adding a parameter for TeamIterationPath, filtering iterationpath to thouse under TeamIterationPath. Bydoing so you can have a burndown chart for each team, without needing to change sprint each time you want to see your burndown.

I am getting Object not found exception while uploading this template and how can i solve it? I am using Vs 2010 + Sp1

So I installed the new Scrum Template and created a brand new Team Project using that template. All is good with respect to accessing the portal; however, on the how page of the portal where the Burndown graphs are shown I am getting a Reporting Services error. Specifically the error is shown below. I get the same exact error if I try to run the report from with the ReportServer Manager on the actual server machine. Digging around the Report Server Log files, I discovered the error but have no idea how to resolve. It almost seems like SQL tables were not updated or something. If anyone can help it would greatly be appreciated as this is what I believe is the last thing keeping me from moving forward with this new template. The errors are shown below.

ERROR SHOWN ON PORTAL:
"An error has occurred during report processing. (rsProcessingAborted) Get Online Help
Query execution failed for dataset 'dsBurndown'. (rsErrorExecutingCommand) Get Online Help
For more information about this error navigate to the report server on the local server machine, or enable remote errors"

ERROR SHOWN IN REPORT SERVER LOG FILE:
Processing!ReportServer_0-5!1364!08/18/2010-11:44:16:: e ERROR: An exception has occurred in data source ‘dsBurndown’. Details: Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ReportProcessingException: Query execution failed for dataset ‘dsBurndown’. - Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomClient.AdomErrorResponseException: Query(3,2) The member ‘[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_Effort]’ was not found in the cube when the string, [Measures].[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_Effort], was parsed.

I'm having the same problem, any solution or suggestion?

If this is a new project on a brand new server the error is likely caused by the fact that your cube doesn't have any data in it yet.  Try adding some data to the project and processing your cube.  That should eliminate the error.

I solved. I put this formula in Datasets\dsSprintsCurrent\@today parameter:
=Format(CDate(FormatDateTime(Parameters!Today.Value,2)),"yyyy-MM-dd")

I still have this problem.  It has been weeks since I upload the scrum template, I have manually processed the cube several times. We have a few hundred work items (tasks and product backlog) that we have been working and updating and still I can't get the report to run. When I go into the report builder and look at the measures under work item [Measures].[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_Effort] does not appear but Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_CompletedWork, ..OriginalEstimate, and ..RemaingWork all appear. 

It is as if the template only half installed.  Any hints where else could I possibly look?

Has anyone run into this issue and actually fixed it? 

"Failed to instantiate file 'dashboardlayouts.aspx' from module 'ScrumDashboardPages': The specified list does not exist.

Is the Team Foundation Server Scrum dashboard activated on the Site Features?

Hi ,
i have the same problem. The Sharepoint Features can not be activated. Then always get the error message:"Failed to instantiate file 'dashboardlayou​ts.aspx' from module 'ScrumDashboard​Pages': The specified list does not exist. 

I have German TFS2010 with SP1 and German Sharepoint 2010 with SP1 Version.  

Help me please. 

Same Problems for me as Fugu05. I am using the English versions of both softwares! Any ideas how to fix?

Have a brand new tfs 2010 install. uploading fromclient machine using VS and get this in the log:
---begin Exception entry---
Time: 2012-01-13T17:23:40
Module: Engine
Event Description: TF30162: Task "WITs" from Group "WorkItemTracking" failed
Exception Type: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.PcwException
Exception Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Stack Trace:
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.WitPcwPlugin.PcwPluginComponentCreator.Validate(ProjectCreationContext ctxt, XmlNode taskXml)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.ProjectCreationEngine.TaskValidator.PerformTask(IProjectComponentCreator componentCreator, ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNode taskXml)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.ProjectCreationEngine.RunTask(Object taskObj)

Hi, 

The installation of the template worked without problems, including the commands for Sharepoint. However, after the installation, when I try to activate the Team Foundation Server Scrum dashboard feature, I have the following error: 

'Failed to instantiate file "dashboardlayouts.aspx" from module "ScrumDashboardPages": The specified list does not exist. 

Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation. 

Correlation ID: d3648c74-5a37-4772-a79c-fd51c11c24ac'

Furthermore, for any existing project, if I try to activate any of the pre-existing dashboards if gives the following error:

'A list, survey, discussion board, or document library with the specified title already exists in this Web site.  Please choose another title. 

Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation. 

Correlation ID: 1ca207b6-fa72-4564-9757-70e4d6e6e506'

It is needless to say that it's a quite serious problem, as we cannot enable the dashboards for any of our other agile projects.

We have tried to uninstall the Scrum template, and to repair the Sharepoint installation without any success.

Thank you for any help, regards, 

Carlos

Hi, i have the same iissue, it's a big trouble. Is there are any ideas for this problem?

Thank you. Sergey.

Are you missing the reports behind the dash bored?
Also do you in fact have access?

Hi, I have the exact same error on my setup. 
SSRS always displays "no Data", althought WE DO have data as the Sprint advances. 
After I activated the feature on the server, I got the same error as Carlos Boneti. 
Did anyone found the solution ?  this is so frustrating.
Thanks

* All Sprints have Begin/End Dates
* Backlog items in sprints have been committed
* Backlog items all have efforts assigned
* Sprint item states are assorted - some are To Do, some In Progress and some Done.
* I've refreshed TFS Warehouse multiple times over multiple days

* I've tried viewing the Query in the query designer of Report Builder and nothing is returned.

What's going on?  Why isn't it working?

Thanks,
Joshua