Scrum 1.0 vs MSF Agile 5.0 Process templates in TFS 2010

Question

we're about to move from TFS server 2008 to TFS 2010 and I'm working on the details of the setup we want in 2010. We are using Scrum and we need to decide what Process Template to use in our new TFS 2010 setup. The choices seem to be between the Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 and MSF for Agile Software Development v5.0 process templates.

Does anyone know to what extent Microsoft is supporting these templates in future releases of TFS? Can anyone recommend what they think is the best options for a Scrum project?

One complication is that we want to add original, remaining and complete hours fields for estimates and time tracking which the MSF Agile 5 template already has. Also, that template seems to have some good reporting built in.

I've seen https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3751148/difference-between-vs2010-scrum-v1-0-vs-msf-for-agile-software-development-v5-0-o which says that the agile template doesn't have a release burndown report however from playing with it in our sandbox I see it has a burndown and burn rate report which can cover multiple iterations.

In the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview MSDN article on creating the backlog Product Backlog item is used in the screen shots (although the MSF Agile template is also mentioned) which makes me wonder if building on the Scrum 1.0 template is the direction Microsoft is going in?

I'm interested in what other people think and in feedback from others that have made the choice one way or the other.

Thanks, Pete

Answer 1

As you have seen in the Developer Preview, the Scrum template is now going to be shipped with the product - v1 was an template which you have to download.

The new Dev11 scrum template (v2) has the same reporting capabilities as the Agile template. So if you create in Dev11 new project, it does not really matter which one you take. The are pretty similar, but the Scrum template uses the scrum naming.

That said, Visual Studio11 is not out yet and therefor you have to use the Visual Studio 2010 templates. You are correct that the reporting on the Scrum v1 template is not great. If reporting is important to you, then use the Agile template. If the naming and workflow conventions of Scrum are important, then choose Scrum.

In Visual Studio 11 there is - as you have seen during //BUILD/ - the new backlog and board capabilities. These work for the Scrum and for the Agile template: it is configurable, so that does not make any difference.