Seemed more appropriate to split this into an answer, to be voted on/commented on/edited and generally considered by the community separate from the question.
Recommendation:
*Perhaps the ideal approach for this particular situation would involve using OneNote as a Digital Whiteboard. *
A touch capacitive whiteboard running OneNote (or some similar software) provides most of the same advantages of the analog approach, while offering may of the advantages of the digital tools - including the distinct advantage of persistence for providing evidence of ISO compliance.
It also offers the advantage of being able to easily copy/paste data to do tracking in excel other software programs, and the convenience of being able to add pages related to a Story to document the research done and risk considerations, decision making, etc. OneNote also offers the ability to link or embed attachments, making it a good central repository for all the work being done.
Summary: Digital vs Analog
The digital approach offers distinct advantages in the form of more complete and persistent documentation, better data aggregation and analytics, better meta-data analysis (long term velocity tracking, similar projects evaluation, etc.) and ease of searching for and finding information relating to the work done and considerations on feature integration/refusal, etc.
However, Excel and most (all that I've seen) Scrum based tools require much work to setup and get working right, and require diligence in entering information in the expected (rigid) format. These trade-offs are not well aligned to the Agile values and principles.
The analog approach is better aligned to the values and principles of Agile, offering great flexibility and freedom to adapt, change, and refine the approach, but everything is temporary (with each Sprint, the board is reset, and aside from taking pictures, there is no evidence inherently generated on the work done in prior Sprints). Taking pictures of the board at various states requires extra effort, and is a weak link in the process that is easily defeated by forgetfulness or simple human factors.
Agile Alignment
- Working process > documentation
- There is not much to break with a whiteboard (maybe a sticky falls off? or someone drags it out in a windstorm) but there is much that can (and usually will) go wrong with custom software. Also, every where I've worked people manage to break excel files constantly. Lastly, as we attempt to refine and continually adjust our process, will the rigid framework of these tools become a barrier to our experimentation?
- Working product is the primary measure of progress.
- We already have the one KPI needed. What is the real value of all that extra tracking, and does it outweigh the compromises to the other values?
- Maximize the work not done.
- How much time is spent making the process fit the tool? What about finding, reporting, and fixing bugs or broken references? Making adjustments to the framework when we want to try something new? Is this work that needs to be done, or is it more work that does not need to be done?
- Best architectures, etc. come from self-organizing teams.
- I believe this speaks as much to the product being developed as the development process itself. Many Agile and Scrum processes evolved this way too. When following a rigid and existing framework, will it stimey the team's ability to develop it's own framework/process?
- ...Reflects...on becom[ing] more effective...tunes and adjusts...
- How much wasted time and energy will go into tuning and adjusting spreadsheets or software tools? Will that detract from tuning and adjusting the process? Will the rigidity of the tools get in the way of experimentation in our process? These things were mentioned in my earlier points, but worth reiterating here.
My Experience
Not much.
I've been researching Scrum for about 9 months, and we've been doing it for about 2.
I have my own beliefs on what matters, but I don't have the experience to recognize holes in my thought process or know what has/hasn't been done, or compare approaches first hand.
Pros & Cons
With limited experience, this seems my best method to approach the topic analytically.
I weighted the Pros (+) and Cons (-) of each item on a scale of 1 to 3 for impact/value.
(e.g. + has less value/impact than +++)
Analog
+++ Flexible
+++ Collaborative
+++ Constant Visibility
++ Easily reconfigured
++ No intrinsic constraints/limitations on data entry or formatting
+ Handwriting allows us to draw pictures, create emphasis, etc
- - Creating evidence requires additional effort (e.g. take pictures of Scrum board and add to project folder, add up points completed track velocity, etc.)
- - Tracking takes additional effort, and can easily be forgotten or done incompletely.
- - Archived stickies and photos of whiteboards are not text searchable
- - Requires extra effort/discipline to identify the story associated with a task, so when tasks are complete their value is added to the story - and for figuring out how much effort was really required, vs estimated.
- Not very green (paper and markers are environmental waste)
Digital, via EXCEL
+++ Tracking is automatic and gives instantaneous feedback
++ Easy to save historic evidence
++ Lends well to data aggregation & analysis
++ Text searchable
++ Remote accessibility (if shared via google docs or similar)
- - Tracking systems need to be developed up front (e.g. formulas, macros, data-entry format, etc)
- - - Rigid format; data must be entered consistently to use advanced tracking abilities.
- - - Doing more non-essential work. This is the big one for me. We're not a software company - we don't have programmers on staff, and building excel templates and macros and whatnot doesn't directly add value to the product. Can I program? Yes. In a couple languages now. Can I build an excel sheet (with formulas and pivot tables and arrays) that would offer advanced tracking? You bet. Can I download a template from the web and use it as a starting point to save some time? Sure! Is there still time, money, and resources that must be spent developing and maintaining these types of things? Yes, absolutely. Is that work primary to achieving the Sprint goals? I don't believe it is
- - - Inflexible. The added structure and added complications of changing worksheet layouts, formats, formulas, macros, etc. seems like it would be a barrier to changing the process (continuous improvement).
- - Not an information radiator (must have computer available with excel to log in and be able to view).
Digital, via Dedicated Software
+++ Tracking is automatic and gives instantaneous feedback
++ Easy to save historic evidence
++ Lends well to data aggregation & analysis
+ Searchable
++ Remote accessibility (for some software - cloud based).
- - What to track needs to be developed up front. Are we tracking right things? What benefit does the data provide?
- - - Rigid format (for data entry, for information presentation, etc.)
- - - Inflexible. The added structure inability to make changes to that structure on our own seems like it would be a barrier to changing our process when needed (a key agile value).
- - - Inability to change. What if we want to do something that isn't currently offered by the software? Maybe we need a new feature, or want to change the way we do something, or want to track something differently, or maybe we want to switch to t-shirt sizes instead of story points, or some other off-the-wall rating system, or a myriad of other things that might not be offered by the software currently. Since we do not control the design/development (unless open-source, but then see multiply my concerns with complications from Excel by 100x if we're modifying and maintaining our own software) which seems like a huge barrier to change and subsequently to continuous improvement.
- - Not an information radiator (must have computer, log in to computer and open software to view. With cloud based software, must have computerr and internet connection to view. )
