And eScrum is no more

I have posted in the past about the TFS 2005 and 2008 Process Template eScrum from Microsoft; a template we use internally for a number of Agile projects. Well today it has been removed from the Microsoft download sites.

It was decided a while ago that it would not be updated to support TFS2010 and has been removed to avoid any confusion over whether it is support or not by Microsoft (FYI it was never officially supported anyway as it did not originate inside the TFS team)

So are we at Black Marble going to miss it? Well the main reason we had used it in the past was the web interface that gave a single point for updating the status of work items without the need to enter Visual Studio, it was our project wallboard. With the much enhanced Office integration with TFS2010 I think we are not going to miss eScrum. We can now provide an easy way with Excel or Project for any team member (developer or not) to update their work status and also Excel Services to provide a information radiator showing the overall project status.

If you do need a strict Scrum implementation template for TFS then have a look at Conchango’s Scrum for Team System which is going to be updated to make use of all the new features of TFS2010