Purpose

IceScrum is an agile project management tool, specialized on supporting the Scrum methodology and process. At the base, it can be considered a special type of an Issue Tracking System (ITS).

Properties

Topology

The stack consists of two containers:

• its-icescrum: the iceScrum application.
• its-icescrum-postgresql: the PostgreSQL database.

Configuration

This stack has no specific configuration parameters.

See also the variables which control integration of the stack into the reverse proxy.
For changes to take effect the stack has to be reinstalled.

First Steps

Configuration Wizard

At first start a configuration wizard is launched in the Web UI which guides you to the necessary steps:

• Creating the administrative account:  choose a username and password
• Directories and logs:  leave as is
• Use a new license:  Check the box Skip free trial and click next - you are using the open source version (called the "core license")
• Database:  leave as is
• Emails:  If you check one of the boxes an email setup form appears. It depends on your execution context. (In msg.Cloud see this HowTo on how to get access to a SMTP server.)
• iceScrum access:  leave as is
• Users:  You can keep the defaults and change this later if necessary.
• Projects:  Again the defaults are reasonable.

Once you click on Submit the configuration iceScrum assumes your settings and brings up the login screen where you log in with the administrative account.

Create a project

Usually you want to create a first project by clicking on Create a project. A wizard asks your a few informations, here you also decide whether your project is public or private. Private projects can only accessed by its members, public projects by anybody. You find the details in the Getting started guide.

The project is connected to a team which is a group of users which have access to the project.

The Define your practices screen asks for a few settings connecting to the way you want to employ the Scrum methodology.

In the Planning section checking the Create the first release and its sprints checkbox allows you to define a release date as goal of your sprints. iceScrum will then create all sprints up to this release. (Note that the date format is DD/MM/YYYY.)

The button Create your project does what it tells and presents you with an impressive list of available integrations. However this is just a teaser if you are using the community version ("core license") as those integrations are reserved to paying customers.

Get the ball rolling

iceScrum knows abouts features which contain stories which again split up into tasks. Features have a distinct color which is inherited by the stories belonging to this feature.

Stories are the most important object when talking about sprint planning. They have a life cycle: Once created they appear in a Sandbox backlog (state suggested). From there they get accepted to be moved to the Backlog. Once estimated they are available to get planned into a sprint. The remaining states are in progress, in review and Done.

On the project's dashboard (which can always reach through the link at the top of the page) you find buttons for creating features, stories, and tasks. There you find Create and Create and continue buttons. The latter skips the detail pane and lets you immediately create the next object. This is handy if you have a list of e.g. stories in your mind which you want to bring into the system and add the details later.

The Backlogs link on the top of the page leads to the backlogs. At top left you find the link to the Sandbox where all suggested stories gather. You can also start add stories directly from here (the entry field for the story's title is to the right; setting the state to accepted immediately moves the story to the backlog). At the top, left from the Add story button you find a View icon which lets you choose between a grid or list view. Each story has a context menu marked by an arrow-down icon where you can promote the state. Once the story is accepted it disappears from the sandbox as it is now in the Backlog.

Here you estimate the story which makes it available for sprint planning.

Sprint planning is activated by the Planning link in the top row. If you hit Plan a selection list of all estimated stories appears. By checking the checkbox to the right and pressing Plan you assign it to the sprint.

This fills your Taskboard where you - if not happened yet - break down your stories into tasks by pressing the "+" icon. A task has just a name and either a parent story (the usual case) or a "type". The latter can be urgent or recurrent and is for tasks outside of stories.

Once you Start the sprint the sprint duration and velocity is persisted and can not be changed any more.

Note that you can switch between projects with the project name drop down at the top left. The icon to the left is the context menu for the project and allows you - among other things - to change the settings which you made in the "Create Project" wizard. On the very top right is the user icon which takes you to your personal page and the My account menu with your personal settings.

Related Documents

• Most recent changes