How Do I Use OneNote for Scrum?

You can use OneNote to share the results of your Scrum and keep the development energy high.

Scrum is a project management approach to developing agile software. The purpose of a Daily Scrum is to encourage team members to talk with one another, work through problems and share ideas quickly. The ScrumMaster's job is to nurture an energy factor; otherwise, team meetings run the risk of becoming dull and obligatory, producing nothing of real value.



Scrum members can use Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 as a tool for disseminating data and brainstorming. The program allows team members to quickly enter notes and share them.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007

Instructions

1. Click "New" and then "Notebook" in OneNote before your next Daily Scrum.

2. Enter a name for your notebook, such as the name of your project followed by the Scrum date, and select "Shared Notebook -- Group Project." Click "Next."

3. Select "Multiple people will share the notebook" and click "Next."

4. Use the "Browse" button to indicate where you want to save the notebook, and click the "Create" button.

5. Open this notebook during your next Daily Scrum to take notes. OneNote lets you tag important concepts. Click "Insert" and "Tag" to highlight concepts.

6. Record the meeting by clicking "Insert" and "Audio Recording." Be sure you have the correct microphone and video equipment installed before the meeting.

7. Transfer tasks from the Daily Scrum directly to Outlook by clicking "Insert" and "Outlook Task." In this way, you reduce the administrative burden of coordinating your Daily Scrum results with the office calendaring and scheduling software, leaving more productive time for the sprint.

8. Link from Outlook to OneNote by clicking the "Meeting Notes" button in Outlook to access a new page in OneNote with all of the meeting information.

9. Reduce more of the administrative burden by allowing team members to review the notes from the Daily Scrum and add their input to the notebook rather than use email or chats by the water cooler. Team members can identify text by right-clicking any paragraph to see the name of the author.

Tips & Warnings

• Team members can enter their status before a Daily Scrum, which can be helpful for team members who are out of the office.

• If you are working with multiple locations, rather than typing up notes and emailing them hours or days after a Scrum, you can keep active participation alive by sharing notes in real time with the remote locations.

References

• Microsoft Case Studies: Dell Improves Analytics and Project Management with Early Deployment of Office 2010
• "eWeek" Magazine: How to Adopt Scrum: A Better Approach to Project Management; Jimi Fosdick; November 20, 2009
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007