SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

I am a Project Server and SharePoint consultant but my main focus currently is around Project Server. I have been working with Project Server for nearly five years since 2007 for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in the UK, I have also been awared with the Microsoft Community Contributor Award 2011. I am also a certified Prince2 Practitioner. This article has been cross posted from pwmather.wordpress.com (original article)

Agile is now available in Microsoft Project! This is available on the following build version or later: 8625.2055 Click-to-Run. This build version is available on the Insider – formerly Insider Fast or Monthly Channel (Targeted) – formerly Insider Slow. This post is an intro to the new features. On the New menu you will see three new projects as highlighted below:

The three new project types are:

• Scrum Project
• Kanban Project
• Waterfall Project

Firstly, “Waterfall Project” is the traditional type of project that is the same as using “Blank Project”. When creating either of these you will notice some new views in Project:

These views are available regardless of the project type selected. I can insert the new Board Status and Sprint fields in to the default Gantt Chart view:

Switching views, I can then see these test tasks on the associated board views:

Both of these provide the ability to add new tasks as well as drag and drop capabilities to move tasks to different columns / statuses. On the board view you can add / update the columns / buckets, once updated here the Board Status column in the table views will have the updated values. Regardless of the view, you can use the Format tab option on the Task Boards Tools ribbon to change the columns:

More on these in when we look at the new project types.

Creating a Scrum Project or a Kanban Project gives you some other functionality. Starting with a Scrum Project (purely because it is first in the list) we can see the new project below:

The Scrum Project defaults to open with the Sprint Planning Board as the active view. On the ribbon you will also notice there is an Agile Tools Scrum tab as well as the previously seen Task Board Tools Format tab.

The Planning button enables you to switch between the two Sprint Planning views:

The Sprint button enables you to switch between the two Current Sprint views:

The All button enables you to switch to the Agile Tasks view which is a filtered tabular view that only shows tasks that are tagged as Agile = Yes.

Adjust allows you to manage the sprints. This creates three automatically for you:

By default the sprints are generated using the project finish date but you can change to manage this via a custom date if needed:

The Agile button enables you to change your project to a different Agile methodology:

Switching between Scrum / Kanban / None just changes the options you have on the ribbon. Changing to None will remove all the Agile options ribbon but you can use the Project tab to change your project back to an Agile methodology:

Tasks can be moved to different sprints or status using the board view with drag and drop or just the familiar drop down menus on the table views.

Switching to Kanban, the options change to enable you to switch backlog views:

When creating a new Kanban project, the default view is the Backlog Board.

The All button enables you to switch to the Agile Tasks view which is a filtered tabular view that only shows tasks that are tagged as Agile = Yes. Then you have the same Agile button too.

There are also new default Agile reports:

Here is the Agile – Task Status report as an example:

This new feature is a client side feature only, this capability is not available in PWA. All of the new fields in Project such as Agile, Sprint and Board Status are in Project only.

If you are looking to use an Agile methodology to manage your projects in Microsoft Project, take a look at this new feature as it allows you to manage a single project using a combination of methodologies if you wish.