I like 3M post-it notes for sprint and release planning. It makes it really easy to have multiple people interact with stories and tasks. Unlike electronic tools, I don’t become a bottleneck for planning. However, I’m not against electronic tools. In fact they make sense for distributed teams and for backing up data that is on cards. So, what’s a girl to do?
3M Restickable Glue
This is where the 3M restickable glue stick comes in. It’s like regular glue stick, except you can use it to make anything into a repositionable sticky note. This means you can print your backlog from Excel, Google docs, Rally, VersionOne, etc. onto paper sheets or Avery card stock, slap some restickable glue stick on each story, cut them out and stick-em to the wall. When the product owner wants to change priority on a story, just pull it up and move it and stick it where you want it. Rather than hard to use clear Scotch tape, which is hard to unstick, or bright blue painters tape which may cover your story card, this is hidden and easy to use.
One stick of this stuff lasted me about 10 sprint planning meetings.I recommend a stick in every Scrum Master’s kit.
In a later episode, I’ll explain how I like to print out my backlog to Avery card stock to make planning easy.