Increasing transparency of Agile project by using whiteboard — Benefits of whiteboard in Agile/Scrum

Why do we have to use whiteboard in Agile projects? Why do I have to use so use low-tech, manual method to track the progress of my project if there’s plenty of sophisticated mobile and web solutions dedicated for Agile projects i.e. Rally or Jira.

These are the most common questions asked by developers, PO or even stakeholders when Scrum Master proposes using whiteboard to track progress of the work in Sprint. The answer to this question is very straightforward — whiteboard is a great tool to increase transparency in Agile projects. And as all scrum professionals know, transparency is one of the main pillars of empiricism as explained in the Scrum Guide: “Significant aspects of the process must be visible to those responsible for the outcome. Transparency requires those aspects be defined by common standard so observers share a common understanding of what is being seen.”

‘Toolbox for the Agile Coach — Visualization Examples’ by Jimmy Janlén

By using whiteboard team can increase visibility of its work by putting the most important aspects of the project into one place, that’s very easy accessible by others. Stakeholders, PO and colleagues of other team can quickly (during their break, by walking around the office) access data (and help, advise in the same time) like:

• Work Delivered: What our team is planning to deliver during the Sprint and what it the current progress (i.e. burn-down charts on whitebord).
• People Involved in the Project: Magnets with pictures of team members and their names.
• Common Language used by Dev Team/PO/Stakeholders: Definition of Done is clear to everyone, when you’re closing the User Story everyone is aware of what has been done.
• Timeline: Information about when the Sprint finishes; what is the current release; calendar of availability/holidays. If there’re any dependencies, they can be visible to everyone.
• Risks: Red sticker notes highlight who is blocking us and for how long (blocking team will be known to everyone in the organization).
• Requests not related to Sprint Goal: By adding extra column “Inbox” of requests from other people, we can very easily reduce number of tasks not related to the current Sprint.

‘Toolbox for the Agile Coach — Visualization Examples’ by Jimmy Janlén

But transparency is not only the benefit, there is bunch of other advantages of using whiteboard that can help you build collaboration, increase visibility of the project and create the feeling of ownership of the product by the whole team:

• Ownership: most of software developers like their job because they can see the work/product being created very quickly — like building using LEGO; Whiteboard is owned by a team, it’s a material thing that can be touched and seen by everyone. If the work on whiteboard is organized in a nice way people will care more about it and thereby code — humans like things which are beautiful, organized and easy to use. Team feels more involved into the project, it’s theirs as the whiteboard.
• Collaboration: During standups whiteboard is a central place for team, people gather and collaborate around the whiteboard, it fosters communication and increase focus of the team on closing items still pending on the whiteboard. All tasks, blockers are visible therefore everyone in the company is aware of what is happening in this particular team and if they can help.
• Branding: Most of IT projects are virtual, they cannot be seen without using computer. Whiteboard creates a physical visualization of our project. People can show and present it to others, be proud of it. In large corporation people even don’t know what their colleagues are working on, by using whiteboard team is building their brand and exposure of the project. Nothing is better after introducing whiteboard as colleagues from different department pointing on the whiteboard and asking developers “Can you explain me what is that? “.

Tips of using whiteboard:

• Track User Stories and tasks on whiteboard, and User Stories in online tools — PO’s focus is on higher level, not on tasks. He is interested in bringing business value that happens by closing User Stories.
• Take photos of whiteboard, show the progress during retro or review and if something wrong happens, you’ll have a backup of it.
• Remember that some information could be confidential, ask first what aspects of your project can be visible for others in your office like guests or contractors that are coming to your office.

And how does it look like in your team? Do you use whiteboard or only online management tools? What kind of information are you putting on you whiteboard? Comment or send the pics of whiteboard from your projects.