RoboScrum™ version 7.6.0.3 is now available. It addresses several defects and adds a bit of error checking that the initial release lacked. Version 7.6 added several new metrics to help you advise and discuss performance with your Teams, including Bravery, Caution, Clarity and much more. Also now included is support for several patterns of success, as advised by Jeff Sutherland and ScrumPLOP.org. Patterns supported now include Kaizen, the Interrupt Pattern, the Happiness Metric and others.

Among the larger changes is the move from strict Fibonacci resolution to more close alignment with the RAND Corporation’s original Wide Band Delphi Technique. In previous versions, votes that fell within three Fibonacci numbers were averaged. This part comports with the WBDT; however, for purposes of recording the averaged vote, the average was first “bucketed” and then recorded as the Fibonacci number to which the rounded average belonged. In RoboScrum™ 7.6, the average is rounded to the nearest integer which is then recorded and used for Velocity/Capacity calculations and others. This is defined by the RAND Corporation as “the most likely outcome” calculation.

A second significant change is a streamlining (hopefully?) of the workflow. Rather than popping around between many tabs, we now have a step-by-step layout in which you Create a Sprint, Populate a Sprint, run Daily Stand-Ups, and update the necessary tracking metrics for trending information. Many will hope that this version contains macros that eliminate the copying of information from one slide to another but the overhead (and security risks) associated with macro-enabled workbooks is too high. So this is still a manual process in RoboScrum™ version 7.6.

As ever, each worksheet in the workbook is locked in order to prevent you clobbering formulas and hidden values by accident as you tab around. I always use it in locked mode myself because it just makes navigation much easier and safer. But if you want to unlock it and have a rummage under the hood, the password for each tab is simply ‘rapidscrum’. Knock yourself out but know this: I will not help you fix a damaged workbook. You’re on your own. So consider unlocking an unused copy for purposes of exploration but keep your production copies locked up tight. That’s my best advice but do as you will.

The original paper from which these metrics is Scrum Metrics for Hyper-Productive Teams.

RoboScrum™ version 7.6.0.3 remains free to use and redistribute; however, the name RoboScrum™ is a fully protected trademark of Rapid Scrum LLC and all rights are reserved. No support or warranty is expressed or implied.

There will be bugs. When you find a bug, please report it so I can fix the master copy.

Please eMail Bug Reports along with a copy of the errant workbook and a detailed description of the problem you have seen and steps to reproduce it.

Instructions initially are minimal and there is little error checking of the sort that the previously published version had. So keep an eye on all of your tabs and be sure everything is up to date correctly before using any of the charts or metrics. And now, without further ado…