I’ve been asked recently to post the Standalone Iteration Tracking Spreadsheet that I created a few years back – and I finally got around to it.  This spreadsheet was first part of a bigger tool that supported backlog management, release reporting, feature tracking etc.  It became incredibly difficult to maintain so I decided to pull key pieces out and made them independent.  This Iteration or Sprint Tracker is intended to be used by ScrumMasters or Project Managers.  It was never intended to be used by the entire team (though you absolutely can) but rather provide a way for the ScrumMaster to actively track task progress and generate real-time reports and diagnostics.  You will see that it provides far more than the simple traditional burndown.  Along with the Advanced Burn-up it also shows the Category Burn-down.  The Category Burndown is intended to show visibility into the progress of specific categories of task – to identify bottlenecks or constraints.

I haven’t had time to create any user guides but here are a couple of things that I think would be helpful to know:

1. You will need to enable Macro’s for the sheet to work correctly
2. If you haven’t already done so, you will need to install the Analysis Toolpak Excel Add-In that comes with Excel.  From the Excel Menu, select Tools, AddIns.  Select the Analysis Toolpak and click OK.
3. After entering your Iteration Start and End Dates, click the “AutoShow Columns” button to automatically hide and show the relevant date columns
4. In the Status field, avoid using the “Fill-Down” capability to set the status of multiple fields.  Instead use copy-and-paste for the same result.  You can copy from a single status field and paste to a range of fields.
5. To have the burndown data for a specific day show up in the charts, you will need to enter an “x” in the field directly beneath the date
6. You can modify the categories by changing the list of categories in the table of “Category Burn-Down Data”
7. You can hide specific categories by removing the “x” next to the category name.
8. Send me a note for any additional help – I’ll do my best to get back to you quickly.

I’ve included two sheets: a blank tracker as well as one containing sample data.

Bigvisible Standalone Iteration Tracker v0.9.2

Bigvisible Standalone Iteration Tracker v0.9.2 – Sample Data

Enjoy
Giora Morein
gmorein@bigvisible.com