The next version of the Scrum Masters Workbench application has now been released and is available for download.
What is the Scrum Masters Workbench?
The workbench application is the next evolution of the massively successful Task Board for Team System (released by Conchango in 2008)providing a rich user interface and intuitive gesture control over your Team Foundation Server projects. This dashboard application offers you a unique view of your project work items and their relationships to one and another.
This time around, we have aimed to include the best possible customisation options in order to allow you to interact with your team projects in a way that works for you.
Compatible with nearly all TFS project templates and including native support for some of the most widely used; including:
How much does this cost?
Now for the news you have been dreading, the cost… It’s FREE! We offer this application completely free of charge. You can download your copy now for no cost at all.
“It’s FREE!”
What’s new in version 2?
Over time, we have been iteratively improving the feature set of the workbench. The initial release was purely to support the SfTS v3 project setup, then came the multiple tab task board mode, followed by an item list display mode. This release includes a unique new display mode (Hierarchy mode) and some of the core productivity features that made the original Task Board such a hit.
- Hierarchy Mode:
This new and unique display mode allows you to see and interact with the entire work item relationship hierarchy on a single screen. See Hierarchy Guidance for more information.
- Change Polling:
The workbench now supports auto refresh functionality to ensure your loaded data is always up to date. See Change Polling Guidance for more information.
- Improved common template support:
The native support for common TFS templates (SfTS v2, SfTS v3, MSF Agile v5 and TFS Scrum v1) has been improved. The template type identification and default project layout has been improved to get you up and running without the need to drag columns into order and define views.
- Reset Default Layout:
This new feature allows you reset the project work item relationship views to the default setting. This also allows users of previous workbench versions to quickly update their project layouts to the new format.
- Search:
You can now find work items using the search feature. See Search Guidance for more information.
- Highlight In:
Auto switch between workbench display modes to view your work item data by selecting the "Highlight In" option. See Highlight In Guidance for more information.
- Adjustable task board row height:
You can now adjust the height of rows in the task board view by dragging the row footer. See Task Board Guidance for more information.
- Task card size:
The size of the task board cards can now be selected. See Task Board Guidance for more information.
- Customisable context menus:
Select which work item fields are accessible in the context menus. See Item Context Options Guidance for more information.
- Customisable display fields:
You can now select which work item fields are visible in the workbench display. See Item Context Options Guidance for more information.
- TFS Web Access integration:
Links to the TFS web access pages are now included to enable quick access to all TFS features not natively supported in the workbench.
- Multi-select editing:
The item list mode now supports multi-select editing. Use the [Ctrl] or [Shift] keys to select a range of cells to edit simultaneously. See Item List Guidance for more information.
Over the coming few days I will recording and releasing webcasts to demonstrate the new features and give you some tips on getting the most of work bench application.
For more information and to see the latest Scrum for Team System news, head over to:
Regards,
Crispin Parker,
Senior Practice Consultant,
EMC Consulting.