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Structure Your Agile Workflow With The Scrum Board Example (updated 2026)
The Scrum methodology has been popular in many industries for several years now. It is part of the Agile approach to running projects and is particularly prevalent in the software development sector, although it can also be used in many other kinds of companies. As part of this slick way of working, a Scrum board is essential. Yet, with a variety of different options to choose from, you might wonder which one is right for your business. Choose your Scrum board example from the following options.
What Is a Scrum Board? (And Why You Need an Example)
Before we can look at examples of Scrum boards, we need to explain what exactly they are.
This is a hub for all information related to the task and the overall project. It is where anyone can see exactly what stage it is at, making it useful for providing updates to senior management. At its simplest, a Scrum board is a visual tool that maps out the work to be performed during a specific timebox known as the Sprint.
This visual presentation shows how your work is progressing and should be easy to understand at a glance. Choose the right type of Scrum board, and your projects will be much easier to organise and complete with minimal fuss.
This board needs to be clear and simple, so everyone on the team can use it effectively at all times. It will normally be divided into sections such as Stories, To Do, In Progress, and Done. As the project moves forward, progress will be clearly seen in the way the Done column begins to fill up.
A true Scrum board is designed to support the three pillars of process control:
- transparency,
- inspection,
- adaptation.
Transparency
Everyone (from the intern to the CEO) can see the sprint’s current state. No more status update meetings…that could have been an email…
Inspection
The team can quickly identify bottlenecks. Is a task stuck in Review for three days? The board yells it out.
Adaptation
Based on the board, the team pivots. If the Testing column is overflowing, the whole team can swarm together to help clear the backlog.
Why Look at Examples?
If you’ve only ever seen a basic “To Do, Doing, Done” type kanban board, you’re missing out on the nuance that makes Agile powerful. A Scrum board example tailored for a marketing team looks radically different from one built for a backend engineering company.
Seeing how other high-performing teams structure their swimlanes, card colors, and column headers helps you avoid trial-and-error. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; you just need to align your board with your team’s unique definition of Done.
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Exploring a gallery of templates allows you to find a tailored Scrum board example that perfectly matches your department’s workflow, saving you hours of trial-and-error.
What Every Example of Scrum Board Should Include
Before we look at specific industry variations, we need to understand the fundamental anatomy of a successful Scrum board. Scrum is an ideal framework for a collaborative approach. The focus is on team goals, not on status reporting. Regardless of the tool you use, these components are the non-negotiables. If one is missing, your board ceases to be a strategic tool and becomes a mere list.
1. The Backlog vs. The Sprint Board
A common mistake is cluttering the sprint board with every idea the team has ever had. Let’s examine this.
The Product Backlog
This is the Big List. It lives outside the active sprint and includes all features, bug fixes, and requirements.
The Sprint Backlog
These are the specific items the team has committed to finishing in the current timebox.
The Transition
In an example of Scrum board excellence, items move from the Product Backlog into the To Do column during Sprint Planning.
2. The Essential Columns
The columns represent your team’s workflow. While To Do, In Progress, and Done are the baseline, most high-performing teams add a Verification or QA step.
- To Do: Work that is ready to be started.
- In Progress: Work that is currently being tackled. (Pro-tip: Limit the number of cards here to avoid multitasking.)
- Testing/Review: Work that is functionally complete but needs a second pair of eyes.
- Verification/QA: Once tested and reviewed, a final sign-off and check are required.
- Done: Work that meets the definition of done, and is ready for the Sprint Review.
3. User Stories and Tasks (The Cards)
Each card should represent a piece of value. In a digital Scrum board example, a card isn’t just a title; it’s a data container.
- The Narrative: Use the “As a [User], I want [Action], so that [Value]” format.
- Story Points: A number representing the complexity of the task.
- Acceptance Criteria: A checklist that must be completed before the card moves to Done.
4. Swimlanes and Groupping: Adding a Second Dimension
Horizontal rows (swimlanes), or task groupping are used to categorize work without adding more columns.
- By Priority: An Expedite lane at the top for urgent bugs.
- By Team Member: Showing who is working on what.
- By Label or Tag: Grouping tasks that belong to the same large feature.
By mastering these components, you create a board that not only tracks work but also conveys information at a single glance.
With those core principles in mind, we’ll now take a look at some different examples of Scrum boards you can utilise for teams working within a variety of industries and sectors. Feel free to adapt them to your own team’s needs.
7 Diverse Scrum Board Examples for Different Teams
To help you visualize success, let’s explore seven distinct ways to structure your board. Every team has a different path to project success, and your board should reflect that journey.
1. The Standard Scrum Board
This is the classic layout, ideal for teams new to Agile.
| Columns | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Backlog, To Do, Doing, Done | Small teams with simple workflows | Focuses purely on the velocity of movement from left to right |
2. The Software Development Board (The “Verification” Model)
Software isn’t done just because the code is written. It needs to be checked.
| Columns | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Backlog, Dev, Peer Review, QA/Testing, Done | Engineering teams where quality assurance is a separate stage | Highlights if code is “piling up” in testing, signaling that developers should stop coding and start helping the testers |
3. The Marketing and Creative Board
Creative work often involves many sub-specialties like design, copy, and SEO.
| Columns | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Briefing, Creative Production, Internal Review, Client Approval, Live | Creative teams that need more flexibility and want to ensure the Copy doesn’t finish three weeks before the Design phase begins | Teams can group swimlanes by Campaign or Channel (Social, Email, Web) |
4. The Expedite or Bug-Fix Board
When things go wrong, you need a high-visibility way to fix them. Here’s a way to plan that with Scrum.
| Columns | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Standard columns: Backlog, To Do, In Progress, Done. But add in a top Emergency swimlane | Dev/Support Teams | If a card enters the Expedite lane, all other In Progress work stops until it is cleared |
5. The Personal Scrum Board
Yes, Scrum works for individuals too! In fact, it can be a real boon for giving clarity and helping with productivity levels.
| Columns | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| This Week, Today, Doing, Done | Solopreneurs and freelancers who work alone most of the time but collaborate too | Ability to limit your Doing column to exactly one card, with the result that you get total focus and a clear view of your personal productivity |
6. The Physical Sticky Note Board
While digital is king in 2026, the physical board still has a place in co-located offices. You’ll need a free office wall covered in organized notes, physically moving from Planning to Victory.
| Columns | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Team member’s name then standard: To Do, In Progress, Done | Teams that work in-house and just don’t want to buy software | You’ll need to go old-school and get a large whiteboard, markers for writing, and masking tape for columns |
Pro-Tip: Take a photo of it daily to ensure data isn’t lost.
7. The Hybrid Scrum-Kanban Board: Scrumban
Sometimes you want the structure of a Sprint but the brilliant flow of a Kanban board.
| Columns | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| To Do, Doing, Done | Teams that want a board that shows exactly where bottlenecks are, highlighting columns that exceed their limits | You can use Scrum’s Sprints and Roles, but use Kanban’s Work In Progress Limits on every column |
There are many other templates in Kanbanchi tailored for specific teams, such as Marketing, HR, IT, and Construction. You can use them as the canvas for your boards.
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Physical vs. Digital Scrum Boards: Choosing the Best Format
There was a certain magic to the original Scrum experience. You might have seen the photos: a bright office wall, rows of colorful sticky notes, and a team huddled together, physically moving a task from “Doing” to “Done”. It did make everyone feel accomplished!
For co-located teams, the physical Scrum board is the ultimate information hub. It’s tactile, always visible, and requires no login. It creates a focal point for the office, encouraging spontaneous conversation.
However, as we move through 2026, the physical board is approaching its limits. If a single person works from home, they are instantly blind to the team’s progress. If a sticky note falls off the wall at 2:00 am, a piece of work literally disappears.
The Shift to the Digital Scrum Board
An example of Scrum board software, such as Kanbanchi, leverages the core benefits of the physical board and enhances them with cloud-based intelligence.
- Accessibility: Whether your team is in London, New York, or working from home, everyone sees the same Single Source of Truth in real time.
- Automatic Reporting: A physical board can’t tell you how your project is faring. For a digital one, you can generate information-rich charts and performance reports with zero manual effort.
- Data Security: Digital boards don’t fall off the wall! Every change is tracked, and historical data is archived for future retrospectives.
- Integration: Why copy-paste information? Digital boards link directly to your documents, emails, and calendars.
A digital Scrum board example acts as your team’s Single Source of Truth. Whether accessed remotely or displayed on a large office monitor for daily stand-ups, cloud-based intelligence ensures your data is secure, integrated, and accessible in real time.
The choice isn’t necessarily one or the other. Many modern teams use a hybrid approach, using a large monitor in the office to display their digital Kanbanchi board. This preserves the daily stand-up huddle while ensuring remote members stay fully in the loop.
Building Your Scrum Board Example with Kanbanchi in Google Workspace or Microsoft Environment
Most Agile teams don’t suffer from a lack of ideas; they suffer from a lack of integration. If your project tasks live in one app, your communication in another, and your documentation in Google Drive or OneDrive, you aren’t being Agile, you’re just busy switching tabs.
This is where Kanbanchi transforms the Scrum board example from a static chart into a living ecosystem. Kanbanchi is built natively for Google Workspace, and it can turn your existing ecosystem into a professional-grade Agile engine.
The Microsoft version, similarly, can connect your OneDrive files and SharePoint sites into a single Scrum system.
Turning Google and Microsoft Assets into Scrum Tasks
In a standard Scrum setup, a User Story card is typically just a short piece of text. In Kanbanchi, that card is a bridge to your work.
- Google Drive/OneDrive Integration: Attach your PRDs, design mocks, or budget Sheets directly to the card. No more searching through folders; the context is where the work is.
- Email tasks to Board: Received a feature request via email? Use the Kanbanchi Gmail add-on or Board email address to send it directly to your Product Backlog without leaving your inbox.
- Google Calendar Sync: View your sprint deadlines directly in Google Calendar. It’s visibility that follows you where you work.
With the Kanbanchi for Gmail add-on, you can instantly convert important messages into trackable task cards directly from your inbox
Visualizing the Sprint: Beyond the Board
While the Scrum board is perfect for daily tasks, leaders often need the big picture. Kanbanchi allows you to pivot your view instantly.
- The Gantt View: Use this to see how multiple sprints roll up into a larger quarterly roadmap. It’s this Epic view that helps manage dependencies across different teams.
- Time Tracking: How long is that QA stage actually taking? Track time directly on the cards to get accurate data for your next Sprint Retrospective.
Example of a Gantt chart in Kanbanchi visualizing the software development lifecycle, with clear phases for requirements, design, development, testing, and deployment organized as summary tasks
Setting Up Your First Board
Getting started is a three-minute process:
- Install: Straight from the Google Workspace Marketplace or website
- Create a New Board: Use one of our pre-built Scrum templates.
- Define Your Columns: Set up your To Do, In Progress, and Done based on the examples we discussed earlier.
- Invite Your Team: Since it uses Google or Microsoft permissions, sharing is as easy as sharing a Google Doc or file on SharePoint.
By building your board in your familiar workspace, you eliminate excessive context switching and enable your team to focus on delivering value, not on managing software.
If all this sounds like it could be right up your street, then don’t wait, try Kanbanchi today
FAQ: Common Questions About Scrum Boards
As we look to conclude our guide, here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Scrum Boards and their purpose in teamwork.
What is the difference between a Scrum board and a Kanban board?
While they look similar, the intent differs. A Scrum board is cleared and reset after every Sprint (usually 2–4 weeks). It is focused on a specific Sprint Goal. A Kanban board is continuous; cards flow through it indefinitely with no reset.
How many columns should a Scrum board have?
Start simple. The most effective Scrum board layouts typically have 4 to 5 columns. If you add too many, you risk over-complicating the process. If work is getting stuck, add a dedicated column (e.g., Legal Review) to make the bottleneck visible.
Can I create a Scrum board in Google Workspace?
Google doesn’t have a built-in Scrum tool, but Kanbanchi provides that missing layer. It sits directly on top of your Google Drive, allowing you to build professional boards using your existing Google Drive accounts and files.
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