I'm a fan of Big Visible Charts. Ron Jeffries recently reminded me that I've been meaning to blog for a while about one I use to help manage my iterations. Its the whiteboard that I use to draw up the iteration plan and track progression through stories. Here's what it looks like:

I've removed the story names to protect the innocent, but you can see a few things at a quick glance.

• Each story card has a name and number.
• People have signed up for stories to work on them.
• Relative sizes of stories are immediately obvious.
• Total size of the iteration can be seen (in this case we scheduled 44 points worth).
• Progress on stories can be seen by the shaded areas.
• The current status of our FIT tests can be seen.

This is enormously interesting to anyone involved with the team when they go past. Issues are sometimes noted on the board (see the "stalled" note). Anyone interested in a particular story can tell if it is done or not. I can get an early indication if we are not going to complete all the cards, or if we need to schedule more. All in all, this is the most widely and actively used tracking tool on the project.