How to Run Agile Projects in ClickUp
ClickUp makes it easy to translate agile principles into a practical, day-to-day workflow your team can actually follow. This how-to guide walks you through setting up agile projects, creating sprints, managing backlogs, and tracking progress from idea to delivery.
The steps below are based on proven agile practices demonstrated in real project examples so you can quickly adapt them to your own team.
Step 1: Plan Your Agile Workspace in ClickUp
Before creating tasks, design a simple structure for your agile projects. A clear hierarchy will keep teams aligned and data easy to find.
Define Your Spaces and Folders in ClickUp
Start by creating a dedicated Space for your agile initiatives. Inside that Space, use Folders to separate major products, clients, or programs.
- One Space per department or product line
- Folders for each product, project, or release train
- Lists for individual backlogs or sprint cycles
This structure keeps your agile artifacts organized while letting you scale as new projects appear.
Create Agile Lists for Backlogs and Sprints
Within each Folder, set up Lists to reflect your agile flow:
- A Product Backlog List for all potential work
- Active Sprint Lists for the current and upcoming sprints
- Optional Lists for bugs, technical debt, or experiments
Using Lists this way helps your team instantly see what is planned now versus later.
Step 2: Use ClickUp Agile Templates
Instead of building everything from scratch, rely on pre-built agile templates that showcase best practices.
Choose a ClickUp Agile Template
Select an agile or scrum template that matches your approach. These templates usually include:
- Pre-built statuses for common agile workflows
- Sample Lists for sprints, backlogs, and epics
- Custom Fields for story points, priority, and more
Templates provide a strong starting point while remaining flexible enough for your unique processes.
Customize Agile Views in ClickUp
Agile teams need multiple perspectives on the same work. Set up a combination of views such as:
- Board View: To mimic a classic kanban board for drag-and-drop status changes
- List View: To quickly edit details, priorities, and assignees
- Calendar View: To review upcoming deadlines and releases
- Gantt View: To understand dependencies and high-level timelines
Use filters and saved views so each role (product owner, developer, marketer) sees only what matters most to them.
Step 3: Build and Refine Your Backlog in ClickUp
A strong backlog is the heart of every agile framework. Capture, refine, and prioritize all work in one place.
Capture User Stories and Tasks
In your Product Backlog List, create tasks that represent user stories, features, and fixes. For each task, include:
- A clear title describing the outcome
- A description that outlines acceptance criteria
- Attachments, briefs, or links to supporting documents
Use subtasks to break down stories into technical implementation steps if needed.
Use ClickUp Custom Fields for Agile Data
Custom Fields let you structure key agile data across all tasks. Common fields include:
- Story Points: To estimate effort
- Priority: To rank work based on impact
- Sprint: To tag which sprint a task belongs to
- Epic or Theme: To group work into larger goals
Filter and sort by Custom Fields to run backlog refinement and planning sessions efficiently.
Step 4: Set Up Sprints in ClickUp
With your backlog prepared, convert ideas into scheduled sprints that your team can confidently deliver.
Organize Sprints With ClickUp Lists
You can treat each sprint as its own List or use a single List with a Custom Field for sprint numbers. A separate List per sprint works well when you want a clean record of completed work.
- Create a new List named for the sprint, such as “Sprint 12”.
- Set sprint start and end dates using List-level settings or a sprint management feature.
- Move or assign backlog tasks into that List once they are committed to the sprint.
This approach mirrors standard scrum ceremonies and keeps the workload visible and time-bound.
Use Agile Statuses in ClickUp
Configure task statuses to reflect your agile flow, for example:
- Backlog
- Ready
- In Progress
- In Review
- Done
These statuses power accurate dashboards and make standups easier, since anyone can see the state of work at a glance.
Step 5: Manage Daily Workflows in ClickUp
Once sprints start, your team will interact with the tool constantly. Make day-to-day use simple and transparent.
Run Standups Using ClickUp Views
During daily standups, open the sprint List in Board View. Walk the team through columns from left to right:
- Identify blocked tasks and add comments or tags
- Reassign work when capacity changes
- Update statuses live while the team speaks
This practice keeps your digital board synchronized with reality and reduces follow-up admin work.
Automate Routine Actions in ClickUp
Set up basic automation rules to eliminate repetitive updates, such as:
- Change assignee when a status changes to “In Review”
- Post a comment or notify a channel when a task moves to “Done”
- Auto-apply a tag or Custom Field when a task is created in a certain List
Automation helps maintain clean data and ensures stakeholders stay informed without manual check-ins.
Step 6: Track Agile Metrics in ClickUp
Use reporting features to understand how your agile process performs and where you can improve.
Build Agile Dashboards in ClickUp
Create Dashboards that focus on outcomes and flow. Helpful widgets include:
- Tasks by Status to visualize work in progress
- Burnup or burndown style charts using completed tasks over time
- Workload views to track capacity across team members
- Custom Field charts for story points or priorities
Dashboards should answer key questions: how fast is the team delivering, where are bottlenecks, and what needs attention now.
Review Agile Examples for Inspiration
For additional implementation ideas, explore practical agile project examples in the official blog at this ClickUp agile guide. You can adapt those patterns to marketing, development, operations, and more.
Step 7: Continuously Improve Your ClickUp Setup
Agile is about responding to change, and your workspace should evolve along with your process.
Refine Your ClickUp Workflows After Each Sprint
During retrospectives, capture improvements both for the team and the tool itself:
- Adjust statuses if steps are missing or redundant
- Update templates based on repeated feedback
- Add new Custom Fields for data you often track manually
Small, regular adjustments will keep your work management system aligned with real-world needs.
Get Expert Help Optimizing ClickUp
If your environment is complex or you manage many teams, consider guidance from specialists. For consulting support on agile systems and workspace design, you can visit Consultevo for professional services that complement your internal efforts.
Putting Your Agile System in ClickUp to Work
By structuring your workspace, using agile templates, managing backlogs, and tracking sprints with clear metrics, you create a single source of truth for every initiative. Over time, your ClickUp setup becomes a living representation of how your teams plan, execute, and improve.
Follow these steps, iterate regularly, and you will have a flexible agile system that grows with your organization while keeping projects organized and transparent.
Need Help With ClickUp?
If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your ClickUp workspace, work with ConsultEvo — trusted ClickUp Solution Partners.
“`
