While it’s possible for a Scrum team to use the MSF for Agile Software Development v5.0 process template to implement Scrum, it makes more sense to use the Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 process template, as it was created specifically for teams using Scrum. That said, I wanted to share with you an objective side-by-side comparison of the two templates:
Comparison | MSF/Agile 5.0 | VS Scrum 1.0 |
| Effective version | 3.0 | 1.0 |
| Can implement Scrum? | Yes | Yes |
| Uses Scrum terminology? | No | Yes |
| Number of work item types | 6 | 7 |
| Leverages work item hierarchies? | Yes | Yes |
| Track Sprint dates, goal, and retrospective notes? | No | Yes |
| Has Excel planning workbooks? | Yes | No |
| Has Excel reports? | Yes | No |
| Has sample/template documents? | Yes | No |
| Number of .RDL reports | 16 | 7 |
| Project portal dashboard(s) | Task Burndown, Burn Rate | Release Burndown |
| Has process guidance? | Yes | Yes |
| Available "out of the box"? | Yes | No |
| Supported by Microsoft? | Yes | Yes |