An article in CIO magazine highlights a sobering statistic: 50% of companies had a software development project fail in the previous 12 months, and most projects fail due to a lack of a clear business vision at the outset. To software professionals, this is no surprise. Contrary to the popular image of a 12 year-old kid whipping together an app over a weekend and getting rich, real software development projects aren’t that simple. To ensure success, the business leadership needs to clearly convey the success criteria to the development team, and the team needs to remain aligned with the business throughout the development lifecycle. Unlike software requirements specifications of old—hundreds-pages long tomes that no one read—user stories quickly clarify and communicate software requirements in a lightweight fashion. Well-written user stories represent the single best tool to ensure your development project doesn't end up as a bad statistic. In this session Dave Todaro will explain: The value of user stories How and when user stories are written The three key components of a good title and why they’re important How to write associated acceptance criteria How to evolve user stories with the team’s input About Dave Todaro President/COO of @Ascendle, a firm specializing in agile coaching, software product strategy and commercial-grade mobile and web app development. bio from Twitter Dave has spent the last 30+ years designing and building mission-critical software applications in a variety of leadership roles. He is Founder, President and COO of Ascendle, a contract software development firm in Southern New Hampshire that specializes in custom cloud and mobile solutions for small to midsize businesses. Dave started programming at age 11 and shipped his first commercial software product at age 15. He is the former chairman of the Software Association of New Hampshire.

1. Writing User
Stories
It’s Not as Hard
as You Think
kdinuraj (Flickr)

2. Dave
Todaro
@dave_todaro
President & COO
Ascendle

3. Commercial
Software
Development
Strategy
ExecutionCoaching

4. What’s a User Story?
“User stories are part of an agile approach that helps
shift the focus from writing about requirements to
talking about them.
All agile user stories include a written sentence…and,
more importantly, a series of conversations about
the desired functionality.”
- Mike Cohn

5. As a Shopper I want a gift registry so I can
share what I want with friends and family
Who What
Why
The Sentence

6. • I can create one or more gift registries
• I can add a product to a registry
• I can specify a quantity desired
• I can view my registry
• I can share my registry with friends and family
• I can remove products from my registry
• I can rename my registry
“Acceptance Criteria”
The Conversation

7. Flowcharts Calculations
UI Mockups
Technical Information
Supporting Information
Visual Assets
What the team wants

8. User Story
Execution
Code Unit Tests
Acceptance
Tests
End-user
Documentation
Management
Scope Priorities
Schedule Progress

9. How to Write User Stories
1. Identify user personas
2. What do they care about?
3. Write story titles
4. Write acceptance criteria

10. Shopper
Shipping
Clerk
Catalog
Manager
Financial
Analyst
Customer
Support
Rep
Shop
View cart
Checkout
View past orders
Cancel order
Gift registry
Manage catalog items
Put products on sale
Adjust pricing
Print picking report
Print packing lists
Ship order
View sales reports
Analyze profitability
Look up an order
Process a return
Cancel order

11. Shopper
Shop
View cart
Checkout
View past orders
Cancel order
Gift registry
As a Shopper I want to view a list of products so I can select some to purchase
As a Shopper I want to view my cart so I can make adjustments prior to checkout
As a Shopper I want to check out so I can get my products shipped to me
As a Shopper I want to review my orders so I can see what I’ve purchased in the past
As a Shopper I want to cancel an order so I can correct a mistake
As a Shopper I want a gift registry so I can share what I want with friends and family

12. Acceptance Criteria
• I can see the items that I’m purchasing
• I can enter shipping and billing addresses
• I can select a shipment method
• I can see the total shipping cost
• I can see the total cost I’ll be charged
• I can see the expected ship and delivery dates
• I can adjust quantities of items in my cart
• I can enter a credit card number
• I can confirm that I’m ready to place my order
• I can see a confirmation that my order was placed
• I receive an e-mail with order details
As a Shopper I want to check out so I can get my products shipped to me

13. What’s Next?
•Review user stories with the team
•Estimate relative size
•Split stories
•Enhance acceptance criteria based on
feedback
•Add supporting information
•Write new user stories as business conditions
evolve

14. From Our Blog
A Step-by-Step Guide to Software Estimating
Why We Love Agile Estimation (And You Should, Too!)
Agile Estimating and Planning
With User Stories [VIDEO]

15. Additional Information
www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/user-stories

16. THANK YOU!
Ascendle.com/Blog
Dave Todaro
@dave_todaro
Ascendle.com