The biggest problem in an agile Project is determining the Product Backlog — what will be built? We know we don’t want «Big Analysis Up Front» because we know that over-specifying will get us into trouble; but we also need to know what we’re building so that we can discuss it with our Stakeholders and can estimate how much time and effort it will take. How do we reconcile these two (seemingly) inconsistent needs? In this talk Dan describes a strategy that begins with usability studies and ends with actionable Stories. The strategy involves Story Mapping (from Jeff Patton), Atomic Use Cases, and StoryoTypes (from Gerard Meszaros). This blended approach is both straightforward and effective – come see how it’s done!

1. From Usability
Studies to Stories
Dan Rawsthorne, PhD, CST, PMP
Senior Trainer at 3Back
3BACK.COM
dan.rawsthorne@3Back.com
425-269-8628
Agile Days (Moscow)
24 March, 11:00-12:00

2. About Me
Available at Amazon…
“Dan and Doug can help you be greater” – Jeff Sutherland
“the best Scrum book I have seen” – Ron Jeffries
“crystal clarity” – Jeff McKenna
“Dan and Doug have given you a gift”– Johanna Rothman
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3. My Analysis Mix
What I'm going to show you is
combination of two things:
Story Mapping from Jeff Patton, an agile-
UX expert
StoryoTyping from Gerard Meszaros
I have modified and combined them into a
unified top-to-bottom agile analysis
process
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4. Product Capability Story
Product
Capability
Story
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5. Story Mapping and StoryoTyping
User
Games
Silly Saga Product Box
User Tasks
Atomic Use Cases
Backlog Items
(Epics & Stories)
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6. Metaphor
Usage Analysis – painting the picture of the Apple Tree
in its Environment
Atomic Use Cases – the twigs with apples and leaves
System Analysis – determining the apples/leaves
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7. Royal Catalina Airlines (RCA)
Las Vegas
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8. SirJeff's Vision
Business Vision: I, SirJeff, want to get lots of new
customers for my new airline, Royal Catalina Air (so
that I can make a lot of money…)
Product Vision: In order to get lots of new
customers for my airline, I want a website,
RoyalCatalinaAir.com, that will be as good as that of
“real” airlines
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9. Usage Analysis
What do Stakeholders want it to do?
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10. Steps to Follow (Silly Saga)
1. Tell Stories about how people or
Personas use the system
2. Extract User Tasks
3. Organize the User Tasks
Add organizational Themes
Combine and simplify
Themes
User Tasks
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11. Silly Saga Example
System: Catalina Air Website
Saga: Trip to Las Vegas
Persona:Vacationer
I wanted to take my family to Las Vegas, so I went to the RCA site
and arranged some tickets for me, my wife, and my kids. These
tickets included seats and meals. I also got a hotel near the Strip (the
Grand), and reserved a Car. A week later my son told me he
wanted to take his girlfriend, so I used bonus miles to make a
reservation for her and modified the seat selections online so that
she and my son sat together on the flights. Later she realized that I
had reserved the chicken meal for her so she changed it to the
vegetarian option online. I also got her a room at the same hotel,
and had to upsize the car because she has a lot of luggage.
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12. Example
I wanted to take my family to Las Vegas, so I went to Airline Tickets
the site and arranged some tickets for me, my wife, • Group
and my kids. These tickets included seats and meals. • Seats
• Meals
I also got a hotel near the Strip (the Grand), and • Hotel
reserved a Car. A week later my son told me he • Reserve Car
wanted to take his girlfriend, so I so I used bonus Get Ticket with Miles
miles to make a reservation for her and modified
Add person to Reservation
the seat selections online so that she and my son
sat together on the flights. Later she realized that I Change Seats Online
had arranged the chicken pasta meal for her so she Modify Meal Choices
changed it to the vegetarian option online. I also got
Add a Room
her a room at the same hotel, and had to upsize the
car because she has a lot of luggage. Modify Car Choice
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13. User Tasks
Flights Hotels Cars
Reserve Modify Status
Add Flyer to
Get Airline Check Status Make Hotel Make Car
existing
Tickets of Flight Reservations Reservations
Reservation
Add Hotel Check Status
Change Seats Modify Car
Rooms to of Reserved
Online Reservation
Reservation Itinerary
Modify Meal
Pay for Ticket Choices
with Miles Online
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14. Some More Work
1. Determine the Atomic Use Cases
2. Organize into Potential Releases…
Flights Hotels Cars Mileage
Plan Themes
User Tasks
Atomic UCs
Get
Ticket
Check
Status Release 1
++ Release 2
What Goes on the Backlog?
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15. System Analysis
What will we make it actually do?
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16. The Backlog
Planning
Back Burner Front Burner
W ell-D efined A ctionable To D o D oing D one
Working
Complete the Work
Grooming
Fridge In Box
N ew
In Scope
Freezer Done
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17. Initial Backlog for Release 1
Backlog for CatAir Website Development
[usecase] Check Status of Flights
[usecase] Get an e-Ticket
Description: This is the main thing we have to do, and involves
everything from when a customer comes to the site looking
from flights to when he actually buys one and we get an e-
Ticket
SMEs:
SirJeff – expert on CUTLASS
Sam – the current reservations guy, understands how to
reserve and buy flights on RCA
Mary – SirJeff's girlfriend, will serve as the proxy for the
typical user
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18. Use Case Based Storyotypes
Use Case
Implemented by
Story Only one
Made up of Architecturally significant
Backbone Simplifying assumptions
Conform to Single thread
Scenario
Many of them
Storyotype Alternate Single thread
Always another one…
[usecase] The use case itself
[backbone] A Story on the backbone
[alt] An alternative scenario
[beefup] Improving a business rule in an existing scenario
[redo] Changing a “broken” business rule in an existing scenario
[interface] Improving the interface for the UC
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18

19. Our Analysis Concept on One Slide
“Connective Tissue” stories
Backbone
Capability
Minimum,
Releasable
System end-to-end,
functionality
Demonstrable,
Architecturally-Significant ©
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functionality

20. The Backbone
A 5-step scenario (plus or minus…)
Where each step is actually its own
story
A single test case running through
them all – holding them together
Might have a StoryBoard
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21. “Get an e-Ticket” with Backbone
[usecase] Get an e-Ticket
Stories
[backbone] Enter Itinerary Info
[backbone] Enter Passenger Information
[backbone] Get List of Choices from CUTLASS
[backbone] Choose One and Pay for It
[backbone] Finalize Flight in CUTLASS
[backbone] Issue e-Ticket
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22. Storyboard (as sequence diagram)
User WebApp CUTLASS
Select “buy ticket”
Home
Enter Itinerary
Itinerary
Enter Pass Info
Passenger
Get List
Pick One and Pay
Pick and Pay
Finalize Flight
Issue e-ticket
Receipt
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23. And Constraints (common test thread)
[usecase] Get an e-Ticket
Backbone Constraints:
One way flight
Single leg
No seat selection
Don't worry about capacity of aircraft
Single passenger
Full fare, no discounts
If anything else comes up, do it the easiest way you
can, and document the new constraint here…
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24. And the Story we have Details For
[usecase] Get an e-Ticket
[backbone] Get List of Choices from CUTLASS
As a <buyer> I want <a list of matching flights to
choose from> so that <I can choose one that works
best for me>
Agreement:
This story begins with receipt of the Itinerary
info (date, begin and end locations)
This story ends when CUTLASS returns a list
of flights (up to 10 of them) that satisfy the
buyer's itinerary info
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25. Build Out the Backbone
Trying to do stuff that gets good feedback
Do the following stories
[backbone] Get List of Choices from CUTLASS
[backbone] Enter Itinerary Info
[backbone] Enter Passenger Information
[backbone] Choose One and Pay for It
We don't need all of them to get good
feedback…
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26. Might Need to do Wireframes
Enter Itinerary Information
Calendar
From: Dropdown Depart: Date widget for
Dropdown list
dates
of places we
actually fly
To: Dropdown Return: Date
Number of Passengers: #
Go!
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27. We Need To
Once we have the backbone up and running…
And we're not there yet, as we haven't started work…
We would like to beef up the Backbone to provide a
releasable version of the Capability
We need to add more “stuff” to fill the gaps
Alternatives
More robust business rules
Clean up Interfaces
Etc
To do these we add stories to our Backlog
In my experience, it takes an additional 10-40 stories to make the capability
releasable
Your Mileage May Vary
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28. Different Analysis Methods
We could flesh out this capability in a
number of ways, each of which is a different
analysis method
Have a meeting to discuss the capability (2-4
hours)
Usability testing (large effort, not done until
we feel it's almost finished)
Exploratory (Ad Hoc or gorilla) testing (up to
a day of “banging on” the system to figure out
what's missing)
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29. What we Will be Looking For…
“Connective Tissue” stories
Backbone
Capability
Minimum,
Releasable
System end-to-end,
Demonstrable, functionality
Architecturally-Significant
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functionality

30. “Get an e-Ticket” with Stories
[usecase] Get an e-Ticket
[analysis] Determine Backbone of “Get an e-Ticket”
[backbone] Capture Itinerary Info
[backbone] Get List of Choices from CUTLASS
[backbone] Enter Passenger Information
[backbone] Choose One and Pay for It
[backbone] Finalize Flight in CUTLASS
[backbone] Issue e-Ticket
[analysis] What's Next?
[alt] Round Trip Flights
[alt] Multiple Legs
[usecase] Cancel e-Ticket
[usecase] Transfer e-Ticket
[beefup] Multiple Passengers in Party
[interface] Clean up Interface for “Buy e-Ticket”
Etc…
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31. Stories for “Buy an e-ticket” Capability
[usecase] Buy an e-Ticket Fd Dn Size
[backbone] Get List of Flights from CUTLASS (ugly interface) 0 1 L
[backbone] Capture Itinerary Information 0 2 L
[backbone] Capture Passenger Information 0 2 L
[backbone] Reserve Flight in CUTLASS 0 2 L Continuous Analysis
[alt] Modify CUTLASS to Understand When Flight is Full (note: was awful!) 2 3 L
[analysis] Analysis Meeting with SirJeff 1 3 S As you move along,
[backbone] Pick One Flight and Pay for It (note: stubbed out actual payment)
[alt] Handle Round Trip Flights (ugly Interface)
0
0
3
3
L
L
you will need to find
[beefup] Hook Up Actual Visa/MasterCard Processing Widget (note: was a new stories “within”
PITA) 3 4 L
[backbone] Issue email Confirmation to Customer 0 4 M
the features
[interface] Improve Interface for buying e-ticket
[beefup] Close Reservations when Plane is Full (note: turned out to be easy)
3
0
4
4
M
L
What we see here is
[alt] Add Payment with PayPal (note: really straightforward) 3 4 M the list of stories for
[alt] Reserve Flight to Pay upon arrival at Airport 0 4 M
[alt] Handle multiple-Passenger Parties 0 5 L
“Buy an e-Ticket” that
[interface] Web Interface for Adding/Modifying Flight Info 3 5 L were found /
[beefup] Get Luggage Info, including Scuba Tanks 3 5 L
[analysis] Exploratory Testing to "See What's Left" for Buy an e-Ticket 4 5 S
implemented in this
[spt] Make sure SirJeff's Marketing materials have correct information 2 5 S release
[redo] Fix Bug in Luggage Weight Calculations 5 5 S
[bug] Fix Small List of Bugs found in Exploratory Testing 5 6 M
[alt] Pay with AMEX 3 M
[alt] Bring Pet on Board 5 M
[beefup] Special Needs (wheelchair, etc) 5 S
[alt] Select Seat online 3 M
[alt] Pay with Coupon 3 M
[beefup] Seat Belt Extender Needed for 'large' Passenger 3 S
[beefup] Special Meals 5 S
[alt] Change Seat online 3 M
[alt] Comfort Seat for 'really large' Passenger 5 S
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32. Any Questions?
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33. Thank You Very Much!
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@scrum-coach
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