Slide deck of a workshop facilitated at the conference Global SCRUM GATHERING Berlin 2014.

1. A New Dojo: The Art of Story Splitting
Alex Schwartz
HERE, a Nokia Business
Presented at the Global Scrum Gathering Berlin 2014

2. My Journey
• Software
development since
1990
• Roles
Programmer
-> Tech Lead
-> Release manager
-> Lean Manager
(DevOps, Continuous Delivery)
-> Coach (Inhouse)
• Companies:
<<startups>>
Martial Arts
(Aikido) since 1990

3. Dojo 道場
=
place for practicing
a martial art
=
trainings hall
mutual respect
together trust
save

4. Dojos
(Martial Arts)
Dojos
Coding Dojo
Coaching Dojo
Rachel Davies:
http://www.agilexp.com/presentations/AgileCoachesDojo.pdf
Conflict Dojo
… …
Story Splitting
Dojo

5. Story Splitting Dojo
• Born end of 2010
• Inspired by Lisa Crispin,
at Agile Testing Days 2010
• Max participants: 50
• Number of sessions: approx. 30
most in my company (HERE/Nokia)
+ a few on conferences

6. Story Splitting Dojo: Setup & Roles
Responsibilities 1 x facilitator
1 x product owner
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Facilitator
• Watches the process
• Does not answer question
regarding the story/epic
Product Owner
• Answers questions
regarding the story/epic
• Does not help to split the
story/epic
Padovan
• Works on splitting the
story/epic


…
 

Up to 5 working groups
with up to 8 padovans each
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…
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7. Story Splitting Dojo: Setup & Roles
2-5 product owner 1 x facilitator
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Up to 10 working groups
with up to 10 padovans each
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…
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…
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…
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- XL variant -
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8. Let’s take it away… or onegaishimasu!
Facilitator
mingles with POs
Build your team
• Introduce yourself
• Agree on a name for
your team
• Agree on the most
important purpose to
split stories

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…
 

9. How we will split Epics/Stories?
Huge Story
or
Epic
Story #1
Story #2
Story #3
…
Story #4
First story with scenarios using
GIVEN-WHEN-THEN

10. Example for Scenarios
As a user of MyCoolBlog.com, I want to login into my blog, such
that I can start sharing my thoughts.
Scenario: Login with valid credentials works.
Given a user of MyCoolBlog.com with its login credentials
When the user logs in
Then the login is accepted
And the homepage of the user is shown.
Scenario: A login with invalid credentials is rejected.
Given a user of MyCoolBlog.com with its user name and wrong password
When the user logs in
Then the login is rejected
And the forgotten password page is displayed.

11. Warm-up Exercise
From the example story below, create acceptance criteria for
scenarios using the GIVEN-WHEN-THEN style.
Story
As an internet shopper, I want to specify the address to which
my items are to be shipped, so that I can get the items I
ordered.
Notes
• There are already items in the cart
• There is no shipping available outside of Germany
• An address checking service exists
• The next step in the flow is checkout

12. From the example story below,
create acceptance criteria for
scenarios using the GIVEN-WHEN-
THEN style.
Story
As an internet shopper, I want to
specify the address to which my
items are to be shipped, so that I
can get the items I ordered.
Notes
• There are already items in the
cart
• There is no shipping available
outside of Germany
• An address checking service
exists
• The next step in the flow is
checkout
Warm-up Exercise - Debrief
• What did you experienced
in your group?
• Was it easy to select the
WHEN?
• What if the external service
is down?

13. Story Splitting Exercise
Instructions:
In your working group (using
flipchart paper on the table)
• split the epic into stories
• The first story has to
be described using
with scenarios using
GIVEN-WHEN-THEN.
• All stories have to be
end-2-end stories and
deliver user value.
• Order the stories by
business value
Epic:
As an Internet shopper, I want
to select shipping options for
my items during checkout and
see the shipping cost.
Notes:
• User has already entered shipping address.
• User will be able to choose different
options for different items. The options are
Post, 5-day Ground, 2 day and Overnight.
Items > 20 lbs. are Ground only.
• PO Box addresses can only be shipped
Post.
• We have API to cost calculator available,
takes postal code and weight
© Copyright Lisa Crispin 2009 and Janet Gregory, used with friendly permission by Lisa

14. Story Splitting Exercise – Debrief
Epic:
As an Internet shopper, I want
to select shipping options for
my items during checkout and
see the shipping cost.
Notes:
• User has already entered shipping address.
• User will be able to choose different
options for different items. The options are
Post, 5-day Ground, 2 day and Overnight.
Items > 20 lbs. are Ground only.
• PO Box addresses can only be shipped
Post.
• We have API to cost calculator available,
takes postal code and weight
© Copyright Lisa Crispin 2009 and Janet Gregory, used with friendly permission by Lisa
• Present your stories to
the big group
• PO: How did you
perceived being in the
role?
• How long it took until a
group asked if we sell
more heavy items?
• Who knows what is our
business?

15. Story Splitting Exercise – Round 2
Instructions:
Focus on the specific
question provided to your
group.
Epic:
As an Internet shopper, I want
to select shipping options for
my items during checkout and
see the shipping cost.
Notes:
• User has already entered shipping address.
• User will be able to choose different
options for different items. The options are
Post, 5-day Ground, 2 day and Overnight.
Items > 20 lbs. are Ground only.
• PO Box addresses can only be shipped
Post.
• We have API to cost calculator available,
takes postal code and weight
© Copyright Lisa Crispin 2009 and Janet Gregory, used with friendly permission by Lisa

16. Questions for Round #2
• What is the smallest slice?
• Is there an example of “business value
without implementation”?
• Is there a potential legal issue?
• Thinking about hosting/operations: Is there a
risk of an outage? If so, how you deal with it?

17. Retrospective
• What did you experienced in your group?
• What did you learn about Story Splitting?
• How to better practice Story Splitting?
• Other example stories?
• What do you like about this Dojo format?
• What are your ideas for improvement?

18. Any Questions? Comments?
Contact me:
• Email: alexander.schwartz@here.com
• Twitter: @alexschwartzbln

19. Thanks!
or
domo arigato gozaimashita
Please provide feedback!

20. Background: Resources covering Story Splitting
• Arto Eskelinen conducted a workshop “Slicing User Stories” on the Global Scrum
Gathering Berlin 2014 and used a nice pragmatic technique
• Mike Cohn mentions in his book “Estimation and Planning” several good ideas for
slicing
• Gojko Adzic introduced the Hamburger Method for slicing stories:
http://gojko.net/2012/01/23/splitting-user-stories-the-hamburger-method/
• Paul Boos has a pretty comprehensive slide deck “User Story Splitting”,
http://de.slideshare.net/pmboos/user-story-splitting
• The InfoQ article http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/04/how-to-split-user-stories
provides a good overview of different approaches
Hint for searching for more references:
There are two terms: “story splitting” and “story slicing”.

21. Graphical
Summary
Benjamin
Felis
provided a
sketch of the
session:
https://twitter.com/be
njaminfelis/status/514
363329562038272/ph
oto/1
Thanks!