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User Stories: From Fuzzy to Razor Sharp
- 1. 6/2/2015 1 User Stories: From Fuzzy to Razor Sharp “Begin with the end in mind” – Steven Covey Phil Ricci heads up Agile-Now, a recently formed consulting firm specializing in deep dive, total immersion agile experiences for small to medium teams and works as a Scrum Master for the Glynlyon corporation. An agile and project management practitioner for more than fifteen years, Phil has implemented a variety of flavors of agile technology across software, education, training, and product development. He has developed full training curriculum for companies preparing to make the transition to the agile world. Phil holds a Masters degree in Human Development, PMI-ACP, CSP, and CSM Phil.ricci@agile-now.com Your presenter
- 2. 6/2/2015 2 The starting point matters The conversation is the single greatest source of information about what we create but… where we start matters! How to sharpen Have a great description Assure clarity of user roles Don’t contradict each other Have “spot on” acceptance criteria Be INVESTed wisely Be sure you have only one story
- 3. 6/2/2015 3 User Stories are about Who What Why A reminder …and of course knowing how to tell we got it right! User Story Life Cycle Large Unknowns Small Investable Emerging Details Clear Acceptance Test WIP Done Approaching execution Backlog queen
- 4. 6/2/2015 4 Feasible Usable Valuable Three quick questions to ask about stories Review description dih-skrip-shuh Characterization Narrative Portrayal Declaration Start by writing the title Titles should be of sufficient detail to allow those on the team to differentiate between titles of other stories. How descriptive is it? How long is it? Does the description match the title?
- 5. 6/2/2015 5 Clarify user role Start with Personas Review Roles What don’t you know about your users? Can you map each role in a story klar-uh-fahy Interpret Define Formulate Analyze Lynn Hobbies Family Dislikes Likes Work IT UI/UX Skiing Snow boarding Hot weather Ice Cream Milk ShakesDaughter High School Son 4th gradeWrestling Meeting new people Trashy novels Movies Swimming Diving Wine Public Speaking Get “inside the head” of your Personas Persona Mind Map
- 6. 6/2/2015 6 All Most Persona 1 Persona 4 Persona 5 Persona 6 Persona 2 Persona 3 ◊◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ Persona Matrix What do your persona’s share in common with each other Find commonalities among personas in order to magnify their use Check for discrepancies disˈkrepənsē/ Disagreement Divergence Variance Difference Do your stories “match” Can you find a “rhythm” to your stories Have you applied story mapping
- 7. 6/2/2015 7 Tech Support Sys Admin Curriculum Mgt. Student Instructor School Admin Admin Support Base Curriculum Student Interface Admin Module Curriculum Rendering Projects Support HTML 5 Support New Student UI Create Admin tool admin user Delete hard code accts. from adm tool Create logging in admin tool Introduce MathJax to render equations Enable Periodic table rendering Implement HTML 5 framwork Add support for HTML 5 games Update Monarch to handle HTML5 animation Allow question sorting Allow Matching questions Warn students when they answer question Allow expanded project time span Allow changing project time span Display project on Home/sch. Page Regenerate due dates evenly over school days Display lessons in reverse order Allow verse rendering Allow verse rendering Support tagging for office video Personas Biz goals User Activities Story mapping Critically review acceptance criteria Are your Acceptance Criteria at relatively high level Do your Acceptance Criteria suggest intent Are your Acceptance Criteria independent from implementation Have you addressed performance Are usability issues impacted Have you addressed what the story must do Is error handling touched on
- 8. 6/2/2015 8 Be explicit “The system will display the date.” … In what format? Is “2010, October 1st” acceptable? Critically review acceptance criteria N V I E S T Independent Negotiable Valuable Estimable Small Testable Invest sensibly Compliments to Bill Wake: 2003
- 9. 6/2/2015 9 Too Small Too Big Just Right Looking for the Goldilocks story Too Big Is it really just one story Difficult to estimate Difficult to understand Risky Take too long to finish They are Blurry
- 10. 6/2/2015 10 Splitting stories Many ways to split stories Places/methods to consider splitting large stories • At C.R.U.D boundaries • At system boundaries where two systems interface • By process – do part first • Generic descriptors • Decision trees • Work flow • Timeframe analysis • Business rules • Best possible outcome
- 11. 6/2/2015 11 Splitting stories: at CRUD boundaries: • This solution is commonly used in environments that interact with a database Splitting stories : at system boundaries • This solution is most often used in environments where there are a large number of legacy systems
- 12. 6/2/2015 12 Separate out: complex processes • Perhaps a single entry screen is composed of multiple groups of functionality • Separate those out Perhaps these three areas of this screen may be separated into separate stories Splitting stories: generic descriptors • Look for words/phrases in stories that are not specific:
- 13. 6/2/2015 13 Splitting stories: decision trees • Decision trees display logic and/or business actions • Perhaps you may collapse and focus on a particular node of the tree Splitting stories: work flow • In the event that the story involves a less than trivial workflow each individual workflow step can be attached as an individual story
- 14. 6/2/2015 14 Splitting stories: time frame analysis Review what would happen if the story was already implemented, what steps will be taken with the functionality? Splitting stories: business rules Review what would happen if all business rules were not implemented at the same time? Are all the rules necessary immediately?
- 15. 6/2/2015 15 Splitting stories: best outcome possible • Deal with the most probable (hopefully best) outcome Summary Are your stories Usable, Valuable and Feasible Taking your stories from fuzzy to razor sharp required diligence during the full useful lifespan of the project Are your user roles fully explored and understood Have you flushed out discrepancies between stories Does your acceptance criteria really match what is required Are your stories “right sized” Are your stories fully “INVESTed”
- 16. 6/2/2015 16 Questions Please direct any questions that develop following the presentation to: Phil.Ricci@Agile-Now.com