This document provides an overview of agile stories, estimating, and planning. It discusses what user stories are, how to write them, and techniques for estimating story sizes such as story points. It also covers different levels of planning including release planning, iteration planning, and daily planning. The document is intended to provide background information on using agile methods for requirements management and project planning.

1. Agile Stories, Estimating
and Planning
www.torak.com
Vision
Roadmap
Release
Iteration
Daily
Story

2. About Dimitri Ponomareff
www.torak.com
Dimitri Ponomareff (www.linkedin.com/in/dimka5) is a Coach.
Whether it's a sports team, software products or entire
organizations, Dimitri has that ability to relate and energize
people. He is consistently recognized as a very passionate and
successful change agent, with an overwhelming capacity to
motivate and mobilize teams on their path to continuous
improvements. He is a master facilitator, as well as a captivating
speaker with consistent, positive feedback regarding his ability to
engage an audience.
As a certified Coach, Project Manager and Facilitator of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People", Dimitri brings a full spectrum of knowledge in his delivery of methodologies. Through
teaching by example, he is able to build teams of people who understand where to focus their
work to generate the most value.
He has coached and provided tailor-made services and training for a multitude of organizations.
The short list includes, American Express, Charles Schwab, Bank of America, Morgan
Stanley, Best Western, Choice Hotels, JDA Software, LifeLock, First Solar, Infusionsoft
and Mayo Clinic. Dimitri enjoys his work, and does everything to ensure he shares his
knowledge with others who seek it.

3. Agile background for stories, estimating and
planning
●The Agile Manifesto
●Communication
●PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Act
●Why, What & How
www.torak.com

4. The Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
Source: www.agilemanifesto.org
www.torak.com

5. Project Management is all about communication
People who want IT must communicate
with people who can build IT.
www.torak.com

6. Effective communication
Agile Software Development: Communicating, Cooperating Teams
By Alistair Cockburn - Aug 10, 2009
www.torak.com

7. PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Act
ACT
PLAN DO
PDCA
Cycle
CHECK
Continuous Improvements
www.torak.com

8. Why, What & How
●WHY are we doing this?
Voice of the stakeholder (Stakeholders)
●WHAT needs to be done?
Voice of the user (Product Owner, Subject Matter Expert)
●HOW do we build it?
Voice of the developer (Scrum Team)
www.torak.com

9. Agile Stories
●Work breakdown structure (WBS)
●What is a story?
○Story form
○Cards - Conversation - Confirmation
●Story writing workshops
○Epics and story breakdown
○INVEST guideline
●Stories vs. Use Cases vs. Requirements
●Product Backlog of stories
www.torak.com

10. Alternative to Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Activity
Functionality
Analysis Design Coding Testing
Feature Feature Feature Module Module Module
WBS or traditional projects
Functionality
Activity
Story Story Story Story
Analysis Design Coding
Feature Breakdown Structure
Testing
Define the project plan in terms of what will be delivered rather than what work steps will be performed.
www.torak.com

11. What is a User Story?
● User Stories provide a light-weight approach
to managing requirements for a system.
● A short statement of function captured on an index card and/or in
a tool.
● The details are figured out in future conversations between the
team and the product owner or customers.
● This approach facilitates just in time requirements gathering,
analysis and design by the following activities:
○ Slicing user stories down in release planning
○ Tasking user stories out in sprint planning
○ Specifying acceptance test criteria for user stories early in development
www.torak.com

12. Story form
As a < role >
I can < activity >
so that < business value >
● Role - represents who is performing the action. It should be a single person,
not a department. It may be a system if that is what is initiating the activity.
● Activity – represents the action to be performed by the system.
● Business Value – represents the value to the business. Why is this story
important?
www.torak.com

13. Acceptance criteria
● like stories it's written in simple language
● define the conditions of success/satisfaction
● provide clear story boundaries
● remove ambiguity by forcing the team to think through how a
feature or piece of functionality will work from the user’s perspective
● checklist or template of things to consider for each story
○ list of impacted modules and/or documents
○ specific user tasks, business process or functions
● establish the basis for acceptance testing
○ steps to test the story (given-when-then scenarios)
○ type of testing (manual vs. automated)
www.torak.com

14. The 3 C's
1. Card
Written on a card
2. Conversation
Details captured in conversations
3. Confirmation
Acceptance criteria confirm that the
story is Done.
Source: XP Magazine 8/30/01, Ron Jeffries
As a user, I can login and
gain access to the intranet,
so that I can collaborate with
all the organization.
What about
expired
accounts? Can it
remember
my login?
- Expired accounts fail
- Remember the login, not the password
- After 3 attempts the account is locked
out for 24h (SOX compliance)
www.torak.com

15. Story writing workshops
●define clear roles: facilitator and story writer (capture)
●include the entire team and anyone who can express
the WHAT aligned to the WHY (subject matter experts,
users, customers, etc...)
○ all participants must stay away from the HOW
○ promote open discussion and use open ended questions
●consider using story-boarding technique
○ work around themes/features
○ begin with the end in mind
●write as many stories as possible, plan for 2-4 hours
○ no need for prioritization
○ high level acceptance criteria
www.torak.com

16. Product, Epics & Stories
Story Story Story
Story Story Story
Story Story Story
Story Story Story
Story Story Story
Story Story Story
Product
Epics
Stories
www.torak.com

17. Start with Epics and break down into Stories
As a frequent flyer, I
want to rebook a
room I take often
As a frequent flyer, I
want to book a room
using miles
As a frequent flyer, I
want to request an
upgrade
As a frequent flyer, I
want to check if my
upgrade cleared.
As a frequent flyer, I
want to book a room.
As a frequent flyer, I
want to check my
account.
As a frequent flyer, I
want to …
Frequent flyer
www.torak.com

18. INVEST guideline from Bill Wake
I - Independent
The user story should be self contained, in a way that there is no inherent dependency on another user story.
N - Negotiable
User stories, up until they are part of a Sprint, can always be changed and rewritten.
V - Valuable
A user story must deliver value to the end user.
E - Estimable
You must always be able to estimate the size of a user story.
S - Sized appropriately
User stories should not be so big as to become impossible to plan/task/prioritize with a certain level of certainty.
T - Testable
The user story or its related description must provide the necessary information to make test development
possible.
www.torak.com

19. Stories vs. Use Cases vs. Requirements
Stories Use Cases Requirements
Goal generate conversation capture a behavior establish a contract
Scope a single activity
a process
"day in the life"
everything
Format a single sentence numbered bullets specifications
Completeness
open for negotiation
and refinements
locked, changes may
impact entire process
locked, require scope
change and approvals
Language
simple,
comprehensible
structured, flows precise, technical
www.torak.com

20. Product Backlog of stories
●a list of all desired work on the project “The requirements”
●owned, managed and prioritized by the Product Owner
●items estimated by the team
●re-prioritized at the start of each iteration
●ideally expressed such that each item has value to the users
or customers of the product
www.torak.com

21. Estimating
●The cone of uncertainty
●What is estimation?
●Estimation tools/techniques
●Story estimation
○Story points
○Task board
○SMART tasks
○Burn-down chart
www.torak.com

22. The Cone of Uncertainty
www.torak.com

23. What is estimation?
●Estimation
calculated approximation of a result which is usable even if
input data may be incomplete or uncertain
●Estimate
to judge tentatively or approximately the value, worth, or
significance of
●Point estimation
estimation in which a single value is assigned to a
parameter
www.torak.com

24. Estimation tools: T-shirts, Points & Hours
Cone of Uncertainty
13853210 20 ?
Hours
XS S
XLLM
www.torak.com

25. Story Estimation
Size DurationCalculation
240 miles 4 hours
Speed
60 MPH
180 points 6 sprints
Velocity
30 pts/sprint
www.torak.com

26. Story Points
●Measure “bigness”
○COMPLEXITY – How difficult it seems?
○EFFORT - How much of it there is?
○RISK - Current knowledge (uncertainty)
●Relative values
○Unit-less (dog points)
○Use analogy – triangulate with other stories
●Estimation values
○0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100
○Planning poker
www.torak.com

27. An task board
www.torak.com

28. SMART Tasks
This is the same SMART approach used with setting effective goals
but for tasks.
S – Specific
The task is specific enough that everyone can understand what's involved and prevents overlapping.
M – Measurable
The team can measure that the task is Done. This requires the team to have a clear definition of Done.
A – Achievable
The task is achievable by whoever from the team takes on this work.
R – Relevant
Every task should be relevant by contributing directly to a story and each task can be explained/justified.
T – Time-boxed
A task should be time-boxed by setting the right expectation for how long it should take to complete the task.
www.torak.com

29. Sprint Burn-down
www.torak.com

30. A sprint backlog
● Individuals sign up for work of their own choosing - work is never assigned
● Estimated work remaining is updated daily
● Any team member can add, delete or change the sprint backlog
● Work for the sprint emerges
● If work is unclear, define a sprint backlog item with a larger amount of time
and break it down later
Tasks Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Code the user interface 8 4 8 0 0
Code the middle tier 16 12 10 4 0
Test the middle tier 8 16 16 11 8
Write the online help 12
Write the foo class 8 8 8 8 8
Add error logging 8 4 0
www.torak.com

31. Planning
●Planing process
●Levels of planning
○Release planning
○Iteration planning
○Daily planning
www.torak.com

32. Planning process
Product
Roadmap
R1 R2 R3 Rn
Release 1
SP1
Iteration 1
ST1 STnST3ST2
Iteration n
ST1 STnST3ST2
Story 1
T1 TnT3T2
Story n
T1 TnT3T2
SPnSP3SP2
Release n
SP1 SPnSP3SP2
www.torak.com

33. Levels of planning
Release Plan (months)
Iteration Plan (weeks)
Daily Plan (days)
Product
Backlog
Sprint
Backlog
Stories
Tasks
ActivitiesActivitiesActivities
www.torak.com

34. Release planning
● Overall context and prioritization for a specific period of time
● Product Owner
○ Creates a goal for the release
○ Selects a number of user stories from the product backlog
○ Works with the team to decompose and estimate the user stories
● The outcome of the release planning process is
○ Release Data Sheet
○ Release Backlog
○ Release Burndown Chart
www.torak.com

35. Iteration planning
● Team selects stories from the product backlog they can commit
to completing
● Sprint backlog is created
○ Tasks are identified and each is estimated in hours
○ Tasks and estimates are done collaboratively
● High-level design is considered
As a vacation planner,
I can see photos of
the hotels, so that ...
8 points
Tasks Hours
Code the middle tier 8
Code the user interface 4
Write test fixtures 4
Code the foo class 6
Update performance tests 4
www.torak.com

36. Daily planning
Parameters
● Daily
● 15-minutes
● Stand-up
● Not for problem solving
Three questions for each scrum team member
1. What did you do yesterday?
2. What will you do today?
3. Is anything in your way?
These are not status for the Agile Project Manager, they are commitments in
front of your peers
www.torak.com

37. © Torak, Inc. www.torak.com
Agile, Kanban & DevOps Coaching
Learn more at www.torak.com
Learn more at www.AgileTestingFramework.com
Learn more at www.kanbanzone.com

38. Thank You
www.torak.com

39. Resources and References
● www.scrumalliance.org
● www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/scrum
● www.controlchaos.com
● Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide by Craig Larman
● Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn
● Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber
● Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen
● Agile Software Development Ecosystems by Jim Highsmith
● Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle
● Scrum and The Enterprise by Ken Schwaber
● User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn
www.torak.com

40. This presentation was inspired by the work of many people and we have done our very best to
attribute all authors of texts and images, and recognize any copyrights. If you think that
anything in this presentation should be changed, added or removed, please contact us.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
www.torak.com