November 2017

1. AS USER,
I HATE USER STORIES
ThoughtWorks Presents! - Munich, 16 November 2016

2. 2

4. CUSTOMERS
TEAM
CLIENT

7. CLIENT
PROJECT
MANAGER
DESIGNERS
DEVELOPERS

10. 3 PEOPLE

12. LET’S GET TO KNOW
EACH OTHER
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MATTEO CAVUCCI
@matteomced

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15. ALWAYS LOVED STORIES
READING CREATINGWRITING

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EMBRACE CHANGES
INSPIRE PEOPLE

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WHAT ABOUT YOU?

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A SMALL OVERVIEW
What is an
user story How can
we fix it
Why I hate
user stories

19. WHAT IS AN
USER STORY?
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KENT BECK

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NATURAL LANGUAGE
NARRATIVES

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BOOK OF REQUIREMENTS

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GO TO THE SUPERMARKET
AND GET 1 BOTTLE OF MILK

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IF THEY HAVE
ORANGES, BRING 6

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— JEFF PATTON
Shared documents are not
shared understanding.

30. USER STORIES
ARE DIFFERENT
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LIKE IT OR NOT, WE HAVE
STORYTELLING BRAINS

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STORIES ARE
CONVERSATIONS

35. AN USER STORY DEFINITION
CARD CONVERSATION CONFIRMATION
From “Extreme Programming Installed” Ron Jeffries

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THIS IS WHY
I HATE USER STORIES!

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INDUSTRIAL

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DECIDE
WHAT TO DO
DOING
THE JOB

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POST INDUSTRIAL

42. WHAT MAKE PEOPLE MOTIVATED
AUTONOMY MASTERY PURPOSE

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INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM FREEDOM
TO RESPOND MARKET CHANGES

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STORIES LEAD
PEOPLE TO GOALS

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IT’S HARD TO BREAK OUT OF
THE “REQUIREMENT” MINDSET

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TOO MUCH DEFINITION

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ONE PERSON

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ARE WE AGREE ON THIS?

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OHHH

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OH! OH!

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I’M GLAD WE ALL AGREE THIS

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STAKEHOLDERS DON’T
KNOW ALL THE ANSWER

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— GOJKO ADZIC
Getting business stakeholders
to design solutions wasn’t
the intention of user stories.

55. HOW CAN
WE FIX IT?
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THINK ABOUT
REQUIREMENTS DIFFERENTLY

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STOP WRITING, START DISCUSSING

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Handover
STOP WRITING, START DISCUSSING

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InvolvementHandover
STOP WRITING, START DISCUSSING

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Involvement
Good questions
Options
Product ideas
Minimise rework

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DON’T WORRY ABOUT STORY FORMATS

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DON’T WORRY ABOUT STORY FORMATS
Template
zombies

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Tell storiesTemplate
zombies
DON’T WORRY ABOUT STORY FORMATS

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Tell stories
Placeholders
Avoid obvious
User side of things
No feature request

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STORIES AS SMALL EXPERIMENTS

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Prediction
STORIES AS SMALL EXPERIMENTS

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HypotesisPrediction
STORIES AS SMALL EXPERIMENTS

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Hypotesis
Small
Right or wrong
Learning

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WATCH OUT FOR GENERIC ROLES

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Average user
WATCH OUT FOR GENERIC ROLES

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Actual peopleAverage user
WATCH OUT FOR GENERIC ROLES

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Provide context
Limit scope creep
Focus
Motivations &
impediments
Actual people

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CREATIVITY AND
INNOVATION
DISCIPLINED
EXECUTION

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80. THANK YOU
Matteo Cavucci
mcavucci@thoughtworks.com
@matteomced

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IF YOU WANT MORE
User Story Mapping
Jeff Patton
O’Reilly
50 quick ideas to improve
your user stories
Gojko Adzic
Lean pub
Made to stick
Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Random House