Grimm User Stories - Introductory Presentation

Grimm User StoriesGarm Lucassen, 25 April 2016

Garm Lucassen25 April 2016

Topics• Who am I?

• What is the Grimm Method?

• Creating user stories & Grimm Tool

• Poker planning

• Development

• Company Examples

• Interactive Workshop

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Garm Lucassen25 April 2016 3


Who am I?

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Garm Lucassen• PhD @ Utrecht University

- Software product management • students • professionals

- User stories

• Contact: [email protected]

• http://garmlucassen.nl • http://softwareproductmanagement.org

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mailto:[email protected]

http://garmlucassen.nl

http://softwareproductmanagement.org

What is the Grimm Method?

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The Brothers Grimm

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Cinderella The Frog PrinceHansel and Gretel

• 1806: start collecting the best German folk tales


The Brothers Grimm

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Cinderella The Frog PrinceHansel and Gretel

• 1806: start collecting the best German folk tales

• Did not come up with these stories themselves


The Grimm Process

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1. Invite story tellers in their home

2. Transcribe and edit heavily

3. Include in their flagship product: Grimm’s Fairy Tales


User stories are similar

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1. Talk to users or customers

2. Transcribe conversation and edit into user stories

3. Include in pied piper project development

As a role I want to action (so that benefit, , )


What is a user story?• User stories represent customer requirements in a card,

leading to conversation and confirmation (Jeffries, 2001)

• User stories only capture the essential elements of a requirement: - who it is for - what it expects from the system - why it is important (optional?)

• Simple format used by 70% of practitioners

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who what why

(Connexxtra)As a role I want to action (so that benefit, , )

(Lucassen et al., 2016)


What is a user story?• “As a User, I want to purchase an event ticket”

• “As a User, I want to be notified when an event is close to becoming sold out, so that I do not miss the event”

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“As a User I want to search for new events by favorited organizers

so that I am the first to know of new events”

, ,


User Story Goals

• Capture and communicate underlying decisions

• Intention is to get out of your way

• Focus on tasks that create value: • research • programming • developing business cases

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Practitioners struggle

• Only one person concerned with user stories • Single point of failure -> insufficient QA

• 56% of user stories contained easily preventable errors (n=~1000)

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Practitioners struggle

• Only one person concerned with user stories • Single point of failure -> insufficient QA

• 56% of user stories contained easily preventable errors (n=~1000)

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Who has ownership of user stories at pied piper?


Practitioners struggle• Existing quality guidelines are insufficient and

unpopular

• Some practitioners use INVEST (23,5%)

• Non-specific

• Not actionable

• Still good to know!

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IndependentNegotiable Valuable Estimable Simple Testable


Grimm Method

• Foster more conversation around user stories

• The Quality User Stories Framework contains 13 quality characteristics for common issues

• The Grimm Tool automatically detects some of these issues

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to the rescue

Fostering conversation surrounding user stories

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Simplified lifetime of user stories

1.Grimm analyst elicits coarse-grained user stories

2.Grimm analyst refines stories with developers

3.Engineers start developing based on final stories/tasks

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User story lifetime example1.As a user, I want to create a profile (User profile app)

2.Create multiple stories and subtasks during refinement

3.Engineers develop based on final stories/tasks

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Problems• Risk of miscommunication at every step

• Consequence: wrong software

• Rework

• Late changes

• Leads to project failure and cost overruns

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Problems• Agile solution: more communication!

• But how..?

• Just In Time

• Grimm: request more details at key moments: 1. requirement elicitation 2. poker planning 3. software development

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In practice

Individuals that are not responsible for creating user stories are unable or unwilling to voice their concerns

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In practice

Individuals that are not responsible for creating user stories are unable or unwilling to voice their concerns, leading to rework later on

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In practice


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Do you recognize this problem?


In practice


Pied Piper - Speedup #2: not a major problem! But still room for improvement!

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Do you recognize this problem?

Quality User Story Framework

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User Story Quality

Pragmatic

Complete Independent Uniform UniqueEstimatable Full sentence

Semantic

Conflict-free UnambiguousProblem-oriented Conceptually sound

SyntacticMinimal Atomic Well-formed

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IndividualWell-formed A user story includes at least a role and an actionAtomic A user story expresses a requirement for exactly one featureMinimal A user story contains nothing more than role, action and benefit Conceptually sound The action expresses a feature and the benefit expresses a rationaleProblem-oriented A user story only specifies the problem, not the solution to itUnambiguous A user story avoids terms or abstractions that lead to multiple interpretationsFull sentence A user story is a well-formed full sentenceEstimatable A story does not denote an unrefined requirement that is hard to plan and prioritize

SetConflict-free A user story should not be inconsistent with any other user story Unique Every user story is unique, duplicates are avoidedUniform All user stories in a specification employ the same templateIndependent The user story is self-contained and has no inherent dependencies on other storiesComplete Implementing a set of user stories creates a feature-complete application, no steps are missing

Quality User Story Framework

1. Creating user stories 2. Poker planning 3. Developing software

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1. Creating user stories

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1. Creating user stories

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1. Well-formed 2. Atomic 3. Minimal 4. Uniform 5. Conceptually sound 6. Problem oriented 7. Full sentence


Individual: Well-formedA user story includes at least a role and an action

Quality defect exampleI want to see an error when I cannot see recommendations after I upload an article

⬇As an End-user, I want to see an error when I cannot see recommendations after I

upload an article

add role

Example 1- well-formed


Individual: AtomicA user story expresses a requirement for exactly one feature/problem

Quality defect exampleAs a User, I want to click a particular location from the map and thereby perform a

search of landmarks associated with that latitude longitude combination

⬇1. As a User, I want to click a particular location from the map

2. As a User, I want to search landmarks associated with a location based on lat long

split

Example 2- atomic


Individual: MinimalA user story contains nothing more than role, action and benefit

Quality defect exampleAs a care professional, I want to see the registered hours of this week (split into

products and activities). See: Mockup from Alice NOTE: - First create the overview screen - Then add validations⬇

As a care professional, I want to see the registered hours of this week

(re)move unnecessary information

Example 3 - minimal


Example 4 - uniformSet: Uniform

All user stories follow roughly the same template

Quality defect example1. As a User, I want to create an account 2. As a User, I want to reset my password

3. As an Administrator, I receive an email notification when a new user is registered

⬇As an Administrator, I want to receive an email notification when a new user is

registered

add want to


Example 5 - conceptually sound

Individual: conceptually soundThe action expresses a feature and the benefit expresses a rationale

Quality defect exampleAs a User, I want to open the interactive map, so that I can see the location of

landmarks

⬇


Example 5 - conceptually sound

Individual: conceptually soundThe action expresses a feature and the benefit expresses a rationale

Quality defect exampleAs a User, I want to open the interactive map, so that I can see the location of

landmarks

⬇1. As a User, I want to open the interactive map, so that I can plan my vacation 2. As a User, I want to see the location of landmarks, so that I know where to go

ends becomes separate means


Example 6 - problem orientedIndividual: problem oriented

A user story only specifies the problem, not the solution to it

Quality defect exampleAs a care professional I want to save a reimbursement. - Add save button on top right

(never grayed out)

⬇


Example 6 - problem orientedIndividual: problem oriented

A user story only specifies the problem, not the solution to it

Quality defect exampleAs a care professional I want to save a reimbursement. - Add save button on top right

(never grayed out)

⬇As a care professional I want to save a reimbursement

remove solution


Example 7 - full sentenceIndividual: full sentence

A user story is a well-formed full sentence

Quality defect exampleServer configuration

⬇As an Administrator, I want to configure the server's sudo-ers

add “want to”

Keep in mind when creating user stories

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1. Well-formed 2. Atomic 3. Minimal 4. Uniform 5. Conceptually sound 6. Problem oriented 7. Full sentence

Grimm Tool

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Grimm Tool• Automatically detects simple errors:

well-formed, atomic, minimal, uniform, duplicates

• Integrates with Jira - automatically posts comments

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Grimm Tool

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Grimm Tool

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Poker planning

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Poker planning

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1. Unambiguous 2. Estimatable 3. Conflict-free 4. Independent 5. Unique


Poker planning impact

• Bring a QUS cheat sheet to poker planning

• Use question mark to indicate you don’t know

• If applicable, use QUS terminology to convey the problem

• Discuss, change if necessary, repeat


Individual: unambiguousA user story avoids terms or abstractions that lead to multiple interpretations

Quality defect exampleAs a User, I want to edit the content that I added to a person’s profile page

⬇

Example 1 - unambiguous


Individual: unambiguousA user story avoids terms or abstractions that lead to multiple interpretations

Quality defect exampleAs a User, I want to edit the content that I added to a person’s profile page

⬇As a User, I want to edit video and text content that I added to a person’s profile page

clarify the content

Example 1 - unambiguous


Set: estimatableA story does not denote a coarse-grained requirement that is difficult to plan and

prioritize

Quality defect exampleAs a care professional I want to see my route list for next/future days, so that I can

prepare myself (for example I can see at what time I should start traveling)

⬇1. As a Care Professional, I want to see my route list for next/future days, so that I can

prepare myself2. As a Manager, I want to upload a route list for care professionals

split

Example 2 - estimatable


Set: conflict-freeA user story should not be inconsistent with any other user story

Quality defect example1. As a User, I’m able to edit any landmark

2. As a User, I’m able to delete only the landmarks that I added

⬇

Example 3 - conflict-free


Set: conflict-freeA user story should not be inconsistent with any other user story

Quality defect example1. As a User, I’m able to edit any landmark

2. As a User, I’m able to delete only the landmarks that I added

⬇1. As a User, I’m able to edit landmarks that I added

change 1

Example 3 - conflict-free


Set: independentThe user story is self-contained and has no inherent dependencies on other stories

Quality defect example1. As an Administrator, I am able to add a new person to the database

2. As a Visitor, I am able to view a person’s profile

⬇ ???

Example 4 - independent


Quality defect example1. As an Administrator, I am able to add a new person to the database

2. As a Visitor, I am able to view a person’s profile

⬇ ???

Example 4 - independent

• Try to avoid dependencies as much as possible

• Impossible to be fully independent

• Add relates to in Jira

• But… always remain flexible!


Set: uniqueEvery user story is unique, duplicates are avoided

Quality defect example1. As a Visitor, I’m able to see a list of news items, so that I stay up to date 2. As a Visitor, I’m able to see a list of news items, so that I stay up to date

⬇1. As a Visitor, I’m able to see a list of news items, so that I stay up to date

remove one

Example 5 - unique

Developing software

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Developing software

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1. Complete 2. Conflict-free 3. Independent 4. Unambiguous


Set: completeImplementing a set of user stories creates a feature-complete application, no steps are

missing

Quality defect example1. As an Organizer, I want to update an event2. As an Organizer, I want to delete an event

⬇As an Organizer, I want to create an event

add story

Example 1 - complete

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IndividualWell-formed A user story includes at least a role and an actionAtomic A user story expresses a requirement for exactly one featureMinimal A user story contains nothing more than role, action and benefit Conceptually sound The action expresses a feature and the benefit expresses a rationaleProblem-oriented A user story only specifies the problem, not the solution to itUnambiguous A user story avoids terms or abstractions that lead to multiple interpretationsFull sentence A user story is a well-formed full sentenceEstimatable A story does not denote an unrefined requirement that is hard to plan and prioritize

SetConflict-free A user story should not be inconsistent with any other user story Unique Every user story is unique, duplicates are avoidedUniform All user stories in a specification employ the same templateIndependent The user story is self-contained and has no inherent dependencies on other storiesComplete Implementing a set of user stories creates a feature-complete application, no steps are missing

Questions so far?

Pied piper Examples

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Pied piper Examples• Pretty good overall!

• Some apparent minor issues:

• minimality

• atomicity

• well-formed

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Pied piper ExamplesWell-formed:

• Being able to sort on amount of review stars on stream page and search page

• Upgrade to Nodejs 4.x on accept (?)

• Query property model to see where we changed preferred fps for migrated properties, so we know how many separated specs need to be created/

• Why do you (sometimes) put user stories below the title?

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User story in title/summary?• Pro:

• Findable • Standard structure (consistent, mental effort) • Works with the Grimm tool :-) • Clear distinction between technical and functional stories • less repetition

• Con: • Can be a bit long • …?

• You don’t have to, but try to agree on one format!

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Pied piper Examples

Minimal:• As a Product Owner, I want to test if the new

implementation of the film information on the search- and stream pages is actually faster -> does this save us up to 25% of the page load times?

• Don't break the stream page when rename a property (option) value

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Pied piper Examples

Atomic:

• As a Movie Curator I want to be able to view average outcomes and set a filter

• As an admin I want to define the default app to start after login and assign to toolbar home- icon

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Pied piper Examples• More advanced, major issues:

• problem-oriented

• conceptually sound

• unambiguous

• conflict-free

• unique

• uniform

• independent

• complete

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Pied piper Examples

Problem-oriented:

• As a Visitor I want to have smaller icons in the apps-menu so I don't have to scroll everytime

• As a Movie Curator I want to be able to view average outcomes and set a filter

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Pied piper ExamplesConceptually sound & problem oriented:

• As a developer I need a way to resync failed items to the filmservice without having to manually filtering the deadletter queue and force a sync queries because .. its faster.

• As a Movie Curator, I want to have average outcomes presented in a graph, so that I can monitor my movies on averages.

• As a Movie Viewer, I want reminder emails to be switched on by default, so that I get notified when a new movie is released.

70General advice: include the ‘why’ more often


Pied piper ExamplesUnambiguous:

• As a Conversion Manager I want movies that have a new studio to be visible as filter options when I've created them, so the customer can filter on these options.

• As a Movie Viewer, I want a more comprehensible menu which shows more options than now, so using the app is easier

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Pied piper ExamplesConflict-free:

• ??

Independent:

• ??

Complete:

• ??72

Workshop

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Workshop

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First a short survey… http://bit.ly/story_survey

http://bit.ly/story_survey


Time to do it yourself!• Review user stories of the next two sprints as a

refinement session

• Make use of materials:

• QUS poster

• Grimm cheat sheet

• Grimm flyer

• Garm will not participate

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Digital materials: bit.ly/grimm-stories

http://bit.ly/grimm-stories


Don’t be dogmatic, stay agile!

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Garm LucassenREFSQ’16 March 17 2016

Thank you!

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Questions

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