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

6/2/2015

2

The starting point mattersThe conversation is

the single greatest

source of

information about

what we create

but…

where we start matters!

How to sharpenHave 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

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User Stories

are about

Who

WhatWhy

A reminder

…and of course knowing how to tell we got it right!

User Story Life CycleLarge

Unknowns

Small

Investable

Emerging

Details

Clear

Acceptance

Test

WIP

Done

Approaching

execution

Backlog

queen

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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?

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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

WorkIT

UI/UX

Skiing

Snow

boarding

Hot

weather

Ice Cream

Milk ShakesDaughter

High School

Son

4th gradeWrestling

Meeting

new people

Trashy

novelsMovies

Swimming

Diving

Wine

Public

Speaking

Get “inside the head” of your Personas

Persona Mind Map

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All

Most

Persona 1

Persona 4

Persona 5

Persona 6

Persona 2

Persona 3

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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

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Tech

SupportSys

Admin

Curriculum

Mgt.Student Instructor

School

Admin

Admin

Support

Base

CurriculumStudent 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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:

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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

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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?

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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”

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Questions

Please direct any questions that develop

following the presentation to:

Phil.Ricci@Agile-Now.com