Writing better user stories

José E. Rodríguez Huerta (@jrhuerta)

Disclaimer

Not a single original thought in this presentation.

Although there is some first hand

experience

What this talk is about

•  Why use user stories at all?

•  Some guidelines on how to

improve

•  Identifying common “user

story smells…”

Why use User stories at all?

Requirements gathering is an

integral part of software

development

Common pitfalls •  Lack of context

•  Fail to deliver value

•  Overly specified

•  User/Client doesnt know

what they want.

•  No priorization

•  Hard to build incrementaly

•  Difficult to estimate

•  Too long… Didn’t read.

•  Too technical… Didn’t read.

•  Long time to market cycle

•  Not always clear who the

users are and what they

expect from the software.

•  Long feedback loops

from users/stakeholders

•  Acceptance criteria is:

everything is implemented.

•  Hard to maintain

User stories to the rescue!

Yes, they are still a

requirements document,

but…

They are cool

How do User Stories address those problems?

•  Provide Context =>

Aligment

•  End user/customer

language, makes it easy

to read/understand

bridges the gap between

technical and business

•  Focus on Delivering Value

•  User/Customer centered

•  Small, Cheap

•  Easily priorizable and re-

priorizable

•  Versatile

•  Switch the focus to

communication instead of

a detailed specification.

•  Shortens Time to Market.

What is a user story?

three critical parts:

– Card

– Conversation

– Confirmation

(“conversation placeholders”)

What is a “Good” USER STORY?  

It helps YOU

to solve your problem

Defining a “good” u.s.

•  follows the INVEST acronym

(by Bill Wake)

•  Defines conditions FOR

“satisfaction” (in DoD)

•  Defines conditions FOR

“readyness” (in DoR)

Defining a “good” U.S.

•  Uses the customer’s language

•  has the Who, the What and Why

•  Everyone participates in

defining/refining

I.N.V.E.S.T.

•  Independent

•  Negotiable

•  Value

•  Estimable

•  Size/Small

•  Testable

I for Independent

Independent also means it can

be built incrementaly

and iteratively

Incremental

Art  by  Jeff  Pa,on  

Iterative

Art  by  Jeff    Pa,on  

Incremental-Interative

Art  by  Steven  Thomas  

I for Independent

Ok… maybe, some dependency

N for Negotiable

•  Avoid implementation details

– It says the What, not the How.

•  Its not carved in stone

– Until its part of an iteration it

can still be rewritten

V for Value

Provide value to your customer with every story

V for Value

V for Value

V for Value

E for Estimable

Otherwise you can’t know when it will be done

(or if it will ever be…)

S for Size/Small

•  If its too big, split it.

– Learn how.

•  If it too small, maybe its not a

user story

– I smell micromanagement!

T for Testable

If it’s not worth testing it… Is it worth writting it?

Not everything is a

User Story

What? •  The process context:

– Definition of Done

– Definition of Ready

•  Non functional requirements:

– Requirements that extend

through the whole project

Use aids to “Power Up”

•  Wireframes

•  Navigation maps •  Color tags •  Personas •  User Story maps •  Anything else you may find

useful

Use aids to “Power Up”

•  Wireframes

•  Navigation maps

•  Color tags

•  Personas

•  User Story maps

•  Anything else you may find useful

Revise and Refine and even Re-do

•  User stories are alive, they:

–  Are Born

– Grow

–  Reproduce

– Die

•  Make time to groom your

backlog with the team and client

user story smells

User Story smells…

•  Too much detail or too little detail

•  No conditions of satisfaction

•  A story per page/component or sliced in ways that don’t deliver value

•  Technical tasks masqueraded as user stories

•  Skipping the conversation

15m is not a lot of time so…

Where DO I get more info?

•  Agile Barcelona community (@agilebcn)

•  Books:

–  User stories applied: For Agile Software

Development by Mike Cohn

–  Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve

User Experience by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden

•  The Mountain Goat Software:

http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/

•  Google

 Thanks Any questions?

(@jrhuerta)