Composing User Stories

Writing Clear, Concise Requirements

Art for Composing User Stories Check Out A Preview

By Bill Wake, Joshua Kerievsky

This album starts by looking at the concept of systems and how an external perspective helps create the best stories. You'll learn the Role-Action-Context template, ten criteria for effective stories, and ideas for kick-starting story-writing when you feel stuck. You'll explore a variety of ways to split and simplify stories to help you ensure that your release is as valuable as it can be. You'll get a job aid to remind you of the key ways to split stories.

Highlights

Effective Storytelling
Effective Storytelling: Learn the agile way to compose effective user stories. Learn more...
Expert Videos
Expert Videos: Learn tools & techniques by watching short videos from industry experts. Learn more...
Integrated Forums
Integrated Forums: Ask questions, get expert replies and read fascinating discussions. Learn more...

Includes

  • 2-4 hours of content
  • 171 pages
  • 25 interactive quizzes
  • 7 videos
  • 2 Exercises
  • Story-splitting catalog

Contents

You Are Here 3
What’s in a Charter? 4
Systems and Boundaries 5
What's the Boundary? 6
What Are User Stories? 7
Ambiguity 8
An Example Story 9
You’re Kidding Me! 10
Basic Story Structure 11
The Heading: Role-Action-Context 12
A Good Heading is Concise 13
Which Are Good Headings? 14
Other Story Formats 15
The Details 16
When Do We Get the Details? ← Click to Preview 17
My Project Isn’t Greenfield 18
Some Details Are Needed Sooner ← Click to Preview 19
Card, Conversation, Confirmation 20
Summary 21
What Makes a User Story Good? 23
The INVEST Model 24
INVEST - The Acronym ← Click to Preview 25
Independent? ← Click to Preview 26
Negotiable? 27
Valuable? 28
Estimable? 29
Small? 30
Testable? 31
INVEST or Not? 32
Summary 33
Introduction 35
Essential Stories 36
What About Developer Needs? 37
External Stories 38
External Stories Quiz 39
External Stories Example 40
Instantaneous Stories 41
Instantaneous Stories Quiz 42
Detectable Stories 43
Can You Hear Me Now? 44
The Four Criteria and Role-Action-Context 45
Summary 46
Writing Stories ← Click to Preview 48
Getting Started ← Click to Preview 49
An Approach to Storytelling 50
More Ways to Find Stories 51
Where Do You Get Ideas? 52
Lay Out the Overall Shape of the System 53
“Perfect” Technology 54
Real Technology Outside 55
Feeling Stuck? 56
Write Some Stories 57
Assess Your Answer 58
One Solution 59
Summary 60
Perfect Pet For Us ← Click to Preview 62
The Charter 63
The Context 64
Write Stories 65
Assess Your Answer 66
A Solution 67
Users and Roles 69
What Are Roles? 70
Example Roles 71
Search Widely for Roles 72
Practice: Brainstorm Some Roles 73
Characteristics of Users 74
Primary or Secondary? 75
Favored or Disfavored? 76
Oft-Forgotten Roles 77
Dig Deeper: Simple Personas 78
Adjectives: A Powerful Tool 79
General to Specific 80
Beat the System 81
Humans Only? 82
Summary 83
Why Measure Qualities? 85
Quality: Be Specific 86
Usability Example: Simple Attributes 87
An Informal Approach 88
Planguage: A More Formal Approach 89
Planguage Tags 90
Where do Targets Come From? 91
Which Elements Are Which? 92
How Formal Should We Be? 93
The Overall Process 94
Where to Track Quality Attributes? 95
Where are the Details? 97
Process Mapping: Follow the Object 98
Watch the People 99
Remembrance of Things Past 100
A Process Mapping Exercise 101
Sketch the Interface 102
A Sketch Exercise 103
Storytesting 104
Don’t Dial Every Number 105
Rule Tests 106
That Seems Too Easy! 107
Workflow Tests 108
Structure of Workflow Tests 109
A Workflow Test Exercise 110
Storytests Aren't Exhaustive 111
Storytests Can Be Hard to Create 112
Summary 113
Splitting Unlocks Value 115
Splitting for Value 116
Why Split? 117
Big Stories 118
Feature Fat ← Click to Preview 119
Fat Ain't All Bad! 120
Bargain Hunting 121
Merging Stories 122
Tracking Split Stories 123
Dimensions for Splitting 124
Avoid Technical Splits 125
A Real-Life Example: DotNetInvoice 126
High-Level Splits 128
Research First 129
Types of Research 130
How Would You Split This? 131
Manual Labor 132
Build or Buy? 133
Defer Roles and Stories 134
Defer 135
Walking Skeleton 136
Which Approach? 137
You Try! 138
Summary - High-Level Splits 139
Bring 'Em On! 141
'Ilities' 142
How Would You Split? 143
Start Static 144
Simplify Persistence 145
Lower Fidelity 146
Lower Reliability 147
What Would You Do? 148
Improve Performance Iteratively 149
Ilities Quiz 150
User Experience 152
Batch It Up 153
Single-User 154
API First 155
Simplified User Interface Style 156
Generic User Interface 157
User Interface Splitting Survey 158
Behavioral Complexity 160
Happy Path First 161
Where Is the Happy Path? 162
Many-1-0 ← Click to Preview 163
Base Cases First 164
Data Diet 165
How Do You Simplify Behavior? 166
You Try! 167
Splitting Stories - Summary 168
Congratulations! 170
What's Next? 171

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Have Any Questions?

Highlights

Effective Storytelling
Effective Storytelling: Learn the agile way to compose effective user stories. Learn more...
Expert Videos
Expert Videos: Learn tools & techniques by watching short videos from industry experts. Learn more...
Integrated Forums
Integrated Forums: Ask questions, get expert replies and read fascinating discussions. Learn more...

Includes

  • 2-4 hours of content
  • 171 pages
  • 25 interactive quizzes
  • 7 videos
  • 2 Exercises
  • Story-splitting catalog

Contents

You Are Here 3
What’s in a Charter? 4
Systems and Boundaries 5
What's the Boundary? 6
What Are User Stories? 7
Ambiguity 8
An Example Story 9
You’re Kidding Me! 10
Basic Story Structure 11
The Heading: Role-Action-Context 12
A Good Heading is Concise 13
Which Are Good Headings? 14
Other Story Formats 15
The Details 16
When Do We Get the Details? ← Click to Preview 17
My Project Isn’t Greenfield 18
Some Details Are Needed Sooner ← Click to Preview 19
Card, Conversation, Confirmation 20
Summary 21
What Makes a User Story Good? 23
The INVEST Model 24
INVEST - The Acronym ← Click to Preview 25
Independent? ← Click to Preview 26
Negotiable? 27
Valuable? 28
Estimable? 29
Small? 30
Testable? 31
INVEST or Not? 32
Summary 33
Introduction 35
Essential Stories 36
What About Developer Needs? 37
External Stories 38
External Stories Quiz 39
External Stories Example 40
Instantaneous Stories 41
Instantaneous Stories Quiz 42
Detectable Stories 43
Can You Hear Me Now? 44
The Four Criteria and Role-Action-Context 45
Summary 46
Writing Stories ← Click to Preview 48
Getting Started ← Click to Preview 49
An Approach to Storytelling 50
More Ways to Find Stories 51
Where Do You Get Ideas? 52
Lay Out the Overall Shape of the System 53
“Perfect” Technology 54
Real Technology Outside 55
Feeling Stuck? 56
Write Some Stories 57
Assess Your Answer 58
One Solution 59
Summary 60
Perfect Pet For Us ← Click to Preview 62
The Charter 63
The Context 64
Write Stories 65
Assess Your Answer 66
A Solution 67
Users and Roles 69
What Are Roles? 70
Example Roles 71
Search Widely for Roles 72
Practice: Brainstorm Some Roles 73
Characteristics of Users 74
Primary or Secondary? 75
Favored or Disfavored? 76
Oft-Forgotten Roles 77
Dig Deeper: Simple Personas 78
Adjectives: A Powerful Tool 79
General to Specific 80
Beat the System 81
Humans Only? 82
Summary 83
Why Measure Qualities? 85
Quality: Be Specific 86
Usability Example: Simple Attributes 87
An Informal Approach 88
Planguage: A More Formal Approach 89
Planguage Tags 90
Where do Targets Come From? 91
Which Elements Are Which? 92
How Formal Should We Be? 93
The Overall Process 94
Where to Track Quality Attributes? 95
Where are the Details? 97
Process Mapping: Follow the Object 98
Watch the People 99
Remembrance of Things Past 100
A Process Mapping Exercise 101
Sketch the Interface 102
A Sketch Exercise 103
Storytesting 104
Don’t Dial Every Number 105
Rule Tests 106
That Seems Too Easy! 107
Workflow Tests 108
Structure of Workflow Tests 109
A Workflow Test Exercise 110
Storytests Aren't Exhaustive 111
Storytests Can Be Hard to Create 112
Summary 113
Splitting Unlocks Value 115
Splitting for Value 116
Why Split? 117
Big Stories 118
Feature Fat ← Click to Preview 119
Fat Ain't All Bad! 120
Bargain Hunting 121
Merging Stories 122
Tracking Split Stories 123
Dimensions for Splitting 124
Avoid Technical Splits 125
A Real-Life Example: DotNetInvoice 126
High-Level Splits 128
Research First 129
Types of Research 130
How Would You Split This? 131
Manual Labor 132
Build or Buy? 133
Defer Roles and Stories 134
Defer 135
Walking Skeleton 136
Which Approach? 137
You Try! 138
Summary - High-Level Splits 139
Bring 'Em On! 141
'Ilities' 142
How Would You Split? 143
Start Static 144
Simplify Persistence 145
Lower Fidelity 146
Lower Reliability 147
What Would You Do? 148
Improve Performance Iteratively 149
Ilities Quiz 150
User Experience 152
Batch It Up 153
Single-User 154
API First 155
Simplified User Interface Style 156
Generic User Interface 157
User Interface Splitting Survey 158
Behavioral Complexity 160
Happy Path First 161
Where Is the Happy Path? 162
Many-1-0 ← Click to Preview 163
Base Cases First 164
Data Diet 165
How Do You Simplify Behavior? 166
You Try! 167
Splitting Stories - Summary 168
Congratulations! 170
What's Next? 171

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