techniques for effectively slicing user stories by naresh jain

Techniques for Effectively Slicing

User Stories Workshop

Naresh Jain naresh@agilefaqs.com

@nashjain http://nareshjain.com

Agenda

Quick intro to user stories

Spike, Split, Stub & Timebox (SSST) technique to manage large stories

Splitting metaphor

Specific techniques to split stories

High-level techniques to create and prioritise stories

What are we really trying to build?

User Stories

What is a Story?

Story is a smallest piece of functionality that add business value

What is a Story?

Story is a smallest piece of functionality that add business value

Stories should follow Ron Jeffries’ 3 Cs

Card – Placeholder for conversation

Conversation – Actual discussion between dev team and user

Confirmation – Acceptance criteria to determine when the story is finished

What is a Story?

Typical Story Format

Story Title - Actor Action Context

As a .. <user who requires this feature>

I want .. <do something>

So that... <user goal/business justification>

Title: Keen Reader subscribes to a blog

As a keen reader of your blog

I want to subscribe to your blog

So that I can stay up-to-date with the new posts

Story Example

Title: Social Networking Enthusiast uploads profile picture

As a Social Networking Enthusiast

I want to upload my profile picture

So my friends can see how I look and recognise me

Another Story Example

What makes a good Story?

Stories should follow the INVEST principle:

Independent

Negotiable

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimate-able

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimate-able

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimate-able

Testable

What do you do to Large Stories?

James Grenning - Story Weight Reduction Toolkit!http://www.renaissancesoftware.net/blog/archives/48

Time-box

What do you do to Large Stories?

James Grenning - Story Weight Reduction Toolkit!http://www.renaissancesoftware.net/blog/archives/48

Breakout Session

Story writing exercise

Break out into groups of 3-5 people

Business Problem: Casual daters search for matches online

Use process model to drive out the stories

Keep in mind:

Format: As X I want to Y so I can Z

INVEST principle

Consistent granularity

Stories are fundamental unit of activity

Business Goals

User Goals

Discovery

Business Goals

User Goals

As a ____, I want to be able to ____ so

that ____

Product Backlog

Might have an initial estimate (perhaps for both analysis and development), and an expression of technical and

business confidence that this is real and achievable

Discovery

Business Goals

User Goals

that ____

Product Backlog

Release planningDiscovery

Business Goals

User Goals

that ____

Product Backlog

that ____

I will know this is done when _______

Release Backlog

More detailed estimate, and a specific acceptance test – low confidence stories might be

“spiked” or prototyped

Release planningDiscovery

Business Goals

User Goals

that ____

Product Backlog

that ____

Release Backlog

Release planning Iteration planningDiscovery

Business Goals

User Goals

that ____

Product Backlog

that ____

Release Backlog

that ____

To do this I must: 1) _____ 2) _____

Iteration Backlog

Possible automation of the acceptance

Development team breaks out the detail of work needed to

pass test

Release planning Iteration planningDiscovery

Business Goals

User Goals

Slicing Metaphor

8 Guests - How would you share this cake?

Vertical Slicing

Horizontal Slicing

Let’s try slicing

As a Social Networking Enthusiast

I want to upload my profile picture

So my friends can see how I look and recognise me

Social Networking Enthusiast uploads profile picture

Using Acceptance Criteria to Slice Stories

Acceptance Criteria should contain:

VERB – DESCRIBING A BEHAVIOUR

OBSERVABLE RESULT

!To accommodate pre-conditions Acceptance Criteria can be expressed as

Given [Precondition]

When [Actor + Action]

Then [Observable Result]

Acceptance Criteria

Example

Given the user has a valid facebook account and a digital picture on her computer,

When she uploads a picture in facebook,

Then her the picture should be visible to all her friends in her network.

Example

Given an user is trying to find a friend on facebook,

When the user searches for a person using their name,

Then their profile picture should be displayed along with other details.

Example

Given an user is trying to find a friend on facebook,

When the user searches for a person using their name,

Then their profile picture should be displayed along with other details.

As owner of facebook,

I want users to upload authentic, personal profile picture,

So facebook's reputation remains intact and facebook stays out of legal hassles.

Roles & Permissions Administration

Example

How would you slice this?

Let’s decompose this…

Add new role

Delete existing role

Copy existing role

Update permissions

Search roles

From a technical point of view

Left & Right Pane

Client side Search functionality

Tree Structure for Permissions

CRUD Services for Roles

Read & Update Service for Permissions

Story Slicing - 1Read-only view of Roles & Permissions

Left & Right Pane

Display permissions in a table

Read Service for Roles

Read Service for Permissions

Story Slicing - 2Ability to Update Permissions

Tree Structure for Permissions

Update Service for Permissions

Story Slicing - 3Add new role

Copy functionality in UI

Create Services for Roles

Story Slicing - 4Delete existing role

Delete functionality in UI

Delete Services for Roles

Client side Search functionality

What Slicing Technique did we use?We started with read-only version and gradually added the ability to update permissions and add new roles.

In other words - We increased the sophistication of the feature.

Devolution

How would you slice this?

Story Slicing - 1

Full on-screen report for most common occupancy type

Story Slicing - 2

Full on-screen report for most common occupancy type but can be filtered by a date-range.

Story Slicing - 3Full on-screen report for most common occupancy type but can be filtered by a date-range and room type.

Story Slicing - 4Delta on-screen report for most common occupancy type but can be filtered by a date-range and room type.

Story Slicing - 5Delta on-screen report for all occupancy type but can be filtered by a date-range and room type.

Story Slicing - 6

Add support for different report formats.

What Slicing Technique did we use?We started with showing most common, full data and then added more filters to fine tune the data.

In other words - We sophisticated the feature by adding more filters.

Other Slicing Techniques

Other Slicing TechniquesSystem Slice

Static vs. Dynamic

Static vs. DynamicReal-time vs. Batch Processing

Static vs. DynamicReal-time vs. Batch ProcessingBuild vs. Buy

Static vs. DynamicReal-time vs. Batch ProcessingBuild vs. BuyAutomated vs. Manual Steps

Static vs. DynamicReal-time vs. Batch ProcessingBuild vs. BuyAutomated vs. Manual StepsDefer certain roles

Behavioural Slice

Behavioural SliceAdjusting Sophistication - MVF (Minimum Viable Feature) or Walking Skeleton

Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance CriteriaBy-pass certain steps in the workflow

Acceptance CriteriaBy-pass certain steps in the workflowFocus on Happy Path First (edge cases later)

Acceptance CriteriaBy-pass certain steps in the workflowFocus on Happy Path First (edge cases later)No options - 1 option - Many options

Incrementally improve ‘Ilities' (Usability, Scalability, Reliability, etc.)

Incrementally improve ‘Ilities' (Usability, Scalability, Reliability, etc.)Simpler UI (even consider using a standard UI)

Incrementally improve ‘Ilities' (Usability, Scalability, Reliability, etc.)Simpler UI (even consider using a standard UI)Minmal Data

Incrementally improve ‘Ilities' (Usability, Scalability, Reliability, etc.)Simpler UI (even consider using a standard UI)Minmal DataImprove Performance Iteratively

www.agileforall.com

HOW TO SPLIT A USER STORYPREPARE THEINPUT STORY

APPLY THESPLITTINGPATTERNS

WORKFLOW STEPS

OPERATIONSBUSINESS RULE

VARIATIONS

INTERFACEVARIATIONS

VARIATIONSIN DATA

SIMPLE/COMPLEX

DEFERPERFORMANCE

BREAK OUT A SPIKE

MAJOR EFFORT

EVALUATETHE SPLIT

Does the big story satisfy INVEST* (except, perhaps, small)?

Are the new stories roughly equal in size?

Does the story describe a workflow?

Can you split the story so you do the beginning and end of the work-flow first and enhance with stories from the middle of the workflow?

Can you take a thin slice through the workflow first and

enhance it with more stories later?

Does the story include multiple operations? (e.g. is it about "managing"

or "configuring" something?)

Can you split the operations into separate stories?

Does the story have a variety of business rules? (e.g. is there a domain term in the story like "flexible dates"

that suggests several variations?)

Can you split the story so you do a subset of the rules first and

enhance with additional rules later?

Does the story do the same thing to different kinds of data? Can you split the story to

process one kind of data first and enhance with the

other kinds later?

Can you split the story to handle data from one

interface first and enhance with the others later?

Does the story get the same kind of data via multiple interfaces?

When you apply the obvious split, is whichever story you do

first the most difficult?

Could you group the later stories and defer the decision about which story comes first?

Does the story have a simple core that provides most of the

value and/or learning?

Could you split the story to do that simple core first and enhance it with later stories?

Does the story get much of its complexity from satisfying

non-functional requirements like performance?

Could you split the story to just make it work first and then enhance it to satisfy the non-functional requirement?

Are you still baffled about how to split the story?

Can you find a small piece you understand well enough to start?

Can you define the 1-3 questions most holding

you back?Take a break and try again.

Write a spike with those questions, do the minimum

to answer them, and start again at the top of this process

Write that story first, build it, and start again

at the top of this process.

Does the story have a complex interface?

Is there a simple version you could do first?

Try another pattern on the original story or the larger

post-split stories.

Try another pattern. You probably have waste

in each of your stories.

Try another pattern.

Are there stories you can deprioritize or delete?

Is there an obvious story to start with that gets you early value, learning, risk

mitigation, etc.?

Combine it with another story or otherwise reformulate it to get

a good, if large, starting story.

Is the story size 1⁄10 to 1⁄6 of your velocity?

Is each story about 1⁄10 to 1⁄6 of your velocity?

Do each of the stories satisfy INVEST?

Continue. You need to split it.

You’re done.

Try another pattern to see if you can get this.

You’re done, though youcould try another pattern

to see if it works better.

start here

* INVEST - Stories should be:

IndependentNegotiableValuableEstimableSmallTestable

last resort

Hamburger Method

Problem

If we’re working on a story to contact customers by e-mail, the steps might be:

query db for customers;

send e-mail to customers;

retrieve delivery report;

remove bounced addresses from the system;

mark non-bounced as ‘recently contacted’

But you have to think about

spam-regulation compliance for sending e-mail

speed, accuracy & volume

personalised or generic email content

build vs. buy

Hamburger Method

Source: Gojko Adzic!http://gojko.net/2012/01/23/splitting-user-stories-the-hamburger-method/

Hamburger Method

Step 1: Identify tasks

Hamburger Method

Step 2: Identify options for tasks

Hamburger Method

Step 3: Combine results

Hamburger Method

Step 4: Trim the hamburger

Hamburger Method

Step 5: Take the first bite

Hamburger Method

Step 5: Take the first bite

Step 6: Take another bite…& continue

Before Story SlicingWhere do Stories come from?

High Level View of the Process

Product Discovery -‐ Steps

Elevator Pitch

Business Goals

Chartering

Elevator Pitch

Business Goals

Chartering

Pragmatic Personas

User Goals

Day in Life of each Persona

Scenarios &

Narratives

Personas

Elevator Pitch

Business Goals

Chartering

Pragmatic Personas

User Goals

Scenarios &

Narratives

Personas

Ac c ept ance !

Criteria

Elevator Pitch

Business Goals

Chartering

Pragmatic Personas

User Goals

Scenarios &

Narratives

Personas

Activity Map

Task MapInteraction DesignUI Sketch

Story Mapping

Ac c ept ance !

Criteria

Elevator Pitch

Business Goals

Chartering

Pragmatic Personas

User Goals

Scenarios &

Narratives

Personas

Activity Map

Story Mapping

PrioritisationGrouping by ThemesReiterating

Planning

Ac c ept ance !

Criteria

Elevator Pitch

Business Goals

Chartering

Pragmatic Personas

User Goals

Scenarios &

Narratives

Personas

Activity Map

Story Mapping

PrioritisationGrouping by ThemesReiterating

Planning

User Stories

AcceptanceCriteria

User Story Authoring

Ac c ept ance !

Criteria

A day in the life of Ed !

Maps have laJtude and longitude

time (from the user’s perspective)

priority (time from the planner

and builder’s perspective)

absolutely necessary

more necessary

less necessary

activity 1 activity 2 activity 3 activity 4

Span Planning

necessary

less optional

more optional

activity 1 activity 2 activity 3 activity 4

first release

second release

third release

Identify Release from Span Plans

Team fully engaged!

Cab Route Optimisation

Most companies provide cab pick and drop services to their employees.

Company wants to

improve the utilisation of the cabs

reduce the cab expenses (lesser # of cabs, reduce total distance travelled by cabs)

reduce the time taken for employees to get to office

Constraints

Employees traveling from different locations at different times (flexi-office hours, shifts, unplanned meetings)

We need to give the cab vendor enough notice to arrange the cabs

Product Discovery

Goals/Themes

CAPTURE TRAVEL AND DATE TIME

VALIDATE ROUTES OF CARS AND TYPE OF CARS

DRIVER AND CAB ALLOTMENT

NOTIFY THE SUBSCRIBERS ABOUT CABS AND DRIVERSCAPTURE

EMPLOYEE TRAVEL PREFERENCE

Specify starting address

Enter my details (Emp ID,Name,Phn,Email ID)

Book a cab by specifying pick up /drop time

CALCULATE ROUTES

Read the rejection reason

View no. of employees, duration, no. of cabs per route

View total number and type of cabs per day in month

Get routes and number of people from system

Allocate driver and cabs to routes

Send sms notification with cab number, driver number and pickup time

MONITORING

Compare with the previous snapshot

Keep a track on average no. of employees per cab

Keep a track on the total distance travelled by the cabs

Monitor successful last minute changes

Monitor the avg. time taken by cabs per route

Low-Fi Prototyping & Interaction Design Testing

Landing Page

Entering their Location

Signing Up

Office In and Out Time

Update Schedule

Generates the Report

Thank You!

Questions?

nashjain@agilefaqs.com http://nareshjain.com

@nashjain

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