The Art of Story Writing

Tom De Lancey

April 22, 2015

“I suggest that there will always be budget constraints in the most agile system, but that is not the BIGGEST issue.

The fundamental issue is one of trust, not budget.”

Matt WickhamIT Manager | Web Portal Applications (WPA) | Web Partner Portals (WPP)

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The issue

Mistrust leads to failure. Mistrust derives from fear.

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Why is there a lack of trust?

• Fear of missing a requirement• Fear of missing a deadline• Fear of running out of budget• Fear of having to work in a crunch• Fear of scope creep • Fear of being blamed for failure• Fear of punishment

You won’t be allowed to fail.

You won’t be blamed.

Success is predictable – stories mean something.

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What builds trust?

A unit of business value that can be empirically verified. In other words, code or configuration changes that result in some software behavior change. This change must be testable.

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What is a story?

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Some examples

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Where do stories come from?

Much energy is spent on learning and implementing agile practices, but little time is spent on how to write a story.

As a __________ I want_______ so that.

A story is a starting point for a conversation.

Less is more.

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Begin with the beginning

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“Definition of Done”

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“Acceptance Criteria”

Words have power. Avoid “acceptance” and “criteria” because they imply the possibility of “rejection” and “more stuff”.

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But, how does this eliminate fear and build trust?

• Fear of missing a requirement• Because you define the requirements as you code, you can’t miss any.

• Fear of having to work in a crunch• Because have a time-box, you can’t exceed capacity

• Fear of scope creep • Definition of Done

Tom’s rules:8. It’s a discovery process.9. Delivery is a feature.10. Do the easiest, cheapest thing to satisfy the minimal request, i.e. Less is more.11. Plug it in, see if it smokes.12. If you find there is way more work than we thought for the story, we can split it, and spin off

another story, in a future sprint.13. It’s all just stuff to be done.

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But, how does this eliminate fear and build trust?

Tom’s rules:3. Never complain, about anything, in any setting. (Stolen from Sean Egger).4. Nickels and dimes are flying out of my pocket!5. There is no They.6. Do your best. That is the “commitment.”

• Fear of missing a deadline• In the long run, we are all dead

• Fear of running out of budget• Each sprint has deliverable functions, a self contained

product. (see “Story Mapping”)• Fear of being blamed for failure

• Eliminate the Iron-Triangle and there is no failure• Fear of punishment

• “It’s a discovery process.”

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-steps-building-minimum-viable-product-story-mapping-winnicki

1. Capture the primary goal of your productWe need to understand what our product does, or more importantly what kind of problems it solves

2. Define the main process in the productWe imagine that we need to explain to someone what steps are needed to accomplish the goal which we have defined above.

3. Create a list of features for each stageWhat we need now is an unprioritized bucket of ideas which can be developed to help the customer solve her/his problem.

4. Prioritize the features inside listsQuestion 1: How important is this feature for finishing the process?Question 2: How often will the feature be used?Question 3: How many users will use this feature?Question 4: How much value will the feature bring to the customer?Question 5: How risky is this feature

5. Define the MVPThe smallest possible representation of a working product. This is the thing we should build first.

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How do we do the most important things first?

Questions & Open Discussion

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SPAA Business/IT