Nigel Mossman Standard Data systems Limited
A task that can be performed in an Agile Project Describes a user requirement or feature Written in “business language” Clear statement of what the user needs Discrete functionality ◦ Can be tested ◦ The planning game may decompose the story
As a, I want [so that ]. Example: As an order clerk, I want to search for a customer account so that I can determine start processing an order.
As a set of bullet points, note additional supporting features Continuing the example: ◦ Search by name (partial match) ◦ Search by account number ◦ Return no more than 20 matching accounts ◦ List returned in under 10 seconds
Help the discussion with the developers Identify test criteria ◦ How will the developers know they’ve done what you asked for Help you to think about story granularity
Include supporting artefacts ◦ Example documents ◦ Screenshots ◦ References to trade journals or books
Sometimes, an agile project might be fixing bugs in a system Amend the story format: As an order clerk, I would like the system not to crash when searching for customers with over 20 characters in their name. It’s OK to describe solutions Identify examples of when the problem occurs Developers cannot fix problems they cannot recreate
Write a functional overview ◦ Several paragraphs written in business language ◦ Describing the features of the new function/module ◦ Use story boards When complete ◦ Decompose into stories ◦ Identify qualifiers for each story May need 2-3 parses to complete
Business Story ◦ Regular story to add features to an application Technical Story ◦ Developer story which does not implement any business features but does resolve some essential technical problem.
Spike ◦ Used when the solution is not obvious, there are several options or risk ◦ Does not usually deliver any completed work ◦ Does deliver sufficient to produce an estimate on how to deliver a story Can be used for both business and technical stories Users can requests spikes
Discussion, questions & answers