Agile requirements management End-to-End: from project goals to automated acceptance tests

1. CHRISTIAN HASSA
CH@TECHTALK.AT
@CHR99HA
ALM Summit Vienna, 30th of November 2012
Agile requirements management
End-to-End: from project goals to
automated acceptance tests

2. TechTalk at a glance
• Agile software development
• Consulting and Delivery (Nearshoring)
• Locations: Zürich, Vienna, Budapest
• ~50 TechTalkers
• Founded: 1993
TechTalk office, Vienna/Austria

3. 3
How do we specify
requirements?

4. 4
• Describe user needs
• Describe system features
• Unit of planning
• Reminder for a discussion
• Mechanism to defer a discussion
The purpose of user stories …

5. 5
Impact Mapping
Story Mapping
Specification-By-Example
Building software that matters
Why?
How?
Code
Acceptance
Criterion
Epic
Deliverable, Outcome
Goals, Impacts
Easier to define upfront Harder to define upfront
Feature
User Story
Example

6. 6
Impact Mapping
From: Gojko Adzic: www.impactmapping.org
Based on:
Ingrid Domingues,
Mijo Balic
Effect Managing IT
“Impact Mapping helps us plan better!
It is collaborative, visual and fast.”

7. 7
Impact Map structure
Goal
Actors
Impacts
Deliverables
WHY?
WHO?
HOW?
WHAT?
Sell 10.000 books within the first 6 months
after launching the business.
Shopper for mainstream books,
Shopper for rarely available books,
Agent preparing shipments, …
Shopper for mainstream books:
get books faster/more convenient
find popular books easily
Shopper for mainstream books:
get books faster/more convenient:
order books online
semi-automated distribution center

8. 8
Example: Impact Map

9. 9
delivering software
that generates
Impact

10. 10
Specification-By-Example
Impact Mapping
Story Mapping
Optimizing and refining scope
Why?
How?
Code
Acceptance
Criterion
Epic
Deliverable, Outcome
Goals, Impacts
Easier to define upfront Harder to define upfront
Feature
User Story
Example

11. 11
Story Maps
• Original concept by Jeff Patton
• Supports iterative product design
• Optimized for desired outcome or
deliverable the system should support

12. 14
Building story maps
Get mainstream book
fast and conveniently
delivered
Find book
I want
Collect
books
Complete
order
Wait for
book
Receive
book
time
browse
best
sellers
put into
basket
enter
address
receive
delivery
slip
receive
delivery
notificat.
pay with
credit
card
search
book by
title
create
wish list
inquiry
order
status
desired outcome
or deliverable
user
activities
system
features
necessity

13. 15
Walking
skeleton
Enabling build – measure - learn
Find book
I want
Collect
books
Complete
order
Wait for
book
Receive
book
time
browse
best
sellers
enter
address
receive
delivery
slip
pay with
credit
card
search
book by
title
create
wish list
inquiry
order
status
put into
basket
receive
delivery
notificat.
necessity
manual
workaround
omitted
steps
Get mainstream book
fast and conveniently
delivered

14. 16
Story Map Workshop
Deliverables:
• Accept and confirm candidates
• Electronically publish candidate profiles
• Determine funding committee through electronic voting
• Provide the system as a service to other corporations

15. 17
Slicing Features

16. 18
Story Maps in ALM with TFS
TFS work items in story maps
http://speclog.net

17. 19
Story Map in SpecLog

18. 20
Sprint 1

19. 21
Sprint 2

20. 22
Sprint 3

21. 23
Sprint 4

22. 24
Dropped Scope

23. 25
Added Scope

24. 26
Impact Mapping
Story Mapping
Specification-By-Example
Establishing a shared understanding
Why?
How?
Code
Acceptance
Criterion
Epic
Capability
Impact, Goal
Easier to define upfront Harder to define upfront
Reminder
for a
discussion
Bug
report
Isolated,
formalized
example
Feature
User Story
Example

25. 27
Collecting Acceptance Criteria
“I would try to put a book into the
shopping cart …”
“I would try to remove a book
from the shopping cart…”
“I’d check whether the shopping cart
is empty, when I enter the shop …”
“I would try to add the same book
again to the shopping cart …”
Books can be placed into
shopping cart.
Books can be removed from
shopping cart.
Shopping cart should be empty
when entering the shop.
Adding same book again to
shopping cart should increase
quantity.
As a potential customer
I want to collect books in a shopping cart
So that I can order several books at once.
“Imagine this story is
already implemented:
how would you verify it?”

26. 28
Why
do we need
examples?

27. 29
UI wire frames,
existing UI
rules, key examples
existing artifacts,
samples
Examples for user stories

28. 30
Specification-by-Example
Examples …
• make abstract descriptions
better understandable
However …
• examples are usually not formally
exchanged or documented
Brian Marick
Examples Tests
Requirements
consist of
describe verify
fulfillment of

29. 31
Discussion of acceptance criteria
public void TestInitialOrderDiscount()
{
Customer newCustomer = new Customer();
Order newOrder = new Order(newCustomer);
newOrder.AddBook(
Catalog.Find(“ISBN-0955683610”)
);
Assert.Equals(33.75,
newOrder.Subtotal);
}
Register as “bart_bookworm”
Go to “/catalog/search”
Enter “ISBN-0955683610”
Click “Search”
Click “Add to Cart”
Click “View Cart”
Verify “Subtotal” is “$33.75”
We would like to encourage new users to
buy in our shop.
Therefore we offer 10% discount for their
first order.
Original idea for the illustration: George Dinwiddie
http://blog.gdinwiddie.com

30. 32
… illustrated with formalized examples
Given the user has not ordered yet
When the user adds a book with the price of EUR 37.5
into the shopping cart
Then the shopping cart sub-total is EUR 33.75.
Original idea for the illustration: George Dinwiddie
http://blog.gdinwiddie.com

31. 33
Discover hidden assumptions
Actually, this not quite right:
Books on sale should be excluded.
Original idea for the illustration: George Dinwiddie
http://blog.gdinwiddie.com

32. 34
Collaboration: 3 amigos
“Happy
Path”
Technical
feasability
Exceptions,
border cases
Original idea for the illustration: George Dinwiddie
http://blog.gdinwiddie.com

33. 35
Abstract acceptance criteria
As a shop visitor
I want to collect books in my shopping basket
so that I can purchase multiple books at once.
Books can be added to the shopping basket
Books can be removed from the shopping basket
Shopping basket is initially empty
The same book can be added multiple times to the shopping
basket

34. 36
Examples for acceptance criteria
As a shop visitor
I want to collect books in my shopping basket
so that I can purchase multiple books at once.
Books can be added to the shopping basket
Given my shopping basket is empty
When I add the book “Harry Potter” to my shopping basket
Then my shopping basket should contain 1 copy of “Harry Potter”

35. 37
As a shop visitor
I want to collect books in my shopping basket
so that I can purchase multiple books at once.
Books can be added to the shopping basket
Examples for acceptance criteria
When I add the book “Harry Potter” to my shopping basket
Then my shopping basket should contain 2 copies of “Harry Potter”
The same book can be added multiple times to the shopping basket
Given my shopping basket contains 1 copy of “Harry Potter”

36. 38
The same book can be added multiple times to the shopping basket
Structure of examples
Given my shopping basket contains 1 copy of “Harry Potter”
When I add the book “Harry Potter” to my shopping basket
Then my shopping basket should contain 2 copies of “Harry Potter”
Title: Describes intention/abstract acceptance criterion
Arrange: Context, initial state of the system
Act: Execution of the feature
Assert: Assertion of observable behaviour
And I should see the warning: “Book already existed in basket”
Triple-A
constraint
“Checks”
Chaining
up steps

37. 39
Purpose of examples
• Shared understanding:
acceptance criteria
• Documentation:
Look-up detail aspects
of the system
• Regression-tests:
Understand what
assumptions have been violated

38. 40
Continuous validation with automation
Given my shopping basket contains 1 copy of “Harry Potter”
When I add the book “Harry Potter” to my shopping basket
Then my shopping basket should contain 2 copies of “Harry Potter”
System
„Step Definitions“ are binding individual steps
to an automatable interface of the application.
Automatable
interface
UI
Automation
Automation does not necessarily have to bind to the UI.
Automatability of system is supported/evolving with development.

39. 41
Executable specification for .NET
http://www.specflow.org
Gherkin automation for .NET
• Visual Studio plugin (VS-Gallery)
• NuGet Package

40. 42
SpecFlow in Visual Studio

41. 43
Living documentation
• Link business readable automation from source code to story maps
• Feed execution results into story maps

42. 44
Books
Gojko Adzic
Impact Mapping
Gojko Adzic
Specification by Example

43. 45
Summary
Impact Maps
• Discover the unknown
• Experiments for impacts towards goal
Story Maps
• Optimize and refine scope
• Prioritize for rapid learning through delivery
Specification-By-Example
• Shared understanding
• Living documentation and continuous validation

44. Questions
CHRISTIAN HASSA (CH@TECHTALK.AT)
@CHR99HA