Building shared understanding in a scaled and distributed Agile environment is tough: big picture view of a product is often lost; team members in one location are not aware of activities in another one; everyone is using standards of their own…
Common misunderstanding of User Story concept puts even larger investment into that mess.
At Agile Practice we have developed a special tool for discussing and documenting User Stories. We call it User Story Canvas. During this webinar we are going to present the tool, provide detailed description and demonstrate usage examples.
During the webinar we will cover:
* The need of building shared understanding and common consequences of not having it
* User Story Canvas areas in details
* How to use User Story Canvas on different product levels
2. www.luxoft.com
Maksim Gaponov – Agile/Lean Coach
Experience
10+ years in IT. Developer background and management experience as a team
lead, project manager, product manager and CTO. Worked both in large
companies and smaller start-ups. Over 7 years ofAgile experience, Maksim is an
seasoned coach, trainer and speaker at various conferences, including AgileDays.
Certificates
§ Member of Scrum Alliance, Certified Scrum ProductOwner
§ Member of International Consortiumfor Agile (ICAgile), ICAgile Certified
Professional, ICP-Business Value Analysis, ICP-Agile Coaching, ICAgile
accredited trainer
§ Member of Scrum.org, Professional Scrum Master (PSM I)
3. www.luxoft.com
What’s wrong with User Stories?
They are universal
w Like a super-glue that sticks anything to anything
w User Stories should reflect all the knowledgewe
have about the product
w It’s not obviouswhat should be included and what
not
Too big, too small
w Make User Stories general and you will loose
control
w Make User Stories detailed and you will be buried
with supporting them
Scaled/distributed environments
w Communication gaps lead to rework (both in
discovery and delivery)
w Lack of standardized description
w Loss of focus in discussions
4. www.luxoft.com
What a User Story should be
We need to pay attention to
w Who, What and Why sides
w User story context in different aspects
w Supportshared understanding across the team
w Feasibility issues
w Scaled environment
w Team distribution
8. www.luxoft.com
What are the communications?
Target persona
w You’re already using personas, do you?
w What is the primary user type for this functionality?
w Bring personal context and build empathy through
this point
Consultants
w Who has knowledge/experiencein this topic in your
environment?
w Do you have access to subject matter experts?
w Do you know yourcolleagues did something
similar?
Customers
w Who are the customers for this functionality?
w Is there a potential conflict of interest between
them?
w What are their expectations?
Stakeholders
w Who’s interests you need to address?
w Are there possible conflicts of interests between
stakeholders?
w Who can be affected by this functionality?
w Did we miss somebody?
10. www.luxoft.com
What are the boundaries for the User Story?
Need statement
w This is about Why side
w What particular user need we wand to address?
w What goal the user wants to achieve in real life
expecrience?
Usage context
w What surroundsthe user in his environment?
w What are previoussteps in real life experience that
lead to usage of this functionality?
w What will the user do with results of functionality
usage?
12. www.luxoft.com
Here Comes the User Story
User Story
w Keep usual User Story format
w Remember Who, What and Why
Acceptance criteria
w How will we understand that functionality is fully
implemented?
w Do you have standards for describing acceptance
criteria?
Possible solutions
w There are always lots of ways to accomplish the
same thing
w Bear Output vs Outcome principle in mind
w Use your colleagues’knowledge, experience and
creativity
14. www.luxoft.com
What do we need and what can block us?
Constraints
w What knowledgeand experience is required to
deliver this functionality?
w What tools are required (databases, frameworks,
APIs, etc)?
Data needed
w What data we need to operate when implementing
this functionality?
w Can data or it’s usage affect other parts of sotware?
Dependencies
w Are there dependencies with other sUser Stories in
current release?
w Are there dependencies with User Stories in future
releases?
16. www.luxoft.com
Are we there?
Outcome
w Remember the Why side. Why do you need this in
your product?Why your user needs this?
w What metrics will you use to reflect the outcome?
Do you need to develop them along with the
functionality?
w What outcome trends will be considered positive
or/negative? How will you react on that?
Feedback
w What means will you use for getting user/customer
feedback on functionality delivered?
w Do you have everything in place for gathering
feedback?
w How will you interpret and react on the feedback?
17. www.luxoft.com
How and when to use User Story Canvas
PBR sessions
w Release PBR for high-level discussions
w SprintPBR for detailed discussions
Bring focus to your discussions
w Decide what areas/slots do you cover on what
meetings
w Keep meetings focused
Tweak your product management process and
tools
w Build and support shared understanding of your
product across the team
w Standardize product documentation process
w Tweak content fields in tools you use for
product/project management
19. www.luxoft.com
Upcoming Agile Practice webinars
In Search for Team’s Efficiency
February 5, 2016
Mikhail Podurets
Best Tools to Develop Soft Skills in
Scrum and Agile Development
February 16, 2016
Slava Moskalenko