ProductCamp Boston May 12 2018

1. and
Gillian Lee
present
Teams Want a Quick Game to Learn
How to Deliver Value Faster

2. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Acquired by
800 Team Transformation
• Chief Agilist
• Enterprise Transformation
• Built Agile Delivery team
@DamonPoole Highlights
• Independent Agile Consulting
• Founder at Nexxle
Founder, CEO, CTO
Past President

3. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Gillian Lee – Scotia Bank
• Program Director, Cloud Architecture & Infrastructure
• Co-founder of Agile Toronto
• Scrum Master and Agile Coach with a passion for
teamwork
• Has worked with software teams in finance, retail,
currency exchange, earth sciences, and consulting.
• ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Coaching
• Certified Scrum Practitioner
• Studied computer science engineering at MIT.

4. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
User Stories
iOS user wants redundant
copy of data on device in
case of accidental changes
Components of a User Story
Who: iOS user
What: redundant copy of data on device
Why: in case of accidental changes
Characteristics of User Stories
• Can be implemented in any order
• Does not specify how to implement it
• Customer/market focused
• Small
• Something that could be done as a “patch” in
a week or less

5. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Bill Wake’s “INVEST” Guidelines
• Independent
• To the extent possible, stories can be implemented in any order
• Negotiable
• How to accomplish the goal is left open, no suggested implementation
• Valuable to the user
• Something the user can actually use, not just a technical task
• Estimable
• No research required, well understood
• Small
• Can be taken from concept to ready for release within a couple of weeks and
preferably within a couple of days
• Testable
• It is possible to measure something specific to verify that the story is done

6. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Movie-goer wants to add
e-tickets to shopping cart
to skip line
V3
Valuable
Not valuable
Movie-goer wants to buy
e-tickets via shopping
cart to skip line
V3
Valuable

7. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Full backup from device to
datacenter
Reporting
Quick encrypted backup to
connected storage device
Backup for older
devices
Incremental
backups
Secure api to backed up
data to support 3pty
services (eg anti-virus)
Product > Epics > User Stories
Android user wants to
save/restore notes data
for simple backup
Admin wants automated
daily reports on storage
usage to help spot
trends
iOS user wants
redundant copy of data
on device in case of
accidental changes
User stories are the
smallest unit of value
Product: BYOD data backup for large businesses to protect IP
EPIC EPIC
EPIC
EPIC EPIC
EPIC

8. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Products to Epics to Stories
Products
Epics
User Stories
(start to prod in < 2 weeks)

9. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Regulator wants name
and address entered to
validate a customer’s
identity
NT
Negotiable
Not negotiable
Regulator wants
information entered to
validate a customer’s
identity
NT
Negotiable

10. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Shopper wants high
availability to be able to
shop at any time
NT
Testable
Not testable
Shopper wants the
system to be down for
no more than 5 seconds
per week to be able to
shop at any time NT
Testable

11. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
High Level Instructions
• There are a total of 7 games
• Two of the games have two decks, use one deck at a time (W1&W2, NT1 & NT2)
• The games are in recommended order, but you can do them in any order
• For each game:
• Stay within the recommended timebox, use a timekeeper if necessary
• Start with the cards story side up (the side with a circle in the bottom right)
• Shuffle the cards before laying them out
• Separate the cards into categories
• When done, check your answers on the back of the cards
• This is not a test, the most important thing is the conversation
• Form teams of 3

12. Copyright 2016-2018 Damon Poole
Materials
https://Nexxle.com/Agile/downloads/userstorygame.html