Presented at PHPNW13, Manchester, England.

1. Your User Stories Are Bad
And You Should Feel Bad

2. John Cleary
@TheRealBifter
http://joind.in/talk/view/9308

3. • What Are User Stories?
• A Story About User Stories
• Invest in better stories
• Common Smells
• Pro Tips
• Examples

4. So, what are User Stories

5. The Card

6. The Conversation

7. The Confirmation or Acceptance Criteria

8. The Three Little Pigs
A Story About User Stories

9. Can you build
me a house?
Yeah, but I need a
User Story.

10. Story:
As a Pig I want a house
so that I am safe and
warm

11. House 1.0

12. 406 Not Acceptable

13. What up?
Wolf blew the house
down!!!
Ah!* I think we need some
Acceptance Criteria
* try www.developerexcuses.com

14. Acceptance Criteria:
Does the structure
withstand strong
winds?

15. House 1.1

16. 301 Moved Permanently

17. How’s the house?
Gone
Ah!* I think the Acceptance
Criteria need to be
measurable.
* try www.developerexcuses.com

18. Acceptance Criteria:
Does the structure
withstand strong winds
of up to 60mph?

19. House 2.0

20. 200 OK

21. Hows the house?
Great - let’s celebrate!
Bacon Butties?

22. INVEST In Good User Stories

23. Independent

24. Negotiable

25. Valuable

26. Estimable

27. Small or Suitably Sized

28. These are small, but the ones out
there are far away

29. Testable

30. Independent
Negotiable
Valuable
Estimable
Small
Testable

31. Common Smells

32. Too small

33. Dependent on other
stories

34. Goldplating?

35. Too much detail

36. Too much planning

37. You* wrote them
*Assumes you are a developer
and not an actual user.

38. Pro Tips

39. 1. Know your users

40. 2. Get users to write the
stories

41. 3. Run workshops

42. 4. Use user proxies if the
user is not available

43. 5. Have project goals
and sprint goals

44. 6. If the story is too
large, “slice the cake”

45. 7. Know what estimates
are for

46. 8. Postpone design

47. 9. Not everything is a
story

48. 10. Review your stories
(use INVEST)

49. Examples

50. As a System Admin I need
to review user activity
1

51. As a team leader I need to
review team members
activity so I can ensure
that staff are being
productive.
1

52. As a valued customer I
want to be able to see
special offers open only to
me so I can grab a
bargain.
2

53. As the website owner I
want to highlight certain
products to registered
customer so I can increase
profit!
2

54. A house hunter can view
information about the
estate agent from the
property description page
3

55. When viewing details
about a house, a house
hunter may view
information about the
estate agent
3

56. THE END!

57. Questions?

58. @TheRealBifter
http://joind.in/talk/view/9308
Thanks!