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23° International Workshop on Software
Measurement (IWSM) and 8th International
Conference on Software Process and Product
Measurement (MENSURA)
Ankara (Turkey) - October 23-25, 2013

Improving the User Story Agile Technique Using the INVEST Criteria

Luigi Buglione
Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid

Goals of the presentation

1. Discuss the estimation issue as typically dealt with in
the Agile Project Management (APM) context
2. Introduce Mike Cohn’s 6 INVEST criteria for
evaluating a User Story (US)
3. Propose a refinement – the INVEST Grid – for a more
quantitative evaluation, to better balance the set of US within
a Sprint

2

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
ETS - GELOG

At a glance

gelog.etsmtl.ca
gelog.etsmtl.ca

3

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
Engineering

At a glance

www.eng.it
www.eng.it
4

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid
•

Introduction

•

Agenda

Key Issues:

– The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…)
– Some basic questions
1. Sizing Units
2. Historical Data
3. Requirements

•

INVEST: Grid & Process

•

Lessons Learned from Experience

•

Conclusions & Future Works

•

Q&A

5

– The INVEST Grid
– The INVEST Process

– Definitions, Level of granularity
– Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage
– Agile Project Management (APM) concepts

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
A bit of humour…

URL : http://www.enagility.com

Introduction

6

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
Introduction

The Agile Manifesto (15 years later...)

agilemanifesto.org
agilemanifesto.org

http://goo.gl/3p6ky0
http://goo.gl/3p6ky0

7

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
Introduction

Some basic questions...

Are agile estimates based on objective assumptions (e.g.
sizing units)?

Are such estimates feasible and repeatable?
How are requirements managed and validated?

Which best practices are in place? Which standards?
Source : Buglione L. & Abran A., Improving Estimations in Agile Projects: issues and avenues, Proceedings of the 4th

Software Measurement European Forum (SMEF 2007), Rome (Italy), May 9-11 2007, ISBN 9-788870-909425, pp.265-274,
URL: http://www.dpo.it/smef2007/papers/day2/212.pdf

8

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid
•

Introduction

•

Agenda

Key Issues

– The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…)
– Some basic questions
1. Sizing Units
2. Historical Data
3. Requirements

•

INVEST: Grid & Process

•

Some Lessons from Experience

•

Conclusions & Future Works

•

Q&A

9

– The INVEST Grid
– The INVEST Process

– Definitions, Level of granularity
– Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage
– Agile Project Management (APM) concepts

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
Key Issues

Results from a Root-Cause Analysis (RCA)...

The 3 main issues from a RCA to improve agile estimations...
1) Sizing Issues

 Story Points (SP): estabished locally & impacted by local conditions  not repetable, they
estimate the effort (not the size) for an US
 The typical “logical chain” is: Q  T  C
1. Determine the Quantity/ies according to attributes to be sized with their units  “sizing”
1+ attributes
2. Based on history: determine Productivity (Q/T), possible to determine the working time
(T), both as Effort (E) as well as Duration (D)
3. According to T (E, D) and knowing costs models (fixed+labour costs), possible to
determine the project/activity Costs (C)

2) Historical Data

 In real life any estimation comes from historical data, even if not formalized
(‘experience’)
 Since ICT project should be in a middle way between ‘real life’ and ‘rocket science’,
why is it so hard to collect project historical data at the project closure phase?
 Workaround (while waiting to collect your own data)  access an external repository,
also for benchmarking purposes (e.g. ISBSG, PROMISE)

3) Requirements

 FUR + NFRs (see ISO 25010 for a product ‘quality’ model)
 Need to analyze in depth NFRs: often ‘hide’ a relevant amount of effort, not apparently
visible to estimators or thought as ‘implicit’  underestimation & litigation between
parties, because of variance between estimates and actuals

10

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
Introduction

Key Issue – Dealt with (all) Requirements
US Title

Implementation Priority
Relative
Productivity
/Estimation

Functional
Test

High Level
FUR
Functional Req
(FUR)

Non-functional
Reqs (NFR)

Org/Project related
Reqs
11

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid
•

Introduction

•

Agenda

Key Issues

– The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…)
– Some basic questions
1. Sizing Units
2. Historical Data
3. Requirements

•

INVEST: Grid & Process

•

Some Lessons from Experience

•

Conclusions & Future Works

•

Q&A

12

– The INVEST Grid
– The INVEST Process

– Definitions, Level of granularity
– Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage
– Agile Project Management (APM) concepts

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST

INVEST – From the Criteria to the Grid

•

Need for Evaluating Requirements in Agile contexts

•

Make INVEST criteria more quantitative

13

 “INVEST”: 6 criteria from Mike Cohn for evaluating each US, i.e. qualitative
checklist before approving it in the ‘Planning game’ between the Product Owner
(customer rep.) & Scrum master (provider’s PM)
 I – Independent
 N – Negotiable
 V – Valuable
 E – Estimable
Source : Cohn M. User Stories Applied: In Agile Software Development, Chapter 2:
Writing Stories, Addison Wesley, 2004, URL: http://goo.gl/zN2jg
 S – Small
 T - Testable

 The INVEST Grid – next slide - tries to satisfy that need
 Create your own definitions over an ordinal scale (e.g. 0-3 as in ISO 14598)
 Fill cells as in a maturity model for each criterion
 Customer & Provider have to jointly evaluate the achieved level
 US will move into production & will be assigned to an iteration/Sprint only when
the agreed thresholds for the 6 criteria will be achieved

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST

The INVEST Grid
0

1

2

3

Poor /Absent

Fair

Good

Excellent

User Stories should be
as independent as
possible 

The start of construction
of a US is tied to
the completion of at
least one other US

The completion of a US
hinders the start of
construction of at least
one other US

The US is fully
independent, and it can
be realized and released
with any constraint

N – Negotiable

User Stories should be
"open",  reporting
any relevant details as
much as possible 

The US contains enough
detail to be a technical
specification (Design
phase), leaving no room
to negotiate any element

The US is written with
enough detail to be a
functional specification
(Analysis phase), leaving
no room to negotiate any
element

V – Valuable

User Stories should pro
vide value to end users
in terms of the solution

The functional part (F) of
the US does not contain
all the functionalities
requested by the
customer

E – Estimable

Each User Story must
be able to be
estimated in terms
of relative size
and effort

S – Small

Each User
Story should be
 sufficiently
granular, and
not defined at too high
a level

The US shows only its
functional (F) part, filled in
by the customer, but
without sufficient detail to
allow the provider to fill in
the Q/T parts
The US is very large, and
cannot be completed
within a Sprint

The functional (F) part of
the US expresses mostly
qualitative (Q) and
technical (T) requirements
about the system, and
needs to be more
developed in terms of
functional requirements
The US shows only its
functional (F) part, filled in
by the customer, but
validated with the provider

The US can contain any
constraint, but its release
can be constrained by the
completion of at least one
other US
The US is written with
informative content
defining a User
Requirement in a
consolidated manner, yet
shared between Customer
and Provider
The functional (F) part of
the US expresses mostly
the functional
requirements requested
by the Customer, but also
includes qualitative (Q)
and technical (T)
requirements
The US has been
completed by the provider
with respect to Q/T
issues, but still needs to
be validated jointly with
the customer
The size of the US is such
that it can be completed
within a Sprint, jointly with
other US, but it is too
small to create overhead
about the Testing phase

INVEST

Description

I –
Independent

T – Testable

14

Each User Story must
be formulated in an
effort to stress useful
details  for
creating tests

The US does not
include tips about
Acceptance Tests

The US is very large, and
can be completed within a
Sprint, but cannot
accommodate the
creation/delivery of other
US
The US includes a formal
indication of Acceptance 
Tests, but yet to be
completed

The US is written with the
informative content typical
of a high-level need,
allowing feedback
between customer and
provider
The functional (F) part of
the US correctly
expresses only the
functional requirements
requested by the
customer
All the useful parts of the
US (F/Q/T) are shown,
allowing the effort need to
size and estimate it, and
validated by both parts
The size of the US is such
that it can be completed
within a Sprint, jointly with
other US, ensuring an
appropriate balance
between development
and testing activities
The US includes an
indication of completed
and validated
Acceptance Tests

The US includes an
indication of
Acceptance Tests which
are complete, but yet to
be validated
Source : Buglione L., Meglio Agili o Veloci? Alcune riflessioni sulle stime nei progetti XP, XPM.it, February 2007, www.xpm.it
IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST

The INVEST Grid – Target Profile (example)
0

1

2

3

Poor /Absent

Fair

Good

Excellent

User Stories should be
as independent as
possible 

The start of construction
of a US is tied to
the completion of at
least one other US

The completion of a US
hinders the start of
construction of at least
one other US

The US is fully
independent, and it can
be realized and released
with any constraint

N – Negotiable

User Stories should be
"open",  reporting
any relevant details as
much as possible 

The US contains enough
detail to be a technical
specification (Design
phase), leaving no room
to negotiate any element

The US is written with
enough detail to be a
functional specification
(Analysis phase), leaving
no room to negotiate any
element

V – Valuable

User Stories should pro
vide value to end users
in terms of the solution

The functional part (F) of
the US does not contain
all the functionalities
requested by the
customer

E – Estimable

Each User Story must
be able to be
estimated in terms
of relative size
and effort

S – Small

Each User
Story should be
 sufficiently
granular, and
not defined at too high
a level

The US shows only its
functional (F) part, filled in
by the customer, but
without sufficient detail to
allow the provider to fill in
the Q/T parts
The US is very large, and
cannot be completed
within a Sprint

The functional (F) part of
the US expresses mostly
qualitative (Q) and
technical (T) requirements
about the system, and
needs to be more
developed in terms of
functional requirements
The US shows only its
functional (F) part, filled in
by the customer, but
validated with the provider

The US can contain any
constraint, but its release
can be constrained by the
completion of at least one
other US
The US is written with
informative content
defining a User
Requirement in a
consolidated manner, yet
shared between Customer
and Provider
The functional (F) part of
the US expresses mostly
the functional
requirements requested
by the Customer, but also
includes qualitative (Q)
and technical (T)
requirements
The US has been
completed by the provider
with respect to Q/T
issues, but still needs to
be validated jointly with
the customer
The size of the US is such
that it can be completed
within a Sprint, jointly with
other US, but it is too
small to create overhead
about the Testing phase

INVEST

Description

I –
Independent

T – Testable

15

Each User Story must
be formulated in an
effort to stress useful
details  for
creating tests

The US does not
include tips about
Acceptance Tests

The US is very large, and
can be completed within a
Sprint, but cannot
accommodate the
creation/delivery of other
US
The US includes a formal
indication of Acceptance 
Tests, but yet to be
completed

The US is written with the
informative content typical
of a high-level need,
allowing feedback
between customer and
provider
The functional (F) part of
the US correctly
expresses only the
functional requirements
requested by the
customer
All the useful parts of the
US (F/Q/T) are shown,
allowing the effort need to
size and estimate it, and
validated by both parts
The size of the US is such
that it can be completed
within a Sprint, jointly with
other US, ensuring an
appropriate balance
between development
and testing activities
The US includes an
indication of completed
and validated
Acceptance Tests

The US includes an
indication of
Acceptance Tests which
are complete, but yet to
be validated
Source : Buglione L., Meglio Agili o Veloci? Alcune riflessioni sulle stime nei progetti XP, XPM.it, February 2007, www.xpm.it
IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST

The INVEST Process
Not only the Grid,
related Process

but

also

a

As for “INVEST” criteria - 6 steps:
1. Determine the US type – some
US could only be about NFR
(beginning/end of iteration/Sprint)
2. Fill the FUR – typical US elicitation
3. Fill/complete NFRs - (not all the
needed details about NFRs could be
present from the 1st version; e.g. ISO
25010)
4. Apply the INVEST Grid –
evaluate the ‘whole’ US (FUR+NFR)
with the 6 criteria but as in the grid
5. Ok or change FUR? – Go/No-Go
for closing the US writing and
estimation
6. Allocate US to a Sprint – if
everything is OK, according to an
agreed ‘profile’ for the 6 criteria (0-3
values), US can be deployed

16

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid
•

Introduction

•

Agenda

Key Issues

– The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…)
– Some basic questions
1. Sizing Units
2. Historical Data
3. Requirements

•

INVEST: Grid & Process

•

Some Lessons from Experience

•

Conclusions & Future Works

•

Q&A

17

– The INVEST Grid
– The INVEST Process

– Definitions, Level of granularity
– Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage
– Agile Project Management (APM) concepts

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
Some lessons learned

Experience – Attention Points

•

Definitions

•

Level of granularity

•

Estimation by experience/analogy

•

Limited attention to proper test coverage vs requirements

•

APM (Agile Project Management) concepts

18

 Realignment of definitions of working items & NFR between customers/providers
 Impact on the ‘Small’ criterion
 Be consistent in the way to define granularity  e.g. ‘elementary process’
 ‘Manage’  CRUD/CRUDL (Create-Read-Update-Delete-List)
 Impact on the ‘Small’ criterion
 SP are not repeatable, because set up on local basis  Experience + Analogy
 Risk to understimate some ‘hidden’ req’s, in particular on the NFR side
 Need of historical project data  each iteration/delivery could be a ‘mini-project’ to be
coordinated into a wider (high/level) project/program
 Attention to the Testable criterion  goal: reduce the CONQ by introducing the proper
number of test cases
 Look at the right/feasible test coverage threshold
 Burndown chart vs Earned Value  (absolute) time tracking, not only the deliverable
production/deployment as a progress criterion
 The INVEST Grid can help to rethink the Requirements Elicitation phase  determine
the right ‘quantities’ to be produced and the related project schedule

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid
•

Introduction

•

Agenda

Key Issues

– The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…)
– Some basic questions
1. Sizing Units
2. Historical Data
3. Requirements

•

INVEST: Grid & Process

•

Some Lessons from Experience

•

Conclusions & Future Works

•

Q&A

19

– The INVEST Grid
– The INVEST Process

– Definitions, Level of granularity
– Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage
– Agile Project Management (APM) concepts

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid

Conclusions & Future Works

•

Agile Estimations

•

Requirement Management & the INVEST Grid/Process

 Estimations in the typical Agile contexts: often based on qualitative approaches
 The introduction of techniques/approaches more quantitative-oriented could improve
estimates, reducing the estimation error
 Need to maintain the known ‘agile’ way, but introducing new ways than actual
 Requirements are ‘key’  need to be complete from several viewpoints
 INVEST is a known acronym and series of 6 criteria for evaluating User Stories
(US)...but it is still a quantitative way
 The INVEST Grid introduces the ISO 4-levels ordinal scale for rating each criteria
determining a ‘profile’ against an agreed predefined target  goal: make US complete
as much as possible but looking at more criteria at the same time
 The INVEST Process is a 6-step process giving guidance about the interplay between
customer and provider for achieving the best possible combination of USs per
iteration/sprint

 Next Steps

 Refine & tailor definitions across the 4 levels for the 6 INVEST criteria
 Obtain empirical feedback from various industry domains
 ...try & see!

All models are wrong. Some models are useful.
All models are wrong. Some models are useful.
(George Box, Mathematician , , 1919-2013)
(George Box, Mathematician 1919-2013)
20

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
Lessons Learned...

URL : www.dilbert.com

INVEST Grid

21

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid

Q&A

İlginiz için teşekkürler !
Thanks for your attention !
22

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it
INVEST Grid

Our Contact Data

Luigi
Buglione
Engineering.IT/ET
S

Alain
Abran
ETS Montréal

alain.abran@etsmtl.ca

luigi.buglione@eng.it

23

IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013
© 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran

www.eng.it

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Improving the User Story Agile Technique Using the INVEST Criteria

  • 1. 23° International Workshop on Software Measurement (IWSM) and 8th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement (MENSURA) Ankara (Turkey) - October 23-25, 2013 Improving the User Story Agile Technique Using the INVEST Criteria Luigi Buglione Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 2. INVEST Grid Goals of the presentation 1. Discuss the estimation issue as typically dealt with in the Agile Project Management (APM) context 2. Introduce Mike Cohn’s 6 INVEST criteria for evaluating a User Story (US) 3. Propose a refinement – the INVEST Grid – for a more quantitative evaluation, to better balance the set of US within a Sprint 2 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 3. ETS - GELOG At a glance gelog.etsmtl.ca gelog.etsmtl.ca 3 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 4. Engineering At a glance www.eng.it www.eng.it 4 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 5. INVEST Grid • Introduction • Agenda Key Issues: – The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…) – Some basic questions 1. Sizing Units 2. Historical Data 3. Requirements • INVEST: Grid & Process • Lessons Learned from Experience • Conclusions & Future Works • Q&A 5 – The INVEST Grid – The INVEST Process – Definitions, Level of granularity – Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage – Agile Project Management (APM) concepts IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 6. A bit of humour… URL : http://www.enagility.com Introduction 6 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 7. Introduction The Agile Manifesto (15 years later...) agilemanifesto.org agilemanifesto.org http://goo.gl/3p6ky0 http://goo.gl/3p6ky0 7 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 8. Introduction Some basic questions... Are agile estimates based on objective assumptions (e.g. sizing units)? Are such estimates feasible and repeatable? How are requirements managed and validated? Which best practices are in place? Which standards? Source : Buglione L. & Abran A., Improving Estimations in Agile Projects: issues and avenues, Proceedings of the 4th Software Measurement European Forum (SMEF 2007), Rome (Italy), May 9-11 2007, ISBN 9-788870-909425, pp.265-274, URL: http://www.dpo.it/smef2007/papers/day2/212.pdf 8 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 9. INVEST Grid • Introduction • Agenda Key Issues – The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…) – Some basic questions 1. Sizing Units 2. Historical Data 3. Requirements • INVEST: Grid & Process • Some Lessons from Experience • Conclusions & Future Works • Q&A 9 – The INVEST Grid – The INVEST Process – Definitions, Level of granularity – Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage – Agile Project Management (APM) concepts IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 10. Key Issues Results from a Root-Cause Analysis (RCA)... The 3 main issues from a RCA to improve agile estimations... 1) Sizing Issues  Story Points (SP): estabished locally & impacted by local conditions  not repetable, they estimate the effort (not the size) for an US  The typical “logical chain” is: Q  T  C 1. Determine the Quantity/ies according to attributes to be sized with their units  “sizing” 1+ attributes 2. Based on history: determine Productivity (Q/T), possible to determine the working time (T), both as Effort (E) as well as Duration (D) 3. According to T (E, D) and knowing costs models (fixed+labour costs), possible to determine the project/activity Costs (C) 2) Historical Data  In real life any estimation comes from historical data, even if not formalized (‘experience’)  Since ICT project should be in a middle way between ‘real life’ and ‘rocket science’, why is it so hard to collect project historical data at the project closure phase?  Workaround (while waiting to collect your own data)  access an external repository, also for benchmarking purposes (e.g. ISBSG, PROMISE) 3) Requirements  FUR + NFRs (see ISO 25010 for a product ‘quality’ model)  Need to analyze in depth NFRs: often ‘hide’ a relevant amount of effort, not apparently visible to estimators or thought as ‘implicit’  underestimation & litigation between parties, because of variance between estimates and actuals 10 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 11. Introduction Key Issue – Dealt with (all) Requirements US Title Implementation Priority Relative Productivity /Estimation Functional Test High Level FUR Functional Req (FUR) Non-functional Reqs (NFR) Org/Project related Reqs 11 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 12. INVEST Grid • Introduction • Agenda Key Issues – The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…) – Some basic questions 1. Sizing Units 2. Historical Data 3. Requirements • INVEST: Grid & Process • Some Lessons from Experience • Conclusions & Future Works • Q&A 12 – The INVEST Grid – The INVEST Process – Definitions, Level of granularity – Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage – Agile Project Management (APM) concepts IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 13. INVEST INVEST – From the Criteria to the Grid • Need for Evaluating Requirements in Agile contexts • Make INVEST criteria more quantitative 13  “INVEST”: 6 criteria from Mike Cohn for evaluating each US, i.e. qualitative checklist before approving it in the ‘Planning game’ between the Product Owner (customer rep.) & Scrum master (provider’s PM)  I – Independent  N – Negotiable  V – Valuable  E – Estimable Source : Cohn M. User Stories Applied: In Agile Software Development, Chapter 2: Writing Stories, Addison Wesley, 2004, URL: http://goo.gl/zN2jg  S – Small  T - Testable  The INVEST Grid – next slide - tries to satisfy that need  Create your own definitions over an ordinal scale (e.g. 0-3 as in ISO 14598)  Fill cells as in a maturity model for each criterion  Customer & Provider have to jointly evaluate the achieved level  US will move into production & will be assigned to an iteration/Sprint only when the agreed thresholds for the 6 criteria will be achieved IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 14. INVEST The INVEST Grid 0 1 2 3 Poor /Absent Fair Good Excellent User Stories should be as independent as possible  The start of construction of a US is tied to the completion of at least one other US The completion of a US hinders the start of construction of at least one other US The US is fully independent, and it can be realized and released with any constraint N – Negotiable User Stories should be "open",  reporting any relevant details as much as possible  The US contains enough detail to be a technical specification (Design phase), leaving no room to negotiate any element The US is written with enough detail to be a functional specification (Analysis phase), leaving no room to negotiate any element V – Valuable User Stories should pro vide value to end users in terms of the solution The functional part (F) of the US does not contain all the functionalities requested by the customer E – Estimable Each User Story must be able to be estimated in terms of relative size and effort S – Small Each User Story should be  sufficiently granular, and not defined at too high a level The US shows only its functional (F) part, filled in by the customer, but without sufficient detail to allow the provider to fill in the Q/T parts The US is very large, and cannot be completed within a Sprint The functional (F) part of the US expresses mostly qualitative (Q) and technical (T) requirements about the system, and needs to be more developed in terms of functional requirements The US shows only its functional (F) part, filled in by the customer, but validated with the provider The US can contain any constraint, but its release can be constrained by the completion of at least one other US The US is written with informative content defining a User Requirement in a consolidated manner, yet shared between Customer and Provider The functional (F) part of the US expresses mostly the functional requirements requested by the Customer, but also includes qualitative (Q) and technical (T) requirements The US has been completed by the provider with respect to Q/T issues, but still needs to be validated jointly with the customer The size of the US is such that it can be completed within a Sprint, jointly with other US, but it is too small to create overhead about the Testing phase INVEST Description I – Independent T – Testable 14 Each User Story must be formulated in an effort to stress useful details  for creating tests The US does not include tips about Acceptance Tests The US is very large, and can be completed within a Sprint, but cannot accommodate the creation/delivery of other US The US includes a formal indication of Acceptance  Tests, but yet to be completed The US is written with the informative content typical of a high-level need, allowing feedback between customer and provider The functional (F) part of the US correctly expresses only the functional requirements requested by the customer All the useful parts of the US (F/Q/T) are shown, allowing the effort need to size and estimate it, and validated by both parts The size of the US is such that it can be completed within a Sprint, jointly with other US, ensuring an appropriate balance between development and testing activities The US includes an indication of completed and validated Acceptance Tests The US includes an indication of Acceptance Tests which are complete, but yet to be validated Source : Buglione L., Meglio Agili o Veloci? Alcune riflessioni sulle stime nei progetti XP, XPM.it, February 2007, www.xpm.it IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 15. INVEST The INVEST Grid – Target Profile (example) 0 1 2 3 Poor /Absent Fair Good Excellent User Stories should be as independent as possible  The start of construction of a US is tied to the completion of at least one other US The completion of a US hinders the start of construction of at least one other US The US is fully independent, and it can be realized and released with any constraint N – Negotiable User Stories should be "open",  reporting any relevant details as much as possible  The US contains enough detail to be a technical specification (Design phase), leaving no room to negotiate any element The US is written with enough detail to be a functional specification (Analysis phase), leaving no room to negotiate any element V – Valuable User Stories should pro vide value to end users in terms of the solution The functional part (F) of the US does not contain all the functionalities requested by the customer E – Estimable Each User Story must be able to be estimated in terms of relative size and effort S – Small Each User Story should be  sufficiently granular, and not defined at too high a level The US shows only its functional (F) part, filled in by the customer, but without sufficient detail to allow the provider to fill in the Q/T parts The US is very large, and cannot be completed within a Sprint The functional (F) part of the US expresses mostly qualitative (Q) and technical (T) requirements about the system, and needs to be more developed in terms of functional requirements The US shows only its functional (F) part, filled in by the customer, but validated with the provider The US can contain any constraint, but its release can be constrained by the completion of at least one other US The US is written with informative content defining a User Requirement in a consolidated manner, yet shared between Customer and Provider The functional (F) part of the US expresses mostly the functional requirements requested by the Customer, but also includes qualitative (Q) and technical (T) requirements The US has been completed by the provider with respect to Q/T issues, but still needs to be validated jointly with the customer The size of the US is such that it can be completed within a Sprint, jointly with other US, but it is too small to create overhead about the Testing phase INVEST Description I – Independent T – Testable 15 Each User Story must be formulated in an effort to stress useful details  for creating tests The US does not include tips about Acceptance Tests The US is very large, and can be completed within a Sprint, but cannot accommodate the creation/delivery of other US The US includes a formal indication of Acceptance  Tests, but yet to be completed The US is written with the informative content typical of a high-level need, allowing feedback between customer and provider The functional (F) part of the US correctly expresses only the functional requirements requested by the customer All the useful parts of the US (F/Q/T) are shown, allowing the effort need to size and estimate it, and validated by both parts The size of the US is such that it can be completed within a Sprint, jointly with other US, ensuring an appropriate balance between development and testing activities The US includes an indication of completed and validated Acceptance Tests The US includes an indication of Acceptance Tests which are complete, but yet to be validated Source : Buglione L., Meglio Agili o Veloci? Alcune riflessioni sulle stime nei progetti XP, XPM.it, February 2007, www.xpm.it IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 16. INVEST The INVEST Process Not only the Grid, related Process but also a As for “INVEST” criteria - 6 steps: 1. Determine the US type – some US could only be about NFR (beginning/end of iteration/Sprint) 2. Fill the FUR – typical US elicitation 3. Fill/complete NFRs - (not all the needed details about NFRs could be present from the 1st version; e.g. ISO 25010) 4. Apply the INVEST Grid – evaluate the ‘whole’ US (FUR+NFR) with the 6 criteria but as in the grid 5. Ok or change FUR? – Go/No-Go for closing the US writing and estimation 6. Allocate US to a Sprint – if everything is OK, according to an agreed ‘profile’ for the 6 criteria (0-3 values), US can be deployed 16 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 17. INVEST Grid • Introduction • Agenda Key Issues – The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…) – Some basic questions 1. Sizing Units 2. Historical Data 3. Requirements • INVEST: Grid & Process • Some Lessons from Experience • Conclusions & Future Works • Q&A 17 – The INVEST Grid – The INVEST Process – Definitions, Level of granularity – Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage – Agile Project Management (APM) concepts IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 18. Some lessons learned Experience – Attention Points • Definitions • Level of granularity • Estimation by experience/analogy • Limited attention to proper test coverage vs requirements • APM (Agile Project Management) concepts 18  Realignment of definitions of working items & NFR between customers/providers  Impact on the ‘Small’ criterion  Be consistent in the way to define granularity  e.g. ‘elementary process’  ‘Manage’  CRUD/CRUDL (Create-Read-Update-Delete-List)  Impact on the ‘Small’ criterion  SP are not repeatable, because set up on local basis  Experience + Analogy  Risk to understimate some ‘hidden’ req’s, in particular on the NFR side  Need of historical project data  each iteration/delivery could be a ‘mini-project’ to be coordinated into a wider (high/level) project/program  Attention to the Testable criterion  goal: reduce the CONQ by introducing the proper number of test cases  Look at the right/feasible test coverage threshold  Burndown chart vs Earned Value  (absolute) time tracking, not only the deliverable production/deployment as a progress criterion  The INVEST Grid can help to rethink the Requirements Elicitation phase  determine the right ‘quantities’ to be produced and the related project schedule IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 19. INVEST Grid • Introduction • Agenda Key Issues – The Agile Manifesto (15 years later…) – Some basic questions 1. Sizing Units 2. Historical Data 3. Requirements • INVEST: Grid & Process • Some Lessons from Experience • Conclusions & Future Works • Q&A 19 – The INVEST Grid – The INVEST Process – Definitions, Level of granularity – Estimation by experience/analogy, Limited attention to test coverage – Agile Project Management (APM) concepts IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 20. INVEST Grid Conclusions & Future Works • Agile Estimations • Requirement Management & the INVEST Grid/Process  Estimations in the typical Agile contexts: often based on qualitative approaches  The introduction of techniques/approaches more quantitative-oriented could improve estimates, reducing the estimation error  Need to maintain the known ‘agile’ way, but introducing new ways than actual  Requirements are ‘key’  need to be complete from several viewpoints  INVEST is a known acronym and series of 6 criteria for evaluating User Stories (US)...but it is still a quantitative way  The INVEST Grid introduces the ISO 4-levels ordinal scale for rating each criteria determining a ‘profile’ against an agreed predefined target  goal: make US complete as much as possible but looking at more criteria at the same time  The INVEST Process is a 6-step process giving guidance about the interplay between customer and provider for achieving the best possible combination of USs per iteration/sprint  Next Steps  Refine & tailor definitions across the 4 levels for the 6 INVEST criteria  Obtain empirical feedback from various industry domains  ...try & see! All models are wrong. Some models are useful. All models are wrong. Some models are useful. (George Box, Mathematician , , 1919-2013) (George Box, Mathematician 1919-2013) 20 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 21. Lessons Learned... URL : www.dilbert.com INVEST Grid 21 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 22. INVEST Grid Q&A İlginiz için teşekkürler ! Thanks for your attention ! 22 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it
  • 23. INVEST Grid Our Contact Data Luigi Buglione Engineering.IT/ET S Alain Abran ETS Montréal alain.abran@etsmtl.ca luigi.buglione@eng.it 23 IWSM-MENSURA 2013 – October 23-25, 2013 © 2013 Luigi Buglione & Alain Abran www.eng.it