User Story Details interview topics

Agile user stories drive a series of conversations about the desired functionality that help the development team collaborate to find the best customer value in the overall product development process.

 

 Keep Focus on the User: a to-do list keeps the team focused on tasks that need to be checked off, but a collection of stories keeps the team focused on solving problems for real users.

 

Blocks Transparency: User stories do not promote transparency. They are standalone and block clear vision.

 

Enables Collaboration: with the end goal defined, the team can work together to decide how best to serve the user and meet that goal.

 

Different Understandings: User stories have different meaning for different people in the team.

 

Drives Creative Solutions: stories encourage the team to think critically and creatively about how to best solve for an end goal.

 

Creates Momentum: with each passing story, the development team enjoys a small challenge and a small win, driving momentum.

 

 

Product Owners expressed their vision through small items called User Stories which are maintained in Product Backlog.

 

These User Stories are created, updated, maintained and prioritized as part of the Backlog Refinement.

 

Creating and writing user stories is a collaborative effort. We get the most benefits from user stories when they are created in open discussions between users, business professionals, developers, and other stake holders.

US is a simplified, high-level description of users requirements.

Don't necessarily too technical

 

Structure:

 

As a

I want

So that

 

Who, what and why

Ex:	As a potential conference attendee
	I want to be able to register for the conference online
	So that registration is simple and paperless
Ex:	As a internet banking customer
	I want to see a rolling balance for my everyday accounts
	So that I can keep track of my spending after each transaction is applied

 

US is more customer focused

 

 

Acceptance criteria:

Gives a detailed scope of a users requirements.

It helps clarifying what needs to be built

It helps in common understanding of US

It helps in knowing when US is complete

Example:

Create conference attendance form

An user can not submit without filling mandatiory fields

Information from the form is stored in regisration DB

Protection against spam is working

Payment can be made by creditcard or paypal

Acckoledgement email to be sent to attendee

 

 

Product backlog refinement:

Product Backlog refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining Product Backlog items (e.g. User Stories) into smaller more precise items

 

• It is an Ongoing Activity to add details to backlog items (e.g. User Stories) such as description, order, priority, size and other details.

 

• Product Owner may influence the team members by helping them understand and select trade-offs.

 

User Personas

Creating user personas is key for a good US

Components of persona: name, picture, relavent charactoristic like age or income group

Common tasks

 

• Information in the persona is typically based on direct observation, interviews, and other qualitative market research.
• Personas helps us developing the empathy for the users and customers.
• They encourage you to embrace a user-centered approach: putting the users first and building a product that that truly benefits them.
• We define Personas first as they are the key aspect to creating a good user story.

 

Userstory Mapping: it is a technique of organizing and prioritizing US

 

 

Vision --> goals --> activity --> tasks --> userstories

 

Story mapping is the effective way of creating a product backlog

Story mapping is the engaging activity beween stakeholdes scrum team and stakeholders

Map consists of user activities in horizontal axis,

Down the vertical axis it represents the details of the activity

 

Define vision --What, Who and why

Define highlevel steps, we call goals, ex: online shop: search product, view product, add it to cart, create account, fill personal info, fill payment details, cofirm order

Define common goals, we call activities ex group search product, view product and add to cart as "select product", create account, fill personal info as "manafge account" and fill payment details and confirm order as "buy product"

Create task from activities

Test it for gaps

Prioritize the colums of ,map like must have, should have, could have, wont have now

This is the starting point of product backlog

Based on story map we define iterations or releases, we try to get the minimum viable product that is MVP.

MVP is the part of first releaase/iteration

And based on priority so on

Keep the map updated

 

Story map is a living artifact and should be visible to whole team

The minimum viable product (MVP) is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

 

The value gained from Iterative Delivery with MVP includes:

Validated learning—Not necessarily a release, but enough progress to receive feedback early and often.

Just enough features—To gather validated learning about the direction of the product and the roadmap.

Minimized Risk and Spend—Defining, designing and delivering MVP is a critical aspect of Agile that allows the team to gather feedback quickly and change directions if needed.

 

 

User storyt components:

The Three C's capture the components of a User Story:

 

Card – Short, Quick description of the User Story.

Conversation – More about verbal conversation than written conversation. Discuss the card with others in the team and ask questions to clarify the details. The ultimate goal is to build the shared understanding.

Confirmation – Work towards the agreement on what to build through Acceptance Criteria.

 

 

A good user story should be:

• Independent
• Negotiable
• Valuable
• Estimable
• Small
• Testable

Some Additional tips for writing Good User Stories.

• Start with the users
• Use personas to discover the right stories
• Write stories collaboratively
• Keep stories simple and concise
• Start with epics (as applicable)
• Decompose / break down stories until they are ready
• Start with cards – virtual or paper
• Keep stories visible and accessible
• Tie stories to business value

 

Story splitting:

Needed for small enough to deliver within sprint

Easy to estimate

 

Slice vertically through the layers instead of horizontal

SPIDR approach to stpory splitting

• Spike
• Path
• Interface
• Data
• Rules

 

Story vs Task

User Stories are estimated by the team and represent the collective team effort to deliver the associated user value. Whereas Tasks define the work that needs to be done to deliver the user story.

 

Acceptance criteria:

7 tips for Writing Acceptance Criteria (A/C)

• Must have at least one A/C per user story
• A/C is written before implementation
• Each A/C is INDEPENDENTLY testable
• A/C has clear Pass/Fail result
• Focuses on End-Result
• Include both Functional and Non-Functional criteria
• Team writes A/C. PO confirms A/C

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