Agile and user story workshop Peter Saddington

Agile with SCRUM Overview and User Stories Peter Saddington, CSM CSP Enterprise Agile Coach Executive Editor AgileScout.com @agilescout

White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington Peter Saddington, CSP CSM Independent Enterprise Agile Coach Rally Software Agile Coach Executive Editor AgileScout.com Author – Scrum Pocket Guide [email_address] +1.404.669.6662 www.agilescout.com www.scrumpocketguide.com Twitter: @agilescout

Before we begin… A Standup! Let’s take a moment to introduce ourselves. What’s your name & project you’re working on? What is your level of experience with Agile? What do you hope to learn in this workshop? Write questions on Sticky notes as they occur to you and affix them to our Learning Backlog . White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

Agile Manifesto Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington www.agilemanifesto.org

Distilled Principles of Agile Manifesto Priority is to satisfy the customer Deliver working software frequently Business and development work together Working software is primary measure of success The team regularly reflects on work Build projects around motivated people White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

Agile vs Scrum vs Other Frameworks Agile is a mindset, there are several ways to implement Agile: XP – Extreme Programming DSDM – Dynamic Systems Development Method Scrum – lightweight team centric processes Lean – Manufacturing processes applied to software FDD – Feature centric processes White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

Exercise – Batch vs Flow Four volunteers, please! Round 1 Each person flips all pennies When done with entire batch, pass to next person Round 2 Each person flip one penny and pass to next person Keep flipping and passing until done Round 3 Each table creates their own rules to maximize penny flow/throughput in least amount of time White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

Scrum Rules Scrum is a set of rules, procedures, and practices Improve the development environment Reduce organizational overheads Ensure iterative deliverables match user requirements White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

How It All Starts A Scrum project starts with a vision of the system or product to be developed The vision might be vague at first… Perhaps stated in market terms rather than system terms… But it will become clearer as the project moves forward White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

Scrum Roles Product Owner The single customer voice who establishes the vision, prioritizes the work and defines success criteria ScrumMaster The situational leader who empowers the team, facilitates the process, and removes impediments Cross-functional team The people who deliver the customer value White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

Scrum Artifacts User Stories Product Backlog List of functional and non-functional requirements Sprint Backlog Prioritized list of stories for a given sprint Sprint Burndown Chart A chart showing completion of stories over time Definition of done White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

The Bottom Line Scrum is: Doing the simplest thing possible Getting a team what it needs and getting out of their way Removing any obstacle that is preventing a team from being productive and efficient White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

Final Thoughts The core of Agile is the team Focus on the priorities first (most valuable) Communication Document throughout the process instead of all up front Review, review, review Define the “done.” White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

User Stories – Better Practices A Quick Guide to Story Creation in Scrum Peter Saddington CSM, CSP Agile Scrum Coach

Why Not Requirements Documents? Complete specifications: Assume everything is knowable in advance Are time-consuming to write and tedious to read Treat learning as a “Change of Scope” Don’t lend themselves to iterative, incremental delivery process White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

User Stories Facilitate Conversation User* – How do I describe what I want? Stakeholder – What do I need in my product to be successful? PM – How do I track and schedule this work? BA – What are the details of this feature? UX – How do I understand the users needs? Developer – What are the details of the tasks I need to work on today? QA – How do I validate this completed work? White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Adapted from Jeff Patton www.AgileProductDesign.com

Easy to understand – Makes sense to the reader A (software/system) requirement One or two sentences with value to the customer Written by the Customer – PO or BA Refined by Development – Tasks and Technical Negotiable – Conversation token Small and estimable – Small enough to estimate Testable – Should have acceptance criteria Becomes more detailed over time – Iteration Planning White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington A User Story Is

Scenario : You need to create a simple login and preferences mechanism for your corporate Twitter account Who are your users of this system? What are their roles? White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Exercise - Defining the Personas

Story Creation - Guidelines Stakeholders write user stories Remember non-functional requirements Indicate the estimated size Indicate the priority Include a unique identifier (if applicable) Go into a product backlog The product backlog is prioritized by value – Highest to lowest White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Non-Functional Requirements Non-functional requirements should often be considered “constraints” on a system Can include: Performance Quality Accuracy Portability Reusability Maintainability Interoperability Capacity White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Adapted from Mike Cohn www.mountaingoatsoftware.com

INVEST Model I ndependent – One user story should be independent of another (as much as possible). Dependencies between stories make planning, prioritization, and estimation much more difficult. N egotiable – Details of the story can be worked out during an Iteration planning meeting. A story with too much detail can limit conversations (at times). V aluable – Value to the customer. E stimable – There needs to be enough detail for the developers to estimate a user story to allow prioritization and planning of the story. S mall – A good story should be small in effort, typically no more than 2-3 person weeks of effort (smaller is better)! T estable – User stories should be testable with certain acceptance criteria. Saying something like “software should be easy to use” is not helpful. White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Bill Wake’s INVEST Model

Ron Jeffries 3 C’s Card – Stories written on note cards with annotations as needed (estimates, notes, etc) Conversation – Details behind story come out through conversations with the Product Owner Confirmation – Acceptance tests confirm the story was coded correctly White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Four Main Components of a Story ( Given ( AS A ) ) – “As a business owner…” / “Given a new list…” ( When ( I WANT ) ) – “I’d like the ability to…” / “We need a function to…” / “When a customer clicks on…” / “When a dropdown opens…” ( Then ( SO THAT ) ) – “So that I can…” / “So that the customer can…” / “Then the customer should see…” / “Then the dropdown list should…” ( Acceptance Criteria ) – Verifiable and testable criteria that can be tested based on THEN clause. Or Simply: “As a <user type>, I want to <function> so that I can <business value> White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

1. Given ( Given ( AS A ) ) – “As a business owner…” / “Given a new list…” We want users to be tangible with needs Build out “Personas” or “User Roles” – Standard user definitions (Sacred – Added with purpose) Avoid generic terms White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

2. When ( When ( I WANT ) ) – “I’d like the ability to…” / “We need a function to…” / “When a customer clicks on…” / “When a dropdown opens…” This is the meat and potatoes of the story This is where you describe the functions White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

3. Then ( Then ( SO THAT ) ) – “So that I can…” / “So that the customer can…” / “Then the customer should see…” / “Then the dropdown list should…” This is to show the intrinsic value of the story The value is to the persona, user, or author White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

4. Acceptance Criteria ( Acceptance Criteria ) – Verifiable and testable criteria that can be tested based on THEN clause. These are essentially tests – Conditions of satisfaction Example: As a user, I can cancel a reservation. Verify that a premium member can cancel Verify that a email confirmation is sent Verify that the hotel is notified of any cancelation These acceptance criteria can become developer tasks White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

4a. Acceptance Stories ( Acceptance Stories ) – Verifiable and testable criteria written in acceptance test form. Scenario 1: TITLE GIVEN [context] And [some more context] When [event] Then [outcome] And [another outcome] White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

4b. Acceptance Confirmation ( Acceptance Confirmation ) – Verifiable and testable criteria written in “Success” and “Failure” terms Success – valid user logged in “ Remember my user name” selected – store cookie / automatic login next time “ Remember my user name” not selected – force login next time Failure – display message: “ Email address in wrong format” “ Incorrect password, please try again” “ Service unavailable, please try again” Etc. White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Exercise – 99 Balloons Let’s form some teams! Round 1 Recreate my balloon with: 2 round eyes, a triangle nose, and a semi-circle mouth 2 minutes! Go! Round 2 How can you improve for the next iteration? Round 3 How did you change how you worked this time around? White Barrel LLC. © 2011 Peter Saddington

User Interviews Select right interviewees Ask open-ended, context-free questions Questionnaires Larger population of users When you need specific answers to questions Observation Best for in-house developments Story writing workshops White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Step #2 – Gathering User Stories

Scenario : You need to create a simple login and preferences mechanism for your corporate Twitter account We’ve determined our users… Let’s refine the set of user stories White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Exercise – Refine the User Stories

Product Backlog to Release Backlog A prioritized list of features for the given product Stories are implemented based on their priority The TOP priority Features are put into iterations first Changes to the iterations are OK After stories are built they go into a release backlog White Barrel LLC. © 2010 Peter Saddington

Prioritization Factors to Consider Financial value of features Costs of implementation Amount of risk removed / added Training on new features PO should be enabled White Barrel LLC. © 2010 Peter Saddington

MoSCoW Method M – MUST have (Critical for success) S – SHOULD have if possible (If not time critical) C – COULD have if it does not affect anything else (Include if little development cost) W – WON’T have this time, but WOULD like in future White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington MoSCoW method - Dai Clegg of Oracle UK for DSDM

M & S of MoSCoW M – MUST have (Critical for success) Essential - key stakeholders needs will not be satisfied if this requirement is not delivered and the timebox will be considered to have failed S – SHOULD have if possible (If not time critical) Important - but if not delivered within the current timebox, there is an acceptable workaround until it is delivered during the next sprint White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

C & W of MoSCoW C – COULD have if it does not affect anything else (Include if little development cost) “ Nice to have” – this is estimated to be possible to complete in the timebox but will be de-scoped if an underestimation has occured W – WON’T have this time, but WOULD like in future Will not be delivered within the timebox White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Kano’s Model of Quality Objective and Subjective Quality Must-haves – Same as “M” in MoSCoW One-dimensional – “The more of this I get, the better.” Delighters – Great to haves White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Noriaki Kano – Theory of Product Development

Kano’s Model - Example In Agile – Objective quality is non-negotiable Subjective quality – Perception of quality To accurately assess subjective quality, the Product Owner MUST know the customers (primary users) One user’s “delighter” may leave others apathetic One user’s “must have” is useless to others White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Jeff Paton – www.Agileproductdesign.com

Manage the backlog by: Sorting stories by user persona Sorting stories by highest priority (value) Review stories for completeness Asking the 4 “WHYs” for business value Why do you want…? [As a] Customer Service Representative [I want] to have a button [So that] I can go to the next screen… White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Step #3 – A.C. and Backlog Priority

Scenario : You need to create a simple login and preferences mechanism for your corporate Twitter account We’ve determined our users… We’ve refined the set of user stories Let’s put A.C. and priority White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington Exercise – Stories to Backlog

Tasks Warm Up Exercise What are all the things you did to get ready to be at work today? Starting from the moment you woke up to arriving here. Take a sheet of paper and write them down! White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Exercise – Creating at a Story Ta ke a current feature your team is aware of Each team member writes the story Share Discuss – Implications / Constraints / Missed AC Review White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Epic User Stories Causes for Story Size Stories cover too much information Story writers do not have the needed domain knowledge Stories have uncertainty due to dependence on new technology Story writers cannot articulate exactly what they want White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Breaking Up Epics Split – Slice stories up into different scenarios Spike – Too many unknowns? Time-box a spike and take a deep dive into the technology or domain Stub – Part of a story known and part unknown. Fake it with a stub! Work on the known part up till the unknown. Time box – The PO knows they need something, but until they get it, not sure if it’s right White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Splitting for Value - Three Rules When breaking down epics, remember: Split stories for value – No value? Hard to prioritize Split a story that gets you more equally sized small stories Split an epic that lets you deprioritize or throw away a story White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Suggestions for Splitting Up Epics Handle empty scenarios and core functions first Happy path, then alternate flows / exceptions Single option, then add additional options Simple (or no) UI, then add bells / whistles Transient case (no memory between sessions) before persistence Static elements, then dynamic based on content User specified, then more automation White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Exercise – Baseline Story Estimation Different Stories in different sizes (1,2,3,5,8…) What was the estimated size? What were the complexities of that story? Does this story need a re-write? What was missed? Complete for sizes White Barrel LLC © 2010 Peter Saddington

Agile and user story workshop Peter Saddington

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