Agile cymru Slicing Stories July 2015

© Copyright 2010 – 2015 Sprint Agile Ltd All rights reserved.
Matt Roadnight
July 2015
matt.roadnight@sprintagile.com
@mattroadnight
Slicing Stories

2.© Copyright 2010 - 2015 Sprint Agile Ltd All rights reserved.
How to ……
I’ve done it
before
I understand the
concepts,
but not practiced
much
Slicing is new
to me
Slice Stories
Your Experience …. Grab a small Post-it …
On your table – try and have at least one of these -
Sit with people you don’t know (you may learn more) … at
least 4 at each table, a maximum of 6

Thanks …..
– Peter Marshall – Equal Experts
– Antony Marcano – RiverGlide

Slicing
Product Slicing
Story Slicing

Approach

Story Slicing

 Discuss Agile Principles for working
in an iteration or to a cadence
 e.g. cross functional team
 Discuss and capture
Story Slicing

Story – A definition
In your groups discuss challenges to applying principles to working
in an iteration when creating stories that are “Ready” to create a
product increment from.
A Story that is ready to create a product increment from …..
“…understandable to customers and developers, testable, valuable to
the customer and small enough so that the programmers can build
half a dozen in an iteration.”
Kent Beck, 2001
Story Slicing
User stories are short, simple description of a
feature told from the perspective of the person
who desires the new capability, usually a user or
customer of the system. They typically follow a
simple template:
As a <type of user>, I want <some goal> so that
<some reason>
Source : Mike Cohn, Mountain Goat Software

Story Slicing

Mi-Card
Mi-Card
Story Slicing

Exercise
 Open Envelope #1
 Lay out theses stories according to the “system journey”
Story Slicing

Your Story Map ….
You will probably have something like ….
Story Slicing
User Activities – “A sort of big
thing that people do”
Jeff Patton
BalanceLogin
Card
Transactions

Story – A definition
A Story that is ready to create a product increment from …..
“…understandable to customers and developers, testable, valuable to
the customer and small enough so that the programmers can build
half a dozen in an iteration.”
Kent Beck, 2001
Story Slicing

Progress isn’t quite as expected …
Balance
Login
Card Transactions
Story Slicing

Product Backlog Refinement
Epics or Features
“Ready” User Stories
Backlog
Refinement /
Grooming /
Ready
Story Slicing

Discussion
 Chat on your tables
 To get “ “Refined”
– What kind of activities may take place ?
– What artefacts could be created ?
– Who may be involved ?
Card Transactions
Story Slicing

Take the Epics and work them up a bit …
 Stuff that may happen ….
 Further refinement
– Split the Epic up into a smaller stories
 Stories provide more focus than the Epics
 Principles are generally well understood
 Encourages use of acceptance criteria
 Initial refinement
– Get out an initial sketch
– Understand the process
– Identify further large stories
 Work through based on value / prioritisation (Linier Backlog)
Story Slicing

Refinement of an Epic Story
Story
Story
Story
Feature or Theme
EPIC
Story
Refinement
Story
Story
Story
Story Slicing

Exercise - Initial Refinement
 Open envelope #2 ….
 Have a look at the design sketch and
additional stories, have a chat, can you
see where the stories map to the UI
design?
 Lay out your cards in priority order,
guided by user value
Story Slicing
Story
Story
Story
Card Transactions
Lower Priority
Story

Print
Search Filter
View a List

 All agree we are doing the “View a list of transactions “ first …
 Most people get here OK, but not many people slice further ….
 Assume it’s too big for a sprint, the team need to get it to “DONE” in 2-5
days
Story Slicing

Product owner
Too big for a sprint Don’t slice
‘horizontally’
Vertical slicing enables
PO to validate and
feedback
“Slicing” User Stories that are too big Story Slicing

Slicing Stories
 Break them down into vertical slices of
Functionality e.g.
– Sunshine Path
– Layer on exceptions after, and one at a time
 Prioritise for business value, but also
ensure that you allow the team time to
produce backlog items that are Ready
for Sprint Planning
Front End
Middle
Back End
Product Backlog
Item Slices
Story Slicing

 Agile Manifesto Principle -
 Simplicity --the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--
is essential.
 So …
 Do the simplest thing you could possibly do first and get it working end to
end.
 You have always got something to demonstrate, and a potentially
shippable product.
 To get there try some of these approaches …

Tool : Some approaches for Slicing Stories
Approach Description
Acceptance
Criteria
Take out some of your acceptance criteria and put them in another story.
By User Try focussing on a subset of users or a single user, start with the most valuable.
Process Pick the “Happy Path” first, the path that is taken the majority of the time. Add the
edge cases and exceptions as you go, be prepared to look at alternatives for
exceptions not implemented if you run out of time or budget.
Data Set Limit the data set that you apply the functionality to. System, geographical or
product boundaries will guide you. Add others as you build and learn from the first.
Input/ Output
Thinning
Can you simplify the input or output – remove fields or use a command line or
“rougher“ UI.
Architectural Defer Performance (but not for too long), defer internationalisation, mock interfaces.
Story Slicing
A summary of a number of approaches from sources like …
Rachel Davies – Agile Coaching Blog Bill Wake – XP 123 Article - 20 ways to split stories
Gottesdeiner & Gorman – Slicing Requirements for Agile Success Article

Exercise - Envelope #3
 Role Playing : Pick one of 4
Specialist roles
– Development, UX, Business,
Test
– Each of you will have some
additional information that you
will need to share and
collaborate on to get the full
picture
 USE the Systems View !!
Story Slicing
Read through the roles and discuss what options you have
for slicing the story – tip – look at the acceptance criteria first.
See if you can come up with some slices.

Tool : Slicing Grid
Architectural
Story Slicing
Data

No of cards
Example Elements
Transaction Info Date,
Amount,
Supplier
Status
Example Options
One One More Up to 10

Exercise- Envelope – Slicing Grid
 Create a Slicing grid
 Circle on your slicing Grid the
simplest slice and then write a
story for it
– NB – balance the detail between
the front and back of the card

Story Slicing

Exercise
 Refer back to the
Principles for working in an
iteration and the
challenges in applying
those principles
 Discuss how Slicing
Approaches and the
Slicing Grid could help
address those challenges,
and any other benefits from
using these tools
Story Slicing

Story Slicing helps with feature estimation
Estimates
Constraints Features Cost Schedule
FeaturesCost Schedule
Value
Driven
Plan
Driven
The Plan creates the
Cost/schedule estimates
Value drives the
feature estimates
Traditional Agile

SCOPE
TIME COST
Quality

User Story Map
Feature
Story Story Story
Story
StoryStory
Vision
Story Story StoryStory
Story
Story Story Story
Story
Story
Story
Story Story
Story
Story
Feature Feature Feature
Release
Goal
Release
Goal

Slicing
Product Slicing
BalanceLogin Card Transactions

matt.roadnight@sprintagile.com
@mattroadnight

Agile cymru Slicing Stories July 2015

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