Click to edit Master title style

Agile
Requirements
Techniques:
Delivering Value Sooner © 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -1-
 Click to
About Meedit Master title style

• 20+ years experience working in the software development field

various industries.
• Experience spans the entire end-to-end software development
lifecycle with
 Program/Project Management
 Management Consulting
 Quality Assurance & Control
 Release Management
 Development
 Technical Support

• 10+ years experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Trainer and Agile Coach

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -2-

Click to edit Master title style
Agenda
• Understand why Stories are used for requirements in Agile.
• Appreciate the discipline needed to effectively refine Stories based on
their priority.
• Understand how to decompose Stories into finer grain work items.
• Learn how to slice stories vertically through the software architectural
layers to provide increments of value.
• Learn how to capture nonfunctional requirements via Stories.
• Learn what the different types of Stories there are in order to capture
different user needs.
• Get exposed to the concept of a Minimal Viable Product and why it
accelerates value delivery and learning.

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -3-

ClickQuiz:
Pop to edit Master title style
WF Requirements

50% • What percentage of overall project time is spent gathering,

elaborating, and communicating product requirements?

35% • What percentage of requirements, as originally defined, change

during the course of the project?

45% • What percentage of features, as ultimately delivered, are rarely or

never used by the product’s end-users?

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -4-

Click to edit
Delivering ValueMaster
Sooner title style

12 month cycle
to deliver value

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Click
The to edit
5 Levels Master title style
of Planning

- torak.com
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Click istoa User
What editStory
Master title style

A brief, simple requirement statement from a user’s

perspective.

>,
As a <user role Accept
a
l>, Criteriance
I want to <goa
th a t <d e sire d benefit>.
So

- Davisbase

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -7-

Click to edit Master
Parts titleStory
of a User style

1 Who As a <user role>,

2 What I want to <goal>,
3 Why So that <desired benefit>.

Acceptance
4
Criteria

- Davisbase

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -8-

Click to edit
Information Masterwith
Associated title style
a Story

Title: a
conversation Title: Traveller wants to book a trip so that they can go to their destination
starter Story points : 3
Assigned to : Tom
Acceptance tests:
Body 1. User can edit an airline booking
2. User can edit a car rental booking
3. User can edit a hotel booking
4. User can start editing from a screen that shows a booking
Other information:
• Attachments
• Screenshots
• UML
• Discussion
• Non-goals
• Additional details

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -9-

Click toofedit
Benefits UserMaster
Stories title style

• User Stories emphasize verbal rather than written communication.

• User Stories are comprehensible by both customers and developers,
encouraging greater levels of customer participation.
• User Stories are the right size for planning.
• User Stories are well suited for iterative development.
• User Stories force requirements validation by stating both WHO will use a
feature & WHY it is desired.

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -10-

Click Are
What to edit Master
User Stories title
Used style
For?

• User stories are the basis for all work

• All development work should be based on user stories, no
matter where those developers physically sit
• All test plans should be based around user stories, no matter
who is doing the testing
• User stories may be insufficient for documenting the current
architecture or functioning of the system
– In this case, documentation for this specific purpose may be used
– This documentation should not be used as the basis for development
and testing, only as reference material or for auditing purposes

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -11-

Click to edit
Acceptance Master title style
Criteria

• Acceptance Criteria as “Conditions

that a software product must
satisfy to be accepted by a user,
customer or other stakeholder.”
• Acceptance Criteria are a set of
statements, each with a clear
pass/fail result, that specify both
functional (e.g., minimal
marketable functionality) and non-
functional (e.g., minimal quality)
requirements
- manifesto.uk
- seguetech.com
© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -12-
Click
The to ofedit
3 C’s Master
a User Story title style

1. The Card - A 3x5 index card forces brevity. Only capture the topic of the
item, a high level description of the desired system behavior, and why it is
important.
2. The Conversation - A User Story it not enough. Consider it a placeholder
for conversation. Detailed requirements are only discovered once the story
has been targeted for a sprint.
3. The Confirmation - On the back of the card capture Acceptance Criteria.
They outline specifications from the Product Owner and will allow the
team build functionality for acceptance.

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -13-

Click to
Where edit
User Master
Stories Fit In title style

Must have User Stories

written, estimated &
prioritized prior to
Release Planning.

- Davisbase

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Click toBacklog
Product edit Master title style

• A prioritized list of all user stories that may be delivered

• New items can be added at any time to the Product Backlog
• Items are defined and prioritized by Product Owner with input from others
• Team members estimate items in Product Backlog relative to each other
using predetermined scale (story points)

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -15-

Click to edit Master title style
I.N.V.E.S.T.ing

• Independent
• Negotiable
• Valuable
• Estimable
• Small

- Agile Planet
• Testable

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -16-

Clickwrites
Who to edit Master title style
stories?

Everyone.
• Driven from Product Owner
• Assisted by the Team
• Requires Collaboration

Together as a team you can be successful.

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -17-

Click to edit
Prioritizing Master title style
the Backlog

• Financial Criteria
• Decision Matrix
• MoSCoW
• KANO

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -18-

ClickRoles
User to edit Master title style
• Why are User Roles important?
• Unique perspectives change requirements and acceptance criteria
• Who are your target customers?
– What do they use the software for?
– How do they use the software?
– What are their priorities?

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -19-

ClickMapping
Story to edit Master title style

- winnipegagilist.com
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Click toofedit
Lifecycle Master title style
a Story

High-level
Story is Written Story is Prioritized Story is planned for Story is targeted for
acceptance criteria Story is Estimated
in backlog a Release a Sprint
defined

By PO w/ Team By Team w/ PO By Team w/ PO

By anyone on team By PO, BAs By Team
input input input

Story’s tasks are Story’s Tasks are

Story is Accepted Story is Demo’d Story is Reviewed Story is Groomed
completed defined

By Product Owner By Team By team By team By Team By Team & PO

Sprint
- Davisbase

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -21-

Click toReady
Defining edit Master title style

- romanpichler.com

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Click to
Typical edit Master
Ingredients title style
in Definition of Ready

• Meets the INVEST criteria

• Has acceptance criteria
• Very little to no research, or all research
– If a lot of research is required for a story, create a research-only story and time-box it
• The story is estimated
• UAT is well understood
– Preferably fully stated as part of story… or…
– QA person proxy for UAT tester
• Whole team feels comfortable that they know what it takes to get story to “done”
• The whole team has contributed to the grooming/estimation of the story

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -23-

Click toRefinement
Backlog edit Master title style

Product backlog refinement—sometimes called

product backlog grooming in reference to keeping the
backlog clean and orderly—is a meeting that is held
near the end of one sprint to ensure the backlog is
ready for the next sprint.

- mountaingoatsoftware.com

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -24-

Click tothe
Refining edit Master title style
Backlog

- leanpub.com

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Click to editStories
Decomposing Master title style

- leanpub.com

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 Click to
Levels editRequirements
of Agile Master title style

Vision

Capability Capability

A story too large to

finish in one iteration Feature Feature

Epic Epic

Story Story Story

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -27-

Clickit to
Slice Up edit Master title style

Take slice of the whole rather

than individual layers.
“An authenticated member can post a
recommendation for a book”

- ✖ An authenticated member can fill out a recommendation form

- ✖ Information on a recommendation form is written to the database
- ✔ A member can post a written review about the book
- ✔ A member can post a rating about the book
- ✔ A member can post references to similar books
© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -28- - Mike Cohn
 Click vs.
Open toClosed
edit Master
Stories title style

• Open stories often have no end in sight

– “As a Publisher, I want to manage the ads I have placed”
• Closed stories show an achievable, meaningful accomplishment
– “As a Publisher, I want to change the expiration date of an ad”
– “As a Publisher, I want to delete an ad that is no longer relevant”
– “As a Publisher, I want to measure how many times an ad has been
clicked through”

- Mike Cohn

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -29-

Click to edit
Additional Master
Approaches to title style
Split Stories

• Splitting by Acceptance Criteria

• Splitting by User
• Splitting by Items in a List
• Splitting by Create/Read/Update/Delete or the Word
“Manage”
• Splitting by Keyword
• Splitting with Lists
• Splitting by Test Scenario

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -30-

ClickthetoStory
Size edittoMaster title style
the Horizon
• Focus attention on most critical areas first
• Write stories at levels based on the implementation horizon

If stories are further out, they can be Open/Goal Stories

– “…Guest Member I want to register for an account…”
– “…Authenticated Member I want to post a recommendation…”
– “…Pioneer Member I want to submit feature suggestions…”
– “…Critic I want to post reviews of a book…”

- Mike Cohn
© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -31-
ClickthetoStory
Size edittoMaster title style
the Horizon

Once a story is close to being started, break it down.

“As an Authenticated Member, I want to log into the system so that my information
can only be accessed by me.”

...I want to log in with my username and password...

...I want to change my password...
...I want the system to warn me if my password is easy to guess...
...I want to be able to request a new password so that I am not locked out if I forget it
...I want to be notified if there have been three consecutive failed attempts to access my
account...

- Mike Cohn
© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -32-
Click to edit
Non-User Master title style
Stories

• Technology foundation stories

– At times these can be stated in
customer terms As a developer, I want to upgrade to
• Dependencies from external teams the latest version of the database
• Creative elements software so that we have a supported
product
• Spikes
• Other types of stories... defects,
Spike: As a developer, I need to
maintenance, training, etc. investigate a semantic search
algorithm to facilitate natural
language searching of the person’s
financial record.

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -33-

Click to edit
Non-User MasterConstraints
Stories: title style

• Constraints often do not

represent user functionality. As a patient, I want the system to
function like the other systems in the
• Should be documented and
suite so that it is familiar and easy to
remain visible for team, but use.
does not go into the product
backlog.
• Should be stated in As a stakeholder, I want page load
measurable terms and be times to conform to current standards
testable so that patients will be able to use the
system on a dial-up connection.

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -34-

Click to edit
Functional Master title style
vs. Non-Functional
• Functional - Captured through User Stories

As a <user role>,
I want to <desired FUNCTION>,
so that <desired benefit>.

Acceptance Criteria could also elaborate on functions.

• Non-Functional - Captured in Several Ways
– Acceptance Criteria
– Definition of Done
– Constraints of the Product

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -35-

Click to edit
Guidelines Master
for Good title style
Stories
1. Start with Goal Stories
2. Slice it Up
3. Open vs. Closed Stories
4. Size the Story to the Horizon

- Mike Cohn

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -36-

Click tofrom
Outputs editStory
Master
Typestitle style

• User Stories Demonstrable working software for acceptance by the

Product Owner.

• Foundational Working software, infrastructure, or systems that

enable User Stories to be completed.

• Spikes Information or a decision.

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -37-

Click totoWatch
What edit Out
Master
For title style

Mike Cohn’s ‘Catalog of Story Smells’

• Stories that are too small
• Stories too big....too many being split later
• Interdependent stories
• Goldplating
• Too much detail
• Interface detail too soon
• Thinking too far ahead
• Lack of customer participation,
writing and prioritizing

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -38-

Click
Q & A to edit Master title style

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -39-

Click to edit Master title style
References

© 2012-2014 Eliassen Group. All Rights Reserved -40-