Learn story mapping, build from user story examples, apply user story templates to agile epics and scrum epics, and decompose technology work into a user story format that gets the right product created for the end user.
User stories are about how we use them, not how we write them. They tell the story of what a user needs, and enable mapping those stories to the creation of systems and products that delight the user.
This hands-on course is full of user story examples, story mapping applications, and guidance on how to apply user story mapping to enterprise use cases. In this class you’ll learn user story mapping and templates for decomposing agile epics, applying scrum practices to epics with user stories, and writing user stories in a format that can be applied in practical ways for both an agile practice or a blend of conventional software product development with agile or scrum teams. You’ll leave this course with user story examples, user story templates, and how you should be writing user stories to achieve optimal outcomes at the end of every sprint.
Don't think of user stories as a way of writing requirements. Applying user stories entails a different way of working altogether. An effective user story in agile (or otherwise) will encourage collaborative, emergent thinking and communication through conversation within a team.
In this workshop, you will explore the most popular techniques for agile story pointing, writing, gathering & splitting user stories, and how to use personas to ensure customer-centric thinking and hone team skills to perform tasks effectively.
This course is beneficial to all members on an Agile team, but will add the most value for those in a Product Owner role or are a part of the development team with a focus on grooming the product backlog. This course benefits:
Objectives
Part 1: Agile Review in Five Minutes
Part 2: User Stories then, User Stories now
Part 3: User Story Overview
Part 4: User Personas
Team Exercise: Teams will practice writing stories using the Roles identified from the User Persona exercise. As a group, acceptance criteria will be written, simulating a backlog grooming session.
Team Exercise: Teams will create User Personas to understand the concept and identify details that make them unique
Team Exercise: Individually the group will write an example of a Spike, Non-Functional requirement, and a Defect. Focusing on what makes them unique and how best to document the details for development.
Part 5: Levels of Planning
Team Exercise: Teams will create a list of features, focusing on the evolution of an application and ways in which to build upon a feature over time.
Part 6: Getting hands-on: User stories in practice
During this workshop section of the course, the group will spend time practicing application of user stories as they will back at work after class. Workshop participants will critique stories that have been given to them, learning what to look for when grooming stories (size, unclear, dependencies).
Team Exercise: Teams will create Epics for the features identified in the previous exercise, focusing on how to break down the work into valuable slices.
Team Exercise: The group will be given a sample process map, they will break the process into stories that remain independent and valuable, even if the value varies.
Team Exercise: Teams will write stories that relate to the Epics written in the previous exercise. Focusing on the INVEST strategy of story writing and using group feedback to further refine.
Part 7: Prep and Support of Sprints
Part 8: Application Workshop
Team Exercise: Individually, the group will get to focus on real-world examples, getting feedback from the group intermittently, similar to a series of grooming sessions. Ideally bringing these stories back to their own projects.
Part 9: Retrospective
