The S in the INVEST mnemonic is a reminder to make your user-stories small. The trick is in knowing how small is small enough. The rule here is to make the story as small as possible, yet that it retains some measurable amount of intrinsic value — something that, when demonstrated to the end users, they’ll agree is an improvement to the system. Conversely, Continue reading User-Story Sizing: How Small is Small Enough?
Tag Archives: user stories
Simplifying User Requirements
It’s often said that one of the virtues (and challenges) of an organization adopting an agile methodology is that it will highlight existing dysfunctions. (The challenge being not to shoot the messenger.) One of the dysfunctions that typically, quickly surfaces is how user requirements can get overly complicated. In an environment that relies on written specifications that are “thrown over the wall” it’s the natural tendency of everyone involved to be as thorough as they can be. And who can blame them? In one respect, it’s their job to think of every contingency and bring all of their experience to bear. Working in a vacuum, it’s only natural to want to err on the side of caution.
Unfortunately, this all too often means that a requirement statement will take on a life of its own. As it evolves and gets fleshed out, the original reason or impetus for the requirement becomes clouded. It is barely retained through implication, if at all.
Allow me to illustrate… Continue reading Simplifying User Requirements
User Stories: It’s SMART to INVEST
The basic framework for a good user story has 3 parts: identifying which user/role (or other stakeholder) benefits, what that person wants (the goal), and the payoff (why it’s important). You’ll often see this framework expressed as the following template: “As a ________, I want ______, so that __________”. To paraphrase Mary Poppendieck’s quintessential requirements example,
“As the VP of Distribution, I need us to redesign the REAR windshields of our cars to withstand wind-speeds of up to 130 MPH (as our FRONT windshields already do), so that we don’t have any more accidents when our cars are loaded onto transports facing backwards and then hauled at 70 MPH into a hailstorm with headwind gusts of 50 MPH.“
Since the second blank represents a goal, a lot of user-story writers find the SMART mnemonic helpful. It’s one that’s taught in traditional goal-setting seminars, but as you can see, there’s no consensus on exactly what the mnemonic stands for:
Specific / Significant / Stretching Measurable / Meaningful Attainable / Achievable Realistic / Relevant / Reasonable Time-bound / Testable / Trackable
So, a better mnemonic that’s especially pertinent to user-stories is INVEST (think “Return-on-INVESTment”): Continue reading User Stories: It’s SMART to INVEST