Total Pageviews

Monday 19 December 2016

Capri Christmas 2016

Friday 15 January 2016

How to write user stories

Recently came across a 20 page long requirements document and didn't know where to start and what to remember, specially for somebody like me who has a memory of a goldfish. I stopped using those time consuming, long and boring requirements document way back in 2007 and started use cases and then moved to user stories. They are easy to write and understand and best thing about them is "collaboration". I personally love those user story writing workshops with loads of index cards, post-its, marker and DONUTS. So how do you write user stories?
User story
Behaviour driven development - an example of BDD user story
According to Mike Cohn User stories are short, simple descriptions 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>.
User stories are often written on index cards or sticky notes, stored in a shoe box, and arranged on walls or tables to facilitate planning and discussion. As such, they strongly shift the focus from writing about features to discussing them. In fact, these discussions are more important than whatever text is written.


Title: One line describing the story
Narrative:
As a [role]
I want [feature]
So that [benefit]
Acceptance Criteria: (presented as Scenarios)
Scenario 1: Title
Given [context]
And [some more context]...
When [event]
Then [outcome]
And [another outcome]...
Scenario 2: ...
Here is an example from my recent project at Toyota motors.
Product Owner
ProductOwnerScenario 2:Scenario 3:
Sales Performance Report
Narrative:
As a [Sales Analyst]
I want [to see parts sales figures for the current month(mtd)]
So that [I can track sales progress against monthly target]
Acceptance Criteria: (presented as Scenarios)
Scenario 1: BI User login
Given [I am logging in as a BI user]
And [some more context]...
When  [the log in successful]
Then  [I will be taken to sales performance report]
And [I will be able to select month and date or defaults to current month and date]
Hope this helps! Good luck with user story writing and don't forget to buy donuts (skinny ones for me please!).