User Story Splitting

Or how to be the Ninja on splitting Stories, rather than fruit…

Your Sensei: Paul Boos

Master Shifu Reminds Us…

A story is a….

• Who | What | Why

• As a ____ I would like to ____ so that I can ____

• Role or Persona, ‘Function’, Biz Value

The Power of a Story in San参

Story W

BS Element

Test Cases

(via Acceptance Criteria)

Requirement

Dragon Stories (aka ‘Epics’)

• Stories that are horrendously large & scare us

• The amount of tasks feel like slaying a beast

• Larger than our iteration

• But even ‘Smaller than Dragon’ Stories may need to be split…

INVEST

I ndependent – minimize dependencies (to zero preferably)N egotiable – ability for Product Owner and Delivery Team to make trade-offsV aluable – fulfill end user needs/functionalityE stimable – understood well enough to be estimatedS mall – fit within a Sprint easilyT estable – have an ability to be verified that they work

Should I Split This Story?

• Does it meet the INVEST Criteria (with exception of Small)?

No – refactor story first*• Can it be completed in this Sprint?

No – time to split!• Will this story consume most of the Team’s

capacity?Yes – better to split than to be sorry…

* If a story isn’t small it may also be hard to be negotiable, so a story being both small and negotiable could be exceptions.

Don’tsplit a story on

Waterfall-like

Phases

Unless you like riding very, very large waves of failure…

Useful Considerations

• Story to– one role/persona (generally)

• Story to– one function/task of value

• Vertically slices most of the stack

Splitting Kata

• Workflow Steps Pattern• Operations Pattern• Business Rule Variations Pattern• Simple Complex Pattern• Variations in Data Pattern• Mock UI Pattern• Data Entry Methods Pattern• Hamburger Method• Defer Performance Pattern• Break Out a Spike Pattern

戻る

Workflow Steps Pattern

Look for steps in the workflow that chain different roles/personas together or very distinctly different functions that can be independently done.

Example: Content Authoring & Approval• As an author, I want to be able to submit my article. • As an editor, I would like to get notified when an article

has been submitted so that I can review it. • As an editor, I need to approve an article.• As an editor, I would like to be able to request more

information

Operations Pattern

Focus along Operations (think high level methods or CRUD type operations).

Example: As a shop keeper I want to manage the products being sold in my online store so that I can sell what people want to buy. This could be become:• As a shop keeper I want to add and remove products from

my online store so that I can sell what people want to buy.• As a shop keeper I want to edit product details in my online

store so that I can avoid recreating a product to fix a typo … (and so on)

Look for generic verbs such as “manage” or “adminster” which hints at multiple more detailed operations. (Sort of use-case like…)

Business Rules Variation Pattern

Find ways to split stories based on business rules deviations.

Example: • Payment currency must be specific to purchase location• Cash payment denomination amount must not be greater

than . . .• Payment change amount is calculated as . . .• Receipt bar code is designed using . . .

Warning: these variations could be articulating various acceptance criteria.

Simple Complex Pattern

Look for general stories that hide complexity, when the definition of the acceptance criteria uncovers varied ways to approach this, then you can split along this variance...

Example: • As a loan applicant, I want to calculate my mortgage

payments

Might be made more specific in ways such as …• … calculate payments manually• … using an online spreadsheet template• … using an online calculator

Variations in Data Pattern

Choose data objects that may have variations based on roles and actions.

Example: Suppose that there are data objects called Product, Payment, and Receipt. In this instance, the idea would be to focus on specific data types for each object type. So for Product, there might be data types such as Book, DVD, and Gift Card.

You can then work with the Product Owner to identify the data type or types with the highest business value and split the story accordingly.

Mock UI PatternCreate a pretotype/whiteboard of the UI when it is known to be complex; ID areas where related functionality is present and story out each area. Throw away the UI.Example: Enter a Valid Address:

Street:City: State:Zipcode:

Find House Value Comparisons:Select search radius:

5km 10km 25km GoReset

As a potential lendee,I want to have a correct address,So that my comparisons are correct.

As a potential lendee,I want to set the region,So I can see potential impacts to my comparisons.

As a potential lendee,I want to easily reset the data,So I can easily change comparisons.

Data Entry Methods Pattern

Examining various options for data entry at the UI can be done. Each option is essentially the same story and thus is a refactoring of a prior story. Great for identifying MVF options…

Example: As a user, I can search for flights between two destinations.

…using simple date input.…with a fancy calendar UI.

Hamburger Method

This method is similar to the prior Data Entry Methods Pattern. It’s useful when a team thinks more along technical tasks than user stories.

Example:

Simple Data

Widget

No Data Persistence

No Data Validation

Calendar Widget

Persist Data in File

JavaScript Validation

Pull Date from

user’s iCall

Persist Data in RDBMS

Persist Data in NoSQL DB

Enter Date

Store data

Validate Collected

data

Gojko Adzic

Defer Performance Pattern

Look for Opportunities to Defer Work for later (and thus refactor of the code).

“Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.”

– Agile Manifesto Principle #10

Example: Focus on user functionality 1st then various –’ilities’:

ScalabilityPerformance

Caution:“Continuous attention to technical excellence

and good design enhances agility.” – Agile Manifesto Principle #9

Break out a Spike Pattern

Often Stories are not necessarily complex, but just have many unknowns. Turn possible acceptance criteria into questions and investigate these.

Example: Suppose you didn’t understand how Paypal worked…Turn As a seller I want to collect payment with Paypal as it is universally accepted and this will increase how I get paid. into…Spike: How does Paypal work?

How do I know I have a successful payment?How do I know when a payment is unsuccessful and what options can I present to the buyer?

Once I answer these I can create a valid story (or set of stories).

Helpful Tips for Splitting Stories

Think in terms of what a user (role/persona) wants as inputs & outputs.• What does the user put in? What should or should not come

out?• What processing should give the output?• How can we test this?Think in terms of vertical slices.• What is the minimal version of this functionality? • Can you touch all the needed tiers of the system.Don’t worry about being 100% right…

IKIWISI!

Acceptance Criteria

Given context When event Then result

Be the…

Define boundaries of what is acceptable

Should be specific to story

Results = expectations

Identify specific non-functional requirements results

Acceptance Criteria Example

• A user cannot submit a form without completing all the mandatory fields

• Information from the form is stored in the registrations database

• Spam protection is working• Payment can be accepted as a credit card• An acknowledgment email is sent to the user after

submitting the form.

As a conference attendee, I want to be able to register online,

so I can register quickly and cut down on paperwork

(Bulet format)

Show RespectWork with your product owner!

Who else will you negotiate with..?

CardConversationConfirmation

EXERCISES

Establish Your Dojofor exercises 1 - 4

• Gather in groups of 2-4• Establish who will be the product owner• Brainstorm stories based on the core

epics or features presented• Ensure you have acceptance criteria• Be ready to discuss how you split your

stories• Feel free to go to a second level

Exercise 1

You are building an ecommerce site to sell your products.

Your Epic:Browse, Select, and Purchase Products from the site.

10 Minutes to create stories based on this Epic. Remember to ID some Acceptance Criteria!

We’ll discuss for 10 minutes

Exercise 2

You are building a system to manage content onto your website.

Your Epic:Manage Webpages, Images, and Video.

10 Minutes to create stories based on this Epic. Remember to ID some Acceptance Criteria!

We’ll discuss for 10 minutes

Exercise 3

You are building an exercise and diet iPhone application.

Your Epic:Generate Anyone’s Exercise Routine and Diet.

10 Minutes to create stories based on this Epic. Remember to ID some Acceptance Criteria!

We’ll discuss for 10 minutes

Exercise 4

Select your largest story for the next Sprint. Your REAL product owner and SMEs are available to answer questions.

Take 15 minutes to do the following:

Meet INVEST? Except for small, No = refactorCan we complete in this Sprint? No = splitWill it consume most of the Sprint in effort?

Yes = split

Take 5 minutes to decide on an approach.Take another 15 minutes to brainstorm stories based on that approach.Can you establish some acceptance criteria? 20 minutes to discuss

Gather the Bukefor exercises 4 - 5

• Review the stories everyone just created in the last exercise

• Select 2 stories you think are well constructed; be able to defend this in terms of INVEST

• We’ll use these for our next 2 exercises as one group to learn a bit about vertical slicing

Exercise 4: Walk the Code Dog

Take 15 minutes to…

Walk through the components of the system one by one that will change. Draw these out (on a flip chart or white board).

Did you touch all or most of the layers?

Exercise 5: Walk the Dog in the Component Park

Take 15 minutes to…

Draw the architecture of your system components on a flip chart or white board.

Now redraw your architecture without the connections between them. Using a story you have selected, connect the components as you need to touch them when you implement the story.

For Further Study

Great post on how most teams evolve through their story understandinghttp://www.jbrains.ca/permalink/how-youll-probably-learn-to-split-features

The Hamburger Method by Gojko Adzichttp://gojko.net/2012/01/23/splitting-user-stories-the-hamburger-method/

Walk the Dog Techniques for Vertical Storieshttp

://www.dhavalpanchal.com/walk-the-dog/ 15 ways to split an an Epic (3rd exercise from here)http

://blogs.collab.net/agile/15-ways-to-split-an-epic-a-team-exercise Beginner’s Guide to Acceptance Criteria (example)http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/acceptance-criteria/

Derived from Phil Rogers slide deck on Patterns for Splitting User Stories.

You’re a TeamNo need to be a solo ninja

Let’s go slay some dragons!

Or better put, slice some stories!