What is the process for Creating Personas in a Scrum Project? The Creation of Personas is not new by any methods, it is part of the human existence. Some Personas take on a life of their own in our Imaginations. From Tin-tin to Superman and, more recently, Harry Potter, authors and artists have Visualised Characters that are three-dimensional, problematic and perfect at the very same time. You may have Avatars that you utilize in Gaming, either resembling you or completely different in every Way. So, when you develop a Persona as an Agile Developer, you have lots of inspiration to make use of. True, the clerk in Accounting who will utilize the Software to be Developed may not be as Charismatic as Iron Man, but has distinct Characteristics too.

Creating Personas: The Agile Persona

In 1999, Alan Cooper wrote an entertaining book called “The Inmates Are Running The Asylum”, claiming that much of the Technology designed is not Customer-Friendly. As a remedy, he suggests designing a Persona that would be the User of the Product. The Scrum Development Team can use these Personas within the Sprint Planning meeting to gain a greater understanding of the requirements. They can also use the Personas during the Sprint Review meeting to determine if the deliverables meet the absent users requirements. The Concept of a Persona is undoubtedly a helpful Aid when it comes to Documenting User Stories and Visualizing what the Goals and Objectives are of the Project. It is likely that more than one Persona needs to be described for any reasonably-sized Project.

Do not Confuse a Persona with the “Actor” as Defined in a Use Case. An Actor is simply a Role-player, whose Role can be Defined in a sentence or more, not a Fully Fledged-Persona, who likes curry and dislikes the colour red, enjoys pursuits such as scuba-diving and reads science-fiction. While none of these characteristics may have anything to do with the Product you are Developing, they make the Persona come alive for the Scrum Team (Agile Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, and Scrum Development Team).

Producing the Persona

The Persona we are about to develop has one or more Goals that are aligned with the Product Vision. The best way to create Personas is in a Workshop. You should look to do this with as diverse a Team as possible. The objective will be to map out one flip-chart page for a Persona. There is a simple template you can use when creating a Persona. This contains helpful hints on what to describe:

1. Begin by deciding some basic Demographics, like Age, Gender, Work Status (e.g. at school, contract employee, retired).
2. Select a Name and find an illustration for your Persona.
3. You can start considering why the Persona wants and needs the Product.
4. Now fill out more Personal Details and Demographics to round out the Persona. Does this Person play sport, have a Facebook account? Is he or she a vegetarian? Married, single, kids?
5. Document as you go, using a flip-chart or a white-board. Later you can make a more permanent version of each Persona that ought to be pinned up on the wall near the Product Vision Board.

You need to have a reasonable and believable Persona by the end of this session. This will most likely be the primary Persona, who is the most likely to purchase the Product. You might wish to continue defining more Personas or stop at this point.

The Persona you have created may require modification as the Project continues. You will probably require to add information with each Sprint. Sometimes, if a significant change is requested throughout the Project, you may have to Redefine your Persona( s) completely.

Creating Personas: Kinds of Personas

Here are typical Personas that will affect your Design:-.

• The Primary Persona.
• The Secondary Personas.
• The Negative Personas.

A combination of the habits, Goals and Objectives of these Personas will help you Visualize the Project results and a completed Product that remains in sync with the expectations of your Users, real and fictitious.

We found these books great for finding out more information on Agile Scrum:

Creating Personas: The Primary Persona.

This is the Persona for whom you are Developing the Product. You ought to have a very clear Goal, a Key Benefit and Objective for the Primary Persona, along with subsidiary Objectives and Benefits. These are the headings for the general Acceptance Criteria for the Product. They should likewise synchronise with what was Defined for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
You might have a second Primary Persona, but any additional Personas would be Secondary.

Creating Personas: The Secondary Personas.

This is a Persona whose Goal and Objectives apply to a specific Product Feature, Epic or User Story. Particularly where a Product is intricate, you may find you need Secondary Personas for a specific Sprint.

Creating Personas: The Negative Personas.

You may have previously Worked on a Project, where the Project Scope was Defined as “What The Project Is”, followed by a Rider that states “What The Project is Not”. ‘Negative Personas’ fulfil a comparable purpose; they are not prospects for the brand-new Product, and their biographies explain why the Product is not a great suitable for them. This is a beneficial way of ensuring that all the bases have actually been covered in the Product Design; by specifying what is not required, gaps in what is needed can be found.

In Conclusion.

We hope that we have clarified any doubts you have about developing a Persona and how to create a realistic and proper Customer for your Project. Here is a fine example where Personas were used in Design and Development, which may give you some additional motivation.

Some years ago, BMW ran a Campaign called “The Story of Joy”, which you may Remember. Adverts showed different people driving BMW cars. The Story behind the Campaign is that each of the People revealed in the advert was a Persona which these Personas were used to design the series of Vehicles and the Features used. Single retirees, young families, dog-lovers and others were envisaged as the Market for the cars.