User Story Meaning in Agile Projects – Part 2 of 9

This article looks to discuss the ‘User Story Meaning in Agile Projects’. It provides an introduction to the Pitfalls of Agile User Stories to help you avoid making these mistakes.

User Story Meaning in Agile Projects

A 59 Seconds Agile Training Video
An Introduction into Agile User Stories Part 2 of 9
Continue to Part 3 Below

User Story Meaning in Agile Projects

A 59 Seconds Agile Article

This article provides an ‘Introduction to Agile’ and looks to discuss what Agile is. It provides a brief introduction into the history of Agile and why Agile is important.

Common Pitfalls with User Stories

The goal of any agile project is to deliver working, demonstrable products frequently. The way the user stories are broken down is incredibly important for achieving the goal of the project. One of the most common problems with user stories is that they can be split in a way where each story on its own has no value. This typically happens when stories are glorified technical tasks, rather than focused on delivering business value.

For example, this would be the case if there are user stories like “implement database layer”, “create controller”, “build front end”, or “integration testing”.

All the tasks in the example above are fundamental to delivering our solution. Which one should the product owner prioritise the highest? All of them needs to be completed to deliver anything valuable! The team can’t move some of these further down the backlog to return to them if we get time later.

User Story Meaning: Splitting User Stories

When stories are split into technical stories like this, there is also a risk of reinforcing silos within the team. First, the database person creates the database. Then someone implements the back-end, after which someone else builds the frontend. Finally, it’s all handed over to the tester for testing.

Beware of these little silos sneaking into the “agile” project!

Continue Reading —> Next

The History of Agile

A 59 Seconds Agile Video Animation
The History of Agile with 59 Seconds Agile

Continue Reading —> Next

User Stories Applied

A 59 Seconds Agile Book Review

User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn is one of our favourite books on Agile User Stories. The book starts with an overview into user stories, and details what a user story is and the different aspects of them. He then discusses how to go about writing a user story, and provides details of the INVEST criteria that can be used to determine if the story is meeting all of its objectives. Next Mike gives an in depth discussion of who user stories are written for and where to begin when gathering the details for them. The book then discusses acceptance testing user stories, including how to go about specifying these criteria and the responsibilities of the development team and customers during this process.

Continue Reading —> Next

What is Agile?

A 59 Seconds Agile Infographic
What is Agile?
What is Agile?

Continue Reading —> Next

Agile Scrum Master Training Course

What is Agile? A 59 Seconds Agile Animation Video

Our Favourite Agile Books

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

Continue Reading —> Next