How to write good User Stories in Agile

The Agile Shop

17 Jan 202203:46

Summary

TLDRThis video tutorial guides viewers on crafting effective user stories in Agile development, emphasizing the importance of acceptance criteria. It illustrates how to structure user stories for clarity and value delivery, using examples like a Spotify podcast feature. The video also introduces the INVEST acronym to evaluate user stories for independence, negotiability, value, estimability, small size, and testability, ensuring they are well-defined and actionable.

Takeaways

📝 **User Stories in Agile**: Agile teams use user stories to break down product features and requirements into manageable pieces of functionality.
🎯 **User Perspective**: Each user story should describe the desired functionality from the user's point of view, ensuring it delivers value.
📎 **Brief and Simple**: User stories should be brief enough to fit on an index card and written in a simple way that's understandable by everyone.
👤 **User Role Identification**: The user story format helps identify the user role or persona, which is crucial for understanding user needs.
🔍 **Action and Value**: A good user story outlines the user's action and the value it provides, answering the 'why' behind the functionality.
📋 **Acceptance Criteria**: Acceptance criteria define the conditions that must be met for the user story to be considered complete.
🔄 **Given-When-Then Format**: The 'Given-When-Then' format is a useful way to write acceptance criteria, outlining context, action, and expected results.
🔍 **Verification with INVEST**: Use the INVEST acronym to verify the quality of user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, and Testable.
🏋️‍♂️ **Independence**: Good user stories are independent and can be developed or released without depending on other stories.
🤝 **Negotiable**: While the user's goal is fixed, the approach to achieving it should be open to discussion and negotiation.
💰 **Value Addition**: Each user story should enhance the product's value, making it more beneficial to the end user.
📏 **Estimatable**: The story should provide enough detail for the team to estimate the effort required and plan accordingly.
🔎 **Small Scope**: Keeping user stories small makes them easier to estimate, plan, and test within an iteration or sprint.
🧪 **Testable**: A user story should be testable, with clear acceptance criteria that allow for a binary pass or fail outcome.

Q & A

What are user stories in agile development?
-User stories in agile development are brief, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the end-user or customer of the system. They typically cover a small piece of functionality and deliver value on their own.
Why should user stories be written on an index card?
-User stories should be brief enough to be written on an index card to ensure they are concise and focused on the essential details, making them easy to understand and manage.
What is the typical format for writing a user story?
-The typical format for a user story is: 'As a [role], I want [feature] so that [benefit].' This format helps to clearly define the user role, the action they want to take, and the value they will gain.
What is the purpose of acceptance criteria in user stories?
-Acceptance criteria define the conditions that must be met for the user story to be considered complete. They provide clear guidelines for the development team and help ensure that the functionality meets the user's needs.
Can you provide an example of acceptance criteria using the 'given when then' format?
-An example using the 'given when then' format could be: 'Given I am on the Spotify app, when I click the favorite icon next to a podcast, then the podcast should be saved and appear in my favorites list.'
Why is it important for user stories to be independent?
-User stories should be independent so they can be developed in any order, without being coupled with other stories. This allows for flexibility in the development process and can facilitate quicker releases.
What does it mean for a user story to be negotiable?
-Negotiable means that while the end goal of the user story is clear, the methods or solutions to achieve that goal can be discussed and adapted by the development team to best fit the project's needs.
How can you determine if a user story is valuable?
-A user story is valuable if its delivery makes the product more useful or beneficial to the end-user. It should provide a clear benefit that aligns with the user's needs or business objectives.
What does 'estimatable' mean in the context of user stories?
-Estimatable refers to the ability for the development team to assess the size and complexity of a user story, allowing them to plan and commit to the work required to complete it.
Why should user stories be small?
-User stories should be small enough to be completed within an iteration or sprint. This makes them easier to estimate, test, and manage, leading to more efficient development cycles.
How can you ensure that a user story is testable?
-A user story is testable if it has clear acceptance criteria that can be evaluated in a binary manner (pass or fail). This ensures that there is a definitive way to verify whether the story's requirements have been met.
What is the acronym INVEST and how does it relate to writing good user stories?
-INVEST is a mnemonic for the qualities of a good user story: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, and Testable. It serves as a checklist to ensure that user stories are well-crafted and effective for agile development.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Writing Good User Stories in Agile

This video script introduces the process of writing effective user stories in the context of agile development. User stories are small, independent units of work that represent a feature from a user's perspective. They are brief, written in simple language, and focus on delivering value without including technical details. The script provides an example of a user story for a Spotify podcast listener who wants to save podcasts as favorites. It also explains the importance of acceptance criteria, which are conditions that must be met for the story to be considered complete, using a 'given-when-then' format. The script emphasizes the simplicity of user stories and acceptance criteria, but acknowledges the practice required to write them effectively.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Agile

Agile is a project management and product development approach that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and iterative progress. In the context of the video, Agile is the framework within which user stories are created. The video discusses how Agile teams break down product features into user stories, highlighting the Agile methodology's focus on delivering value through small, manageable pieces of work.

💡User Stories

User stories are brief, informal descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the end-user. They are a fundamental part of Agile development, used to create a simplified, understandable description of a new feature or product. The video explains that each user story should cover a small chunk of functionality and deliver value on its own, such as the example of a Spotify podcast listener wanting to save podcasts as favorites.

💡Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance criteria are the conditions that a product or product feature must meet to be accepted by the user or customer. They are used to define the expected outcomes of a user story. The video illustrates how acceptance criteria can be written using the 'given-when-then' format, which helps clarify the context, action, and expected results, ensuring that the user story is complete and meets the user's needs.

💡INVEST Acronym

INVEST is a mnemonic for the qualities that good user stories should have: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable. The video uses the INVEST acronym as a checklist to verify if a user story is well-written. It emphasizes the importance of each quality in ensuring that user stories are clear, manageable, and valuable to the product development process.

💡Given-When-Then

Given-When-Then is a format for writing acceptance criteria, which helps to specify the conditions under which a feature should work. The video provides an example of this format: 'Given the Spotify app displays podcasts, when I click the favorite icon, then the podcast gets saved.' This structure helps in defining the steps and expected outcomes, making it easier to understand and test the functionality.

💡Independent

In the context of user stories, 'independent' means that a story should not be dependent on other stories and can be developed or released on its own. The video explains that this is one of the qualities that make a user story good, as it allows for flexibility in the development process and can be prioritized or scheduled without waiting for other stories.

💡Negotiable

Negotiable refers to the idea that while the goal of a user story is clear, the method of achieving it can be open to discussion and change. The video mentions that user stories should be negotiable, allowing the development team to find the best approach to meet the user's needs without being constrained by a rigid solution.

💡Valuable

A valuable user story is one that adds value to the product and the end-user. The video stresses that every user story should make the product more valuable, ensuring that the development effort results in a tangible benefit for the user, such as the ability to save favorite podcasts for a Spotify listener.

💡Estimatable

Estimatable means that a user story should provide enough information for the team to size it and plan the work involved. The video uses this term to highlight the importance of having clear and detailed user stories that allow the team to estimate the effort required and make informed decisions about prioritization and scheduling.

💡Small

Small user stories are easier to estimate, plan, and test. The video explains that user stories should be small enough to be completed within an iteration or sprint, which helps in maintaining a fast pace of development and allows for quicker feedback and adjustments.

💡Testable

Testable user stories have clear acceptance criteria that can be verified in a binary way—either the story passes or fails its associated tests. The video emphasizes the importance of testability in ensuring that user stories are not only well-defined but also can be objectively measured for completion, which is crucial for the success of the Agile development process.

Highlights

Introduction to writing good user stories in agile with acceptance criteria.

Agile teams break down product features into user stories for clarity and value delivery.

User stories should be brief and understandable by everyone without technical jargon.

Example of a user story: Spotify podcast listener wants to save podcasts as favorites.

User story format answers who, what, and why, providing context and value.

Acceptance criteria define when a user story is complete, using formats like 'given when then'.

Example of acceptance criteria for saving podcasts as favorites on Spotify.

Acceptance criteria include context, action, and expected results.

The importance of practice in writing user stories and acceptance criteria.

Another example user story: LinkedIn user wants to search for remote-only jobs.

Acceptance criteria for the LinkedIn remote job search feature.

How to verify a good user story using the INVEST acronym.

INVEST stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, and Testable.

Explanation of 'Independent' in the INVEST criteria for user stories.

The 'Negotiable' aspect allows flexibility in achieving user story goals.

User stories should add 'Value' to the product.

The 'Estimatable' criterion ensures the team can size and plan the work.

'Small' user stories are easier to estimate and test.

User stories must be 'Testable' with clear pass or fail outcomes.

Conclusion of the video with a summary of how to write good user stories in agile.

Call to action for viewers to subscribe for more content.