User Story Basics – What is a User Story?

What is a User Story? I’m glad you asked! First of all, it’s important to say that User Stories are not a part of Scrum as defined in the required practices in the Scrum Guide. User Stories are but one way to represent Product Backlog Items in Scrum, and while it is the most popular [...]

Story Testing Patterns – My Recent Presentation at Mile High Agile

You can now find my recent presentation(along with all the handouts, etc), “Story Testing Patterns” on my website here: http://www.scrumcrazy.com/Presentation+-+Story+Testing+Patterns Feel free to add any comments here on my blog. .

A User Story Checklist

Sometimes it’s difficult to determine if something is a User Story or not.  Not everything a software team does is a User Story. In my other article, User Story Basics , I talk about the definition of a User Story.  I will use that definition to make a checklist of characteristics a User Story must [...]

How I Classify My Coaching Advice

I often have a need to clarify my coaching advice so that teams understand how strongly or specifically I am targeting advice. Below is how I classify my advice, so the consumers of the advice understand how to apply the advice. Advice Classifications Best Practice -a practice that is good in almost all contexts and [...]

Scrum Guide 2011 – Backlog Grooming as a Required Practice

Intro In my previous article, I give an overview of some of the interesting changes incorporated into the 2011 Scrum Guide. One of the most interesting changes in my view is the inclusion of Backlog Grooming as a required practice. In my Scrum coaching experiences, the one practice that seems to help beginner Scrum teams [...]

Part 2 – User Stories: Epics and Themes

Releases as Themes Some teams uses release as themes, which his sometimes helpful with Release Planning and Release tracking via burndown charts. So, in our example above, we might decided to theme the current stories as follows (stories are listed in priority order) Story/Epic Associated Themes Pay by MasterCard/Visa Release Feb2011, Credit Card Payments, Online [...]

User Stories: Epics and Themes

Summary Epic- A large User Story, generally too big to fit into a single Sprint. Theme – A set of related User Stories. A story can be associated with one ore more themes. Any story that belongs to more than 2 themes generally is overkill. You can use “Releases” as themes. The terms Epic and [...]

Tips for Effective Backlog Grooming – Part 3

Tip #8: Assign action items for any big risks or unknowns For big requirements issues, this probably means assigning the issue to the PO. For big technology risks or unknowns, this means assigning a dev team member to research the issue at hand. The person assigned should be ready to report on the action item [...]

Tips for Effective Backlog Grooming – Part 2

Tips for Effective Backlog Grooming In my tips articles, I try to describe highly effective ways to fulfill the Scrum framework. The Scrum framework intentionally leaves holes that are opportunities for teams to fulfill the framework in the way that is best for a particular team’s circumstances. The Scrum Guide defines the Scrum framework, and [...]

Tips for Effective Backlog Grooming – Part 1

Executive Summary In a previous article, I discuss the answer to the question of Why do Product Backlog Grooming?. In this article, I discuss some tips for how to do effective backlog grooming. The primary benefits of backlog grooming are increased productivity and increased understanding/quality. Backlog grooming can be a little difficult at first when [...]