User Stories – Focusing on Conversations instead of Writing – Gojko Adzic’s New User Story Book

In my recent article on telling user stories instead of writing user stories, I mentioned that many Scrum Teams focus way too much on documentation and way too little on good collaborations.

More support for this concept comes from the first chapter in Gojko Adzic’s new User Story book, Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve your User Stories.

User stories imply a completely different model: requirements by collaboration. Hand-overs are replaced by frequent involvement and discussions…. If requirements are just written down and handed over, this discussion does not happen. Even when such documents are called stories, by the time a team receives them, all the important decisions have already been made…. Try telling stories instead of writing down details. Use physical story cards, electronic ticketing systems and backlog management tools just as reminders for conversations…Engage business stakeholders and delivery team members in a discussion, look at a story from different perspectives and explore options. That’s the way to unlock the real benefits of working with user stories.

Gojko has been nice enough to publish the “Tell stories, don’t write them” chapter available completely free here!  It is also important to note, that this chapter is tip #1 in his book, as it really sets the stage for the best use of the User Story practice.

The User Story practice was always intended as a very close, verbal collaboration between the Dev Team and the PO/Customer. In modern times, you can achieve this very easily with good Product Backlog Refinement practices.

Anyway, it’s totally worth another five minutes of your time to read Gojko’s free chapter, and be sure to share it with your teams and organizations too!

To maximize your Scrum and User Stories practice, bring us into your company to deliver coaching or our User Stories Class.

Should I use hours to estimate my tasks in Scrum?

My new recommended “starter” “complementary practice” for new Scrum teams is to simply create tasks and use the “number of tasks remaining” for a burndown.  (I also usually recommend that they try to make it such that the vast majority of their tasks are roughly 1 day or less) I encourage them more to focus on PRI (potentially releasable increments), Sprint Goals, and achieving a moderately consistent level of skill at meeting their Sprint forecasts (used to be called “Sprint commitment,” it’s been re-named in the Scrum Guide).  I also caution heavily against trying to achieve perfect forecast accuracy as that’s a fool’s errand in complex domains.

Using hours for tasks can lead down some really bad roads, most notably:  Former PM’s turned SM’s and other organizational members who try to apply PMI tactics (100% utilization, tracking actuals, etc) tactics to complex software development.  By preferring “sticking to the plan” over “responding to change”, they are completely violating Agile and Scrum.

This same bad road can also lead companies into think that “schedule/scope/cost” is an optimum model for software development.  As far as I’m concerned, schedule/scope/cost is a dead, failed model for software.

Now, using hours for tasks doesn’t have to lead down those bad roads — but in my experiences, they usually do.  Let’s not forget, Scrum used to require hours for task estimation, many years ago, but the Scrum experiences of the wider community over 20 years has spoken on the topic — hours is not always optimum.  I would go farther than that and say, at the Sprint task level, it’s usually NOT optimum.

Given the above, I’ll leave it as an exercise to others to describe where using task hours might not lead down those bad roads.

_____
Charles Bradley
Professional Scrum Trainer
Scrum Coach-in-Chief
http://ScrumCrazy.com

New Courses from ScrumCrazy.com:

• Scrum For Executives
• Agile Requirements: Product Owner and Team Collaboration Techniques
• Scrum Product Owner: Techniques for Success
• Evidence Based Management for Software Organizations(TM)
  • Class for Software Development Managers and Executives

If you’re interested in any of our classes, training, or coaching services, feel free to contact us.

Scrum of Scrums is an event *of* the Development Team, *by* the Development Teams, and *for* the Development Teams!

Hello ScrumCrazy readers,

I’m proud to announce that my article on the “Scrum of Scrums” practice got posted on Scrum.org.

In the article I give some advice on excellence in execution of the Scrum of Scrums practice, and how the Scrum of Scrums has been misinterpreted my many to be a status meeting. It’s an event of the Development Teams, by the Development Teams, and for the Development Teams!

Please give it a look and give me feedback here or there. Feedback welcome!

New and Improved User Story Lifeycle Diagram — Free Creative Commons PDF download!

I had a designer friend update my User Story Lifecycle diagram, and she did a fantastic job!  You can download the PDF here:  http://www.scrumcrazy.com/lifecycle

New and Improved Diagram:

The Older Diagram(also still available at the above link):

Other Good User Story Links

• User Stories article on Agile Atlas (New! March 2013 – I co-wrote this one — great article if I do say so myself!)
• A User Story Checklist
• User Story Basics – The Longer Story
• To see what User Story Traps cause a lot of pain on teams, see User Story Traps
• To see how to make sure your stories are “ready” for implementation, check out Roman Pichler’s article, The Definition of Ready
• To see more info on creating Acceptance Tests, see my Presentation – Story Testing Patterns
• To see how well your team is implementing the User Story practice, see the The Bradley User Story Maturity Model
• To see more information on grooming user stories, see:
  • What does Product Backlog Grooming Look Like?
  • Tips for Effective Backlog Grooming
• Ron Jeffries’ article: Essential XP: Card, Conversation, Confirmation
• The best book on the subject of User Stories, IMO, is Mike Cohn’s User Stories Applied.
• I wrote a skit for a presentation I did at MileHighAgile 2011 that demonstrates a team doing Product Backlog Grooming for a User Story. In the skit, backlog grooming is covered pretty well, with the one exception that estimation was not covered in the skit. You can read the script of the skit here:
  • 

    Script_UserStoryUtopia.pdf

    • Details
    • Download
    • 82 KB
• For good advice on how to split User Stories, see Richard Lawrence’s Story Splitting Flow Chart.
• For a good article on why to split User Stories, see Mark Levison’s Story Splitting, How Small is Enough?

Daily Scrum Patterns: The Sprint Backlog at the Daily Scrum

This blog post is part of a series of blog posts on Daily Scrum patterns.  For some background, you might find it useful to read my previous article on a simple Scrum Patterns framework.  Daily Scrum Patterns fall under the category of “Scrum Technique Patterns”, as introduced in that article.

Today we’ll talk about “Obstacle Resolution Patterns”

Notes:

• All Scrum Patterns are displayed as such: <Scrum Pattern Name>.
• All patterns currently link to the same Daily Scrum Patterns Summary Chart, where you can find out more info about each pattern.

“The Sprint Backlog at the Daily Scrum” Patterns

While it’s a popular and proven practice to <View the Sprint Backlog at the Daily Scrum>, it’s a controversial practice to <Update the Sprint Backlog at the Daily Scrum>, as the updating can detract from the true objectives and focus of the Daily Scrum in some situations.

Also, don’t forget to be creative and <Create Your Own Pattern>, and don’t ever hesitate to use a technique that is not described by a documented pattern.

The Sprint Backlog at the Daily Scrum Patterns:

• <View the Sprint Backlog at the Daily Scrum>
• <Update the Sprint Backlog at the Daily Scrum>

Daily Scrum Patterns: Who Attends the Daily Scrum?

This blog post is part of a series of blog posts on Daily Scrum patterns.  For some background, you might find it useful to read my previous article on a simple Scrum Patterns framework.  Daily Scrum Patterns fall under the category of “Scrum Technique Patterns”, as introduced in that article.

Today we’ll talk about “Obstacle Resolution Patterns”

Notes:

• All Scrum Patterns are displayed as such: <Scrum Pattern Name>.
• All patterns currently link to the same Daily Scrum Patterns Summary Chart, where you can find out more info about each pattern.

Who Attends? Patterns

According to the Scrum Guide, the Development Team must attend. With many teams, and especially Shu level teams, the <Scrum Master Attends>. It’s usually a good practice if the <Product Owner Attends> so that they can help the Development Team if needed, often times at <The After Party>. It’s usually not good if an <Authority Figure Attends> on a regular basis.

Also, don’t forget to be creative and <Create Your Own Pattern>, and don’t ever hesitate to use a technique that is not described by a documented pattern.

Who Attends? Patterns:

• <Development Team Only>
• <Scrum Master Attends>
• <Product Owner Attends>
• Anti-Pattern: <Authority Figure Attends>

Daily Scrum Patterns: Who Participates in the Daily Scrum?

This blog post is part of a series of blog posts on Daily Scrum patterns.  For some background, you might find it useful to read my previous article on a simple Scrum Patterns framework.  Daily Scrum Patterns fall under the category of “Scrum Technique Patterns”, as introduced in that article.

Today we’ll talk about “Obstacle Resolution Patterns”

Notes:

• All Scrum Patterns are displayed as such: <Scrum Pattern Name>.
• All patterns currently link to the same Daily Scrum Patterns Summary Chart, where you can find out more info about each pattern.

Who Participates? Patterns

The Scrum Guide says that “the Scrum Master enforces the rule that only Development Team members participate in the Daily Scrum.” However, some practitioners think it might be ok if the <Product Owner Participates> in the Daily Scrum. Having said that, it is incorrect Scrum if a <Non Scrum Team Member Participates> in the Daily Scrum, so consider using <The After Party> to let non Scrum Team Members communicate with the Scrum Team.

Also, don’t forget to be creative and <Create Your Own Pattern>, and don’t ever hesitate to use a technique that is not described by a documented pattern.

Who Participates? Patterns:

• Controversial Pattern: <Product Owner Participates>
• Anti-Pattern: <Non Scrum Team Member Participates>

Daily Scrum Patterns: Facilitation Patterns

This blog post is part of a series of blog posts on Daily Scrum patterns.  (More coming in future posts over the next weeks).  For some background, you might find it useful to read my previous article on a simple Scrum Patterns framework.  Daily Scrum Patterns fall under the category of “Scrum Technique Patterns”, as introduced in that article.

Notes:

• All Scrum Patterns are displayed as such: <Scrum Pattern Name>.
• All patterns currently link to the same Daily Scrum Patterns Summary Chart, where you can find out more info about each pattern.

Facilitation Patterns

Most teams hold the Daily Scrum as a <Standup Meeting>, but this is not required in Scrum, and some teams that are distributed feel like it’s ok to hold a <Sit Down Meeting> so long as they are faithfully executing the objectives of the Daily Scrum.

Teams just starting with Scrum might benefit from a <Close Facilitator>, so long as that doesn’t turn into a <Controlling Facilitator>. A bad practice is facilitating a Daily Scrum such that it <Turns into a Waterfall Status Meeting>.

Also, don’t forget to be creative and <Create Your Own Pattern>, and don’t ever hesitate to use a technique that is not described by a documented pattern.

Facilitation Patterns:

• <Standup Meeting>
• <Sit Down Meeting>
• <Close facilitator>
• Anti-Pattern: <Controlling Facilitator>
• Anti-Pattern: <Turns into a Waterfall Status Meeting>
• <Create Your Own Pattern>

Bradley Bug Chart Referenced in Awesome New Scrum Book

The Bradley Bug Chart was referenced in an awesome new Scrum Book that is now on the market.

Background

I got an email from this guy named Rich one day who wanted to talk by phone and ask me some questions about the Bradley Bug Chart. A great collaboration ensued, and I incorporated some of his suggestions into my chart. A couple of weeks later, he asked me to review Chapter 1 of this book he was writing. I have some of the highest standards around, and I’m not easily impressed, but that first chapter was extraordinary! Through that one chapter, and the conversations with Rich, I realized this guy knew Scrum inside and out. I then reviewed and commented on a few more chapters. I get asked to do unpaid reviews often, but I only spend my time on things that I think are excellent for the Agile community. I’ve spent some time reviewing another book that hasn’t been published yet, and it too, is a great one for the industry in my opinion. More on that one when it gets published.

The Bradley Bug Chart Gets Called Out

A little while later, Rich asked me if he could refer to my Bradley Bug Chart in his book(see page 277), in a section on how to handle bugs in Scrum. I was ecstatic, in part just having my work get recognition, but it was also recognition from someone I highly respected myself. It was great. I also re-wrote some of the praise that I gave Rich on that Chapter 1 review as a quote for his book. Rich also ended up quoting me a few times in other parts of the book, particularly in the chapter on “Continuous Improvement.” I’m not trying to brag here, just sharing the satisfaction of seeing some of my hard work and learning as being objectively recognized in the community.

About the Book

Here is the quote I wrote for his book:

• “Finally a book about Scrum from the Development Team’s point of view. Richard’s description of the best and worst ways to implement Scrum is priceless. The first chapter alone is one of the best descriptions of ‘Scrum done well’ that I’ve ever seen.” — Charles Bradley

I highly recommend his book for anyone working with Scrum and Microsoft Visual Studio/.Net technologies.

Here is the book:

• Professional Scrum Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 , by Richard Hundhausen

Small Caveat: Rich is and was a trainer with Scrum.org, and since our initial collaboration, Rich inspired me to become a trainer for Scrum.org as well. So, while none of this was true at the time of the above events, I wanted to mention that we are now both trainers for Scrum.org. I have no financial interests in his book, whatsoever, and my journey to become a Scrum.org trainer came after my review of his book. Thanks Rich!

Daily Scrum Patterns: Talk Order

This blog post is part of a series of blog posts on Daily Scrum patterns.  (More coming in future posts over the next weeks).  For some background, you might find it useful to read my previous article on a simple Scrum Patterns framework.  Daily Scrum Patterns fall under the category of “Scrum Technique Patterns”, as introduced in that article.

Notes:

• All Scrum Patterns are displayed as such: <Scrum Pattern Name>.
• All patterns currently link to the same Daily Scrum Patterns Summary Chart, where you can find out more info about each pattern.
  

Talk Order

Most teams start out with a <Round Robin> approach. Teams that are distributed or are highly self organizing might use the <Talking Stick> approach. Some teams become better at getting work done if they <Walk The Items> instead, but use caution as that approach can lead to a Daily Scrum that <Turns Into Waterfall Status Meeting>.

Also, don’t forget to be creative and <Create Your Own Pattern>, and don’t ever hesitate to use a technique that is not described by a documented pattern.

Talk Order Patterns:

• <Round Robin>
• <Talking Stick>
• Controversial Pattern: <Walk the Items>
• <Create Your Own Pattern>