Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Requirements, User Stories and Backlogs

User Stories, half of me hates them, that half of me wonders “What is all the fuss about?” and that half wonders “How did Mike Cohn write 200 pages about something so simple?”

The other half of me see that people find them useful. They fill a need. They contain the key elements of requirements “Who What Why.” And over the years I’ve built up a lot of advice I give to people and teams. Some of it is User Story specific, some is about requirements in general and some is about backlogs and Agile.

A couple of months ago I was flying to Dallas to see a client. Its a long flight from London so I took the opportunity to write down my standard advice. The other passengers must have thought me strange, for over half the flight I was tapping into my laptop. By the time we landed I had about 25 pages - yes 25! - of raw, unedited, material.

I’m in the process of turning this material into a series of articles for Agile Connection - and benefitting from the advice of Johanna Rothman as I do it. The first pieces are already online:

  1. User Story Heuristics: Understanding Agile Requirements
  2. Relieving Agile Tension: How to Write Small Stories That Still Have Value
  3. Know Your Customers: They Can Help You Write Better User Stories

This series will stray into requirements and backlogs.

Now as it happens, about the time of Dallas flight the nice people form Libero in Romania asked me if I could give a day seminar on, yes, Agile Requirements. So, if you are in Romania, or fancy a trip to Romania in September check it out:

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