Better requirements through story mapping h gidley

IUE 2011

Helene Gidley Carissa Demetris Owner, HSG Consulting Principal User Designer, ProQuest

©HSG Consulting LLC 1

◦  Define requirements for features ◦  Obtain single interpretation of requirements ◦  Prioritize requirements ◦  Determine impact of de-scoping requirements ◦  Determine how much is completed for large

features ◦  Provide a groomed backlog at beginning of sprint


  A physical story map Visually arranges features or concepts based on an end-to-end user workflow

  An interactive session

Brings stakeholders together to discuss prioritization, planning, scope, design, technical feasibility, etc.

  Introduced in 2009 by Jeff Patton ◦  http://www.viddler.com/explore/

naresh_jain/videos/36/


  Scoping requirements ◦  Brainstorms possible features ◦  Expose overlaps and gaps in existing requirements ◦  Drives writing of your requirements or scope documents.

  Weighing design alternatives ◦  Requirements ◦  Enhancements ◦  Embellishments

  Planning release content ◦  Features supporting an end-to-end user experience ◦  Delivered in a given sprint/release.


  Provide forum for workflow and requirement elicitation

  Assist in sizing of effort   Provide forum for conversations between product

owners, development, business analysts ◦  Validated by walkthroughs with technical development

leads, User Experience Designer/Business Analysts, and all team members

  Foster shared view of work   Facilitated by User Experience Designer or BA,

driven by Product Owner business needs and user experience


  Select persona   Identify high-level activities   Describe supporting tasks   Organize activity and task cards from left to right to describe the user’s

experience with your product.   Organize from top to bottom by necessity

6

time

nece

ssity

sub-tasks or task details

activity

task

And then And then

this

or…

or…

  Test the Story Map by telling bigger stories with it ◦  Choose an activity to start with ◦  When reading left to right use the conjunction “and then” to connect cards in

the story ◦  With cards in the same column use “or” to connect cards in the story ◦  For cards below the top, “absolutely necessary” axis, use the phrase “might

optionally” to communicate optionality ◦  Chose a concrete user name to help tell the story

7

time

nece

ssity

sub-tasks or task details

activity

task

And then And then

this

or…

or…

  Tell bigger stories   Persona based   Technical team, Product Owners, User Experience/BA, Design   Facilitate estimates

8

time

nece

ssity

activity

task

And then And then

this

or…

or…

  Choose groups of features that support an end-to-end user experience   Support all necessary activities with the first release   Improve feature support and add additional features with subsequent

releases

time ne

cess

ity

more necessary

less necessary

first release

second release

third release

Activity

Task

Activity Activity Activity

Task

Task

9 © Jeff Patton


  The problem ◦  Your company sells men’s and women’s casual clothing

and wants to open an online shop ◦  The product owners aren’t quite sure about all the

requirements and need some help in defining the scope of the effort

  The activity – 25 minutes ◦  Break out into groups of 6-8 people each ◦  Designate a business owner in each group ◦  Create story map of an online shopping experience   Indicate release planning by drawing lines on the map


  What was difficult about this process? What kind of arguments did you have?

  What seemed to come together easily?

  How could be applied to your situation? What other problems could this technique help solve?


Helene Gidley, Owner, Senior Project Manager HSG Consulting, LLC [email protected] Carissa Demetris, Principal User Experience Designer ProQuest [email protected]


  “ It’s the most fun I’ve had today”   Really helps in understanding the workflow   Very beneficial in identifying gaps in

requirements   Useful in defining release targets   Provides forum for discussion and clarifying

expectations among team members   Simpler, clearer stories and acceptance

cases

14 ©HSG Consulting LLC