CYF PD

Learning Objectives

Identify features for a product
Write user stories for a product
Explain the importance of reading and understanding the acceptance criteria

Preparation

Post-its and a collaborative board.

Introduction

When mapping a product, we go from the high to the lowest level to plan our delivery. The reason for that is so that the team and stakeholders all have the same knowledge of the strategy of the product and the main end goal.

However, we cannot deliver everything at once. And we also cannot plan every detail. We can prioritise the must-haves and then focus on them.

Product > Features > User Stories > Tasks

This mapping process is also sometimes called User Journey mapping or Story Mapping. And you can - and should - do it whenever you are starting a new project.

Exercises

What questions should we ask to identify what needs to be built? (5 minutes)

Goal: To understand the requirements of building a library website.

Let’s assume we have been asked to build a library website that allows you to borrow books.

Discuss briefly as a class what questions we should ask to understand better what we will build.
Write these questions on post-its and share them on the collaborative board.

Make sure to encourage different people to share their ideas

Focus is on the questions, not the answers!

What features should this website have? (10 minutes)

Goal: To understand the process of breaking down a product into features.

Let’s assume we got answers to all our questions about the product. (We are not going to actually answer them)

Overall, the goal is to build a website with a catalogue of books that can be borrowed online.

In small groups, identify the main features you would expect to see on this website. In this example, features could be a shopping cart, book search, etc.
One person of each group to share the group’s thoughts with the class.

Breaking features down into user stories (15 minutes)

Goal: To understand the process of breaking down features into user stories.

Now that we have all the features, we need to break them down into user stories.

In small groups, pick one of the features and break it down into at least 2 user stories. For example, for the shopping cart feature the user stories could be:

As a library user, I want to be able to remove items I have included in my shopping cart so that when I checkout the remaining books are the ones I want to borrow.
As a library user, I want to be able to pay with credit card for the books in my shopping cart so they can be delivered to me

Different group representatives volunteer to share thoughts with the class.

Tasks needed to deliver this user story (15 minutes)

Goal: To understand the process of breaking down user stories into tasks and distributing those tasks among team members.

Now that we have user stories, it is time to break them down into tasks. Tasks are used to break down user stories into smaller components that can then be assigned to individual team members.

Chose a user story and in the same groups complete the following:

Identify the tasks that need to be completed in order to deliver value to the user, providing the outcome described in the user story.
Identify relationships and dependencies between tasks.
- How does a change in Task A affect other tasks?
- Does Task A need to be completed before we can work on Task B?
Size those tasks taking into account complexity and dependencies.
Answer these questions: when is it the right time to assign tasks to team members, what would be the criteria you would follow when assigning tasks?

Examples of tasks for a user story describing the book search functionality could be Search Box, Text Autocomplete, Database creation and setup. Discuss in small groups.

Again, a different group representative volunteer to share thoughts with the class.