Ren Witte

Chapter 8 Key Points

User Stories
User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs
Requirements Specification & Documentation (III) Agile Development
and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
SOEN 6481, Winter 2015/16 Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

Ren Witte
Department of Computer Science
and Software Engineering
Concordia University
8.1

Key Points Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

User Stories are another way to document scenarios Agile Development

and User Stories

Written by the whole team (in cooperation with product owner) User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts
Popular in agile software development (e.g., XP, Scrum) Notes and Further

Used for: Reading

Requirements documentation
Effort estimation (sprint planning)
Prioritization
Progress measurement
Acceptance tests

8.2

Outline Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates

1 User Stories User Stories and NFRs

Description Templates Agile Development

and User Stories

User Stories and NFRs User Stories and the Scrum

Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

2 Agile Development and User Stories

User Stories and the Scrum Backlog
Burndown Charts

3 Notes and Further Reading

8.3
Outline Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates

1 User Stories User Stories and NFRs

Description Templates Agile Development

and User Stories

User Stories and NFRs User Stories and the Scrum

Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

2 Agile Development and User Stories

User Stories and the Scrum Backlog
Burndown Charts

3 Notes and Further Reading

8.4

Requirements Specification & Documentation Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

Copyright 2009 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, [vL09]

8.5

User Stories Ren Witte

Key Points

Written on index cards (or equivalent) User Stories

Description Templates
Title User Stories and NFRs

Acceptance Test Priority Story Points Agile Development

and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Description (scenario) Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

Example
Customer returns item
Acceptance Test: custRetItem Priority: 1 Story Points: 2
When a customer brings an item to return, its purchase shall
first be authenticated. If the item was successfully authen-
ticated, the customer shall be credited with the purchase
amount through the same purchase method. The inventory
shall be updated with the returned item.

8.6
Description Templates Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Mike Cohns Style for User Stories Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Descriptions are often written in a template form: Agile Development

and User Stories
As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit> User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts
or just (shorter form) Notes and Further
Reading
As a <role>, I want <goal/desire>

Examples
As a forum user, I want to add a picture to my profile.

As a web user, I want to be notified when I move away from a page without
having it saved so that I do not unintentionally lose my work.

8.7

INVEST Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates

The INVEST checklist for user stories User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
Independent: stories should be independent from each other and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum

Negotiable: stories are not fixed, can be changed by customer Backlog

Burndown Charts

Valuable to user or business: user/business must get a value out of the story Notes and Further
Reading
(compare with use cases)
Estimable: if it cant be estimated, it doesnt go into the backlog
Small: should not take more than one sprint to finish (usually less) no epic
story
Testable: each story must be testable and the test(s) must be defined as an
acceptance criterion if it cant be tested, its not a requirement!

8.8

But what about the NFRs. . .? Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
How about writing NFRs as User Stories? and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
We could try to address them like this: Backlog
Burndown Charts

As a user, I want to have a response from the system after at most 1sec. Notes and Further
Reading
so that I do not waste my time.

As a system administrator, I want to be able to run 1000 users in parallel

so that I can deploy the system in our company.
(This is what some Scrum people propose Issues?)

8.9
But what about the NFRs. . .? Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Scrum doesnt have a clear concept for NFRs (unlike the UP) Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs
The Scrum community didnt come up with a clear concept for this (yet): Agile Development
and User Stories
Some propose writing NFRs as user stories they are at least captured, but do User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
not fit into the sprint/estimation model Burndown Charts

Some propose to capture them in a different format (e.g., templates specifically Notes and Further
Reading
for NFRs) but then you need a new strategy for integrating them into your
sprint planning
For an NFR that only applies to a single user story, it can also be captured in its
acceptance test
Some choose to ignore NFRs and hope for the best. . .

Scrum doesnt prescribe only using User Stories for a products backlog make
sure you address NFRs in a project somehow!

8.10

Outline Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates

1 User Stories User Stories and NFRs

Description Templates Agile Development

and User Stories

User Stories and NFRs User Stories and the Scrum

Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

2 Agile Development and User Stories

User Stories and the Scrum Backlog
Burndown Charts

3 Notes and Further Reading

8.11

Scrum Overview Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
24 h and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

30 days

Product Backlog Working increment

Sprint Backlog Sprint
of the software

Copyright Lakeworks, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

8.12
 Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

8.13
Copyright 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. [Lef11]

Requirements Meta-Model Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

Copyright 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. [Lef11]

8.14

Sprint Planning and User Stories Ren Witte

Key Points
Effort Estimation User Stories

User stories must include an effort estimation field (e.g., hours, story points) Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

estimated by the team (Planning Poker) Agile Development

and User Stories
typically relative estimate (story points) User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts
used to plan the number of user stories that can go into the next sprint backlog
Notes and Further
Reading

Priority

apply prioritization techniques as discussed before

priority increases for more detailed user stories
one person (usually product owner) has final say on prioritization

Progress tracking
using burndown charts

8.15
Burndown Charts Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

8.16

Dead-Tree Implementation Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

8.17

Outline
Copyright Drew Stephens, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates

1 User Stories User Stories and NFRs

Description Templates Agile Development

and User Stories

User Stories and NFRs User Stories and the Scrum

Backlog
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading

2 Agile Development and User Stories

User Stories and the Scrum Backlog
Burndown Charts

3 Notes and Further Reading

8.18
Reading Material Ren Witte

Key Points
Required User Stories
Description Templates

[Lef11, Chapter 6] User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
and User Stories
User Stories and the Scrum
Supplemental Backlog
Burndown Charts

[Lef11, Chapter 8] (Agile Estimating, Planning Poker) Notes and Further

Reading

Mike Cohns blog [Coh]

Alistair Cockburns Earned-value and burn charts [Coc]

Further Reading

[Lef11] (Agile Software Requirements)

[Rub13] (Scrum)
[GB13] and http://www.interactionroom.org (Interaction Room)

8.19

References I Ren Witte

[Coc] Alistair Cockburn. Key Points

Earned-value and burn charts. User Stories

Description Templates
http://alistair.cockburn.us/Earned-value+and+burn+charts. User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
[Coh] Mike Cohn. and User Stories

Mike Cohns Blog Succeeding with Agile.

User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog

http://blog.mountaingoatsoftware.com/.
Burndown Charts

Notes and Further

Reading
[GB13] Volker Gruhn and Matthias Book.
Tamed Agility in Developing Mobile Business Systems.
In Mobile Web Information Systems, volume 8093 of Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, pages 18. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40276-0_1.
[Lef11] Dean Leffingwell.
Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams,
Programs, and the Enterprise.
Agile Software Development Series. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2011.
Available online at http://clues.concordia.ca/record=b2680322.

8.20

References II Ren Witte

Key Points

User Stories
Description Templates
User Stories and NFRs

Agile Development
and User Stories
[Rub13] Kenneth S. Rubin. User Stories and the Scrum
Backlog
Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process. Burndown Charts

Addison-Wesley, 2013. Notes and Further

Reading

[vL09] Axel van Lamsweerde.

Requirements Engineering: From System Goals to UML Models to
Software Specifications.
John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

8.21