97
votes
Accepted
What is the weighting difference between Epic/Story/Task
In Scrum here is the rough breakdown:
Epic - something so big it probably won't fit into a sprint, is not clearly understood in terms of customer requirements and should be broken down into stories. ...
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53
votes
What is the weighting difference between Epic/Story/Task
Epic
An epic is like a super-story. When a story is too big to fit comfortably in a sprint and/or contains a lot of unknowns then it is usually better suited to be an epic. Epics are fine on the ...
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33
votes
How should a Scrum master handle disagreements about story-point estimates in Scrum?
With that much variation in the estimate, it seems like the work as it's currently defined is not ready for estimation yet. Based on that wide spread in estimates, I would say that the team doesn't ...
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23
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How should a Scrum master handle disagreements about story-point estimates in Scrum?
The first thing you should do is encourage the team to bring concrete arguments.
"Things are more complicated than they seem" or "I don't think those complications are valid" are ...
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20
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How to manage story points when several developers work on 1 story?
When estimating user stories, everyone should be estimating the complete effort it will take the team to get the story to Done. So, the back-end dev should not just estimate the effort it will take ...
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20
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When does a Scrum Team assign story points to the stories in the Scrum methodology?
The only certain answer is: sometime before the story is added into the sprint. After that the story point estimate doesn't add much value.
Common times that Scrum teams estimate stories:
Backlog ...
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19
votes
Does the scrum master also estimate user stories?
If you do development work in the sprint, you should estimate. If you don't, then it's better you skip on providing your own story points estimates.
You can help your team with information and advice, ...
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18
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between acceptance criteria and the definition of done?
The acceptance criteria you have listed are really a mixture of stories and tasks.
Given your example story:
As a user I want to register and log in so that I can register on the application and ...
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16
votes
What is the weighting difference between Epic/Story/Task
In general there are no rules but what you make. Your Product Owner would define what this means to them, then document and share it.
If you look as some of the scaling frameworks available there is ...
16
votes
Accepted
Do you consider a defect an actual defect if it occurs in Dev prior to the acceptance of the User Story as Done?
Working software over comprehensive documentation.
In general, I'd say that it just gets fixed and considered part of the work needed to complete the story. When you found the bug, you added a ...
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16
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Is it a problem when many stories start with: "As the system,..."
Yes. Using 'the system' as a user in stories is bad.
The whole point of the "as a ... I want ... So that ..." Format is to give the developer an insight in to the reason for the requested feature. ...
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15
votes
Should the Product Owner dictate what info the UI needs to display?
My question is, to what extent should the PO describe the requirements of a UI?
To the extent that the designers know what to design and the programmers know what to program. In your example, "as a ...
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15
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Accepted
Should I leave building the database for the end?
It is worrying that you have no why part to your user stories. This is an important element of the user story format as it allows us to evaluate the stories and to prioritise them. It appears that you ...
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15
votes
Accepted
User Story Title
TL;DR
Titles should be short and pithy, but meaningful. Think of them as communications shorthand that give the team a handle to refer to, not as lengthy descriptors. The story labels should make it ...
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13
votes
How to write implementing HTTPS as a user story?
I would focus on the need, rather than the implementation. The user story would then simply be:
"As a user, I want any personal information I give (Company) to remain private and secure."
With HTTPS ...
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13
votes
How should we hand-off and ticket UI designs to the devs to ensure the developed design matches the provided UI mockups, while still being agile?
I've seen this happen with design so many times. It's a structural problem with how people and teams are organized. Now, I feel like I should say that cross-functional teams are not required to be ...
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12
votes
How do I write user stories for Testing tasks?
Writing automated tests should still be part of each user story, as part of your definition of done for each user story. A user story should not be called complete without appropriate tests written ...
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12
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How to estimate a project budget using story points?
TL;DR
For agile projects, a basic formula for estimating budget is:
(totalStoryPoints / velocity * teamHoursPerSprint) + nonLaborCosts = budgetEstimate
The results should be reported as an ...
- 50.1k
12
votes
Accepted
Thoughts on using user stories to define business/platform needs?
Identifying the Story's Primary Consumer is Acceptable
The term "user" in user stories is often better understood as an actor or role in a use case, or even simply as a value consumer. The primary ...
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12
votes
Does running an agile squad mean that all squad members can do any work, or work should be divided based on skill set?
Cross Functional has more than one layer of meaning.
At the lowest level, a cross functional team simply means that all skills needed to deliver a usable increment are present on the team. At this ...
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11
votes
Accepted
Is it OK to defer implementation detail and consider user story to be done?
I would say no.
As you note, user stories should be vertical slices. Another way of looking at that is that they should, by themselves, provide value.
You should only burn down stories once those ...
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11
votes
Accepted
Should all team members be assigned user stories?
Question: Do you give each team member a user story
A see an anti-pattern here. As a Scrum Master, you don't have to assign stories & tasks to team members. It's their job (under your servant ...
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11
votes
How should we hand-off and ticket UI designs to the devs to ensure the developed design matches the provided UI mockups, while still being agile?
Let me challenge the frame of your question a bit:
Why do you have such specific requirements that change for every ticket?
Is it really necessary to have different margins between buttons on ...
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10
votes
Accepted
How can we deal with a big story that does not break down?
Breaking stories down can be a real challenge.
One trick is to step away from the original business story and evaluate if it is possible to deliver something smaller but that still produces business ...
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10
votes
Accepted
How to deal with a Product Owner who refuses to write user stories?
TL;DR
You're not wrong for writing the stories; it may be wrong in continuing to do so without change
Scrum doesn't say PO has got to write product backlog items or that they be user stories
...
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10
votes
Accepted
What metrics can we generate from t-shirt sizes (rather than story points) when estimating user stories?
Summary
To calculate velocity when using non-numeric relative sizing, you first need to map your story sizes to numeric values. I provide a working example of how to do this with tee shirt sizes, and ...
- 50.1k
10
votes
Accepted
User story decomposition into frontend and backend
TL;DR
As a rule of thumb (there are always edge cases and exceptions), user stories should represent a potentially-shippable unit of work related to the Sprint Goal. Unless you can ship the front end ...
- 50.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Does a user story need to be small and why, when using Kanban
In a word: feedback.
Whether you’re coaching a soccer team, flying a drone, planning a city, or writing a dissertation, the sooner you can get feedback, make adjustments, and get more feedback, the ...
10
votes
Accepted
How can I create an Epic based on requirements following best practices?
There are two schools of thought about what an Epic is.
Some define an Epic as a large user story, often one that cannot be delivered in a single iteration. However, it can be placed and ordered in a ...
- 19k
9
votes
Difference between user story and acceptance criteria
Yes, you can write that as a user story
What I don't quite understand is how/why the items are acceptance
criteria as opposed to a user story in their own right
In the specific example you gave, ...
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