User Story Workshop
Creating Product Requirements
Who Should Attend
SME
Stakeholders
Customer
Product owner
Business Analysis
Scrum Master
Development Team
Facilitator Scrum Master or Coach
Participants Product owner or key stakeholder Development team members Stakeholders, users, customers if you think they’ll help and especially if they are involved in the significant objective being discussed in the story-writing workshop
Frequency About quarterly
Focus How to achieve either a single significant objective or a small number of smaller objectives
How long? As little as an hour but could take a full day. In most cases, target finishing in a single afternoon. That would be no more than 4-5 hours, including a working lunch and a couple of breaks.
Preparation
Have plenty of pens available, including markers, ballpoint pen, and dry erase markers depending on the space being used.
Large flip-chart, poster-sized sheets of paper, either self-adhesive or have something to adhere them to the walls.
Sticky notes or index cards, ideally in a variety of sizes and colors.
Agenda
Product owner presents the significant objective
Discuss user roles and personas
Story generation
Story selection
Schedule follow-up sessions if needed
On the Walls
Display the significant objective somewhere in the room where all can easily read it.
If you are using a template (such as “As a _____, I want ____ so that ____.”) write the template somewhere it will be clearly visible to all meeting participants.
Print a copy of each user role and persona description and hang them on the walls. If some roles or personas are definitely unimportant to the significant objective, you can leave them out. Alternatively, print a set of roles and personas for each participant or a few sets to be shared and space them around the meeting space.
Significant Objective
A significant objective is a goal that will almost always take more than one iteration or sprint to achieve. It can often be thought of as an MVP or MMF:
MVP: A version of a product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of information with the least effort.
MMF: A chunk of functionality that delivers a subset of the customer’s requirements, and that is capable of returning value to the customer when released as an independent entity.
Importance
It builds trust amongst the team. This collaboration and open discussion allow all to observe and take in the knowledge others are sharing. This ensures that everyone understands and embraces the value each member brings to the table.
Ensures proper alignment and understanding. With the proper collaboration, team members can ask questions, clarify and consolidate ensuring that everyone is on the same page.
Reduces/eliminates interruptions and questions later in the lifecycle. Again, because the team is participating with the SME's in identifying the stories, they can hear and participate in all discussions taking place. This helps to reduce/eliminate questions down the road (for example, when testing is taking place, etc.).
