Stop writing stories, start validating working software
2 likes274 views
The document emphasizes the need to shift from traditional user stories in agile software development to valuing working software and effective team collaboration. It critiques the over-reliance on user stories that can inhibit agility and suggests a focus on clear product vision, enabling constraints, and fostering trust within teams. The goal is to deliver true business value efficiently and empower teams to deliver solutions that meet customer needs effectively.
Stop writing stories, start validating working software
- 1. STOP WRITING STORIES, START VALIDATING WORKING SOFTWARE matthew.r.philip@accenture.com @mattphilip
- 2. 1.LEARN MORE EFFECTIVE WAYS OF COLLABORATING 2.LEARN HOW TO CREATE A TEAM OF PRODUCT MISSIONARIES INSTEAD OF MERCENARIES 3.LEARN HOW TO IDENTIFY PROBLEMS AND GOALS AND INVITE TEAMMATES TO SOLVE THEM 4.UNLEARN BEHAVIORS THAT INHIBIT AGILITY Goals for today
- 3. THE EPIC HISTORY OF AGILE CIRCA 2001 Dark Lord of Waterfall Agile Alliance of independent thinkers
- 4. BUT THE HEARTS OF MEN ARE EASILY CORRUPTED… The User Story
- 5. AND SOME THINGS THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN WERE LOST. HISTORY BECAME LEGEND. LEGEND BECAME MYTH. AND FOR 20 YEARS, THE SPIRIT OF AGILE PASSED OUT OF ALL KNOWLEDGE.
- 7. STORIES WENT SIDEWAYS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. — Jeff Patton
- 8. SOMEBODY CAME UP TO ME AND SAID, ‘WE WANT TO DO SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT BUT WE JUST CAN’T STAND ALL THIS CEREMONY AND THIS AGILE STUFF. WE JUST WANT TO WRITE SOME PROGRAMS.’ TEARS CAME INTO MY EYES… HOW CAN IT BE THAT WE’RE RIGHT BACK WHERE WE WERE TWENTY YEARS AGO? — Kent Beck
- 9. WORKING SOFTWARE OVER COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENTATION Manifesto for Agile Software Development
- 10. YOU’RE RIPPING MY CARD!
- 12. THE MOST EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE METHOD OF CONVEYING INFORMATION TO AND WITHIN A DEVELOPMENT TEAM IS FACE-TO-FACE CONVERSATION. Manifesto for Agile Software Development
- 13. PROMISE FOR A CONVERSATION
- 14. USER STORIES REPLACE CONVERSATIONS
- 15. USER STORIES REPLACE CONVERSATIONS
- 16. PROMISE FOR A CONVERSATION Pattern: Conversation Focus Anti-Pattern: User-Story Focus Organic, spontaneous, natural Scheduled, time-boxed Synchronous Asynchronous Direct, personal, humanizing Indirect, impersonal, tools-focused High bandwidth, promotes understanding Low bandwidth, leads to more questions, assumptions
- 17. WORKING SOFTWARE IS THE PRIMARY MEASURE OF PROGRESS. Manifesto for Agile Software Development
- 18. WORKING SOFTWARE IS THE PRIMARY MEASURE OF PROGRESS.
- 19. • VELOCITY/POINTS • STORY COUNT • STORY CYCLE/DELIVERY TIME • UTILIZATION • ESTIMATED QUALITATIVE VALUE • ESTIMATED QUANTITATIVE VALUE • VALIDATED VALUE HOW IS YOUR TEAM MEASURED?
- 21. SIMPLICITY–THE ART OF MAXIMIZING THE AMOUNT OF WORK NOT DONE–IS ESSENTIAL. Manifesto for Agile Software Development
- 22. 1 BUILDING THE WRONG THING OR THINGS PEOPLE DON'T NEEDBIGGEST WASTE IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?
- 23. THERE IS NOTHING SO USELESS AS DOING EFFICIENTLY THAT WHICH SHOULD NOT BE DONE AT ALL. — Peter Drucker
- 24. HOW MUCH HOW MUCH TIME, EFFORT AND CONVERSATION DO YOU AND YOUR TEAM SPEND… DEALING WITH USER STORIES AND OUTPUTS VALIDATING WHETHER YOU’RE SOLVING BUSINESS PROBLEMS AND REALIZING OUTCOMES ?
- 25. STORY-BASED ANTI-PATTERNS • This story isn’t estimated. • There’s no way that’s a five. • I think we need a spike before we do that. • What am I going to accomplish today? Story #654 and maybe start on Story #679. • I can’t estimate that if I don’t know the solution. • Can you update your cards, please? • Tell me what to type in the description. • These acceptance criteria are in the wrong format. • That’s a task, not a story. • Can you please add the details? • Can you make a story for that before I do it? • Is this a bug or a feature? • This story won’t fit in the sprint. • I’m not sure we can commit to that. • That wasn’t in the story. • The PO is out today; you’ll have to wait. • Let’s schedule a meeting to refine those stories. • We can’t work on that until it’s been refined. • We can't interrupt the sprint for that. PROCESSES AND TOOLS COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENTATION CONTRACT NEGOTIATION FOLLOWING A PLAN
- 26. SO WHAT DO WE DO?
- 27. BREAK THE CYCLE OF BEHAVIORS THAT WERE EFFECTIVE IN THE PAST BUT ARE NO LONGER RELEVANT IN THE CURRENT BUSINESS CLIMATE, AND NOW LIMIT OR MAY EVEN STAND IN THE WAY OF YOUR SUCCESS. — Barry O’Reilly
- 28. STORIES AREN’T A DIFFERENT WAY OF DOCUMENTING; THEY’RE A DIFFERENT WAY OF WORKING. — Jeff Patton
- 29. 1.CLEAR PRODUCT VISION AND GOALS 2.ENABLING CONSTRAINTS AND EXPLICIT FREEDOMS 3.TRUST AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY 4.LOW LEVEL OF WORK IN PROGRESS 5.TIGHT FEEDBACK LOOPS Rely less on user stories
- 30. 1. CLEAR PRODUCT VISION AND GOALS
- 31. PRODUCT PRINCIPLES/ PRODUCT MANIFESTO • Build Something People Want • Sell the innovation, not the product • None of the work we are doing to develop the product is an end in itself • Think about who we want our customers to become: • Less frustrated by a lack of visibility into what is going on with their team. • Masters of their own information and not slaves • Relaxed, productive workers
- 32. PROBLEMS TO SOLVE As a bank analyst I want to see my reports in a grid view So that I can view details quickly. Reduce the analyst’s time to look up a bank’s financial report. USER STORY PROBLEM TO SOLVE
- 34. WE NEED TO GIVE DEVS FREEDOM. — Client Product Owner
- 35. AS A SOFTWARE TESTER, I MAY WANT TO STOP USING USER STORIES SO THAT I CAN CREATIVELY EXPLORE THE SYSTEM TO LEARN HOW IT ACTUALLY WORKS AND TO INVESTIGATE UNDER WHICH CIRCUMSTANCES IT MIGHT FAIL. — ILEANA BELFIORE
- 36. EXPLICIT FREEDOMS AND ENABLING CONSTRAINTS Freedoms: • Collaborate with anyone in the organization • Commit whenever you want • Use any framework Constraints: • Use a technology that we already support • Spend up to $5000 • Make sure someone else works with you
- 37. ALLOW FOR EMERGENCE One of Minecraft's most exciting new features didn’t originate with a user story.
- 40. I DON’T NECESSARILY KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS. — Client Product Owner
- 42. MOBBING
- 44. DEMO YOUR WORK TO REAL USERS INFORMALLY
- 45. MY TEAM HAS BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE USING OUR PRODUCT…WE ARE BUILDING THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS. — Client team member
- 46. IT ALLOWS US TO HAVE TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION… INPUT INTO THE SOLUTIONS BEING BUILT FOR US. — Client’s client
- 47. WHAT IS “DONE” FOR A USER STORY? Define Problem Build “Done” Deploy “Concept to Cash” ?
- 48. WHAT IS “DONE” FOR A USER STORY? Define Problem Build Deploy “Done” “Concept to Cash” ?
- 49. DONE = VALIDATED Define Problem Build Deliver Validate “Done” Validation Time Delivery Time Measure and reduce this!
- 50. DONE = VALIDATED -- John Cutler
- 51. TRUE BUSINESS VALUE CAN BE DETERMINED ONLY AFTER DELIVERY TO THE CUSTOMER. CHOICES ABOUT WHAT TO WORK ON AND WHEN, THEN, ARE REALLY JUST YOU PLACING BETS ON WHAT YOU THINK THE CUSTOMER WILL FIND VALUABLE. — Dan Vacanti
- 52. GOAL: GET IT TO THE END USER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. — Client Product Owner
- 53. FOR 6 MONTHS, I HAVE EXPERIMENTED IMPLEMENTING WITHOUT USER STORIES FOR SMALL INCREMENTS, JUST BEGIN BY THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED, PROPOSE, SHOW WORKING SOFTWARE, COLLECT KEY USERS' FEEDBACKS AND ADJUST. AND IT'S WORKED VERY WELL IN MY CONTEXT. — Agnès Vugier
- 54. 1.FEWER MEETINGS 2.MORE EMPOWERED AND ENGAGED TEAMS 3.BETTER SOLUTIONS 4.FOCUS ON THE RIGHT THING: VALUE 5.MORE SATISFIED CUSTOMERS Takeaways LESS RELIANCE ON STORIES =
- 55. matthew.r.philip@accenture.com @mattphilip • HTTPS://TALKINGCODE.COM/PODCAST/EPISODE-14-JEFF-PATTON/ • HTTPS://THENOUNPROJECT.COM/ • HTTPS://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/POSTS/HKNIBERG_HOW-CRAWLING-CAME-TO-MINECRAFT- ACTIVITY-6692183111863676928-PJIX/ • HTTPS://MEDIUM.COM/@STEWART/WE-DONT-SELL-SADDLES-HERE-4C59524D650D • HTTPS://SVPG.COM/ • HTTPS://AVAILAGILITY.CO.UK/ • HTTPS://COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG/ • HTTPS://LOTR.FANDOM.COM/ • HTTPS://AGILEMANIFESTO.ORG/ • HTTPS://MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM/2020/07/21/STOP-WRITING-STORIES-START-VALIDATING-WORKING-SOFTWARE/ • HTTPS://MEDIUM.COM/INGENIOUSLYSIMPLE/SOMETHING-ON-MOB-PROGRAMMING-WITH-WOODY-ZUILL-D730FE67EFA4 Sources and Resources
- 56. Gracias!