From User Stories to Use Cases: Tell the Full Story 1 Agenda - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

From User Stories to Use Cases: Tell the Full Story

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Agenda

• User Stories

○ Benefits ○ Limitations

• Use Cases

○ What ○ How ○ Why

• Actors and Personas
• Bringing it all together
• Learn more

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Lauren Kelly

Senior Engagement Manager, Migrations Lead lauren.kelly@pantheon.io

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What is a User Story

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A content editor So that the correct images are used for an event Wants to associate images with events

User Stories, (too) simplified As a <User Role> I want to <do something> As a content editor, I want to associate images with events.

User Stories - proper form is important

As a <User Role> I want to <do something> so that <value>. Answering ‘Why’ helps determine if/when more information is needed. As a content editor, I want to associate images with events so that the correct images are used for any given event.

User Stories have limitations...

Unless standards are enforced, they can be ambiguous: As a content editor, I want to associate images with events so that the correct images are used for any given event. What is the real purpose of this story? Could you deliver this with 100% confidence that it would be accepted? Could you accurately estimate this work?

User Stories need to be specific

As a content editor, I want to tag images with their associated event, so that they can be consistently used in multiple locations on the site reducing the chance of using the incorrect image for an event. This is better. The scope of the story is configuring a system of tagging

• images. It needs to be in a method that allows use in a variety of ways -

but configuring those uses is not in scope. Would you be more confident in estimating and delivering this story?

Communication

User Stories - Benefits

Planning Focus on the task level

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Planning

The work within a user story can be estimated and reliably used for sprint planning.

Communication

They make it easy to collect information from non-technical stakeholders, since they are in ‘Plain English’.

Focus

They capture the individual piece of work to be implemented. They are a great help for a developer in keeping focused

• n their specific work for any

given sprint.

User Stories have limitations...

• User Stories are meant to be selected for sprint development…and

then discarded.

• If teams are inconsistent in meeting requirements for user stories,

they allow for scope creep.

• It is far too easy to slip into using user stories as a checklist for work

completed, without looking at the big picture.

Building to a Checklist

Our story doesn’t talk about any other parts of the system. It relies on the team implementing the feature to understand the how the parts interact with the whole. Building piece by piece without looking at the system as a whole is a fantastic way to turn a project into a Frankenstein-style

• monster. New stories are added
• n to make up for shortcomings
• f past sprints, new team

members have their own ideas of how things should work...

Creating a Monster

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There are better ways

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Looking at the big picture

Use Cases

Let’s back up a bit... If we consider each project a story…

Brilliant art by Randal Munroe XKCD https://xkcd.com/657/

Imagine if you didn’t know all the characters and their storylines...

Brilliant art by Randal Munroe XKCD https://xkcd.com/657/

You would have to rewrite entire sections every time a new character came through.

Brilliant art by Randal Munroe XKCD https://xkcd.com/657/

Use Cases Use Cases provide these storylines. Who will be doing What things. When and Where will they be doing these things?

Use Cases Use cases can be used to ensure that new work does not require unexpected reworking of existing work.

All the systems

Use Cases

All the actors All the teams

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Yes, but what is a Use Case?

Use Cases are usually recorded in a few ways:

• A diagram of All the Interactions between an Actor and Systems

Use Cases for Event Registration

Site Visitor Create Event Our Awesome Website View Event Details Publish Event Review Registrants View Calendar Content Editor Event Coordinator Social Media Share Register for Event Outside Registration Manager Edit Event

Yes, but what is a Use Case?

• A list including

⌾ Steps performed by the Primary Actor to achieve a Goal ⌾ Alternative steps ✓ Options you want users to have ✓ Options users might mistakenly make

Site Visitor Registers for an Event

Steps:

1.

Site Visitor comes to site homepage

2.

The Site displays upcoming events

3.

Site Visitor clicks on the desired event

4.

The Site displays Event Information

5.

Site Visitor clicks to register for event

6.

The Site sends the Site Visitor to the login screen

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Site Visitor completes log in

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The Site sends the Site Visitor back to the registration page

9.

Site Visitor verifies contact information

10.

Site Visitor clicks to submit registration

11.

The Site sends a confirmation email to the Site Visitor

Site Visitor Registers for an Event

Alternative flows:

• 5a. The Site displays that Registration is Full for the Event.
• 9a. Site Visitor updates contact information

Yes, but what is a Use Case?

• A document including

⌾ Primary Actor ⌾ Goal ⌾ Pre-conditions ⌾ Post-conditions ⌾ Definition of success

Site Visitor Registers for an Event

Actor: Site Visitor Success: The Site Visitor is able to register without assistance from support Preconditions: An event occuring in the future has been created and published. The event has open registration space available. The Site Visitor has an existing account on the site. Postconditions: The Site Visitor is registered for the selected event. The registration count for the event is increased by 1.

How do we know the actors?

In a Use Case, we have actors taking action - but how do we know what actions they’ll take? We can discover these through the creation of Personas

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I do stufg!

Personas: What to include

• Name
• Job
• Demographics (a/s/l, income class, family

background)

• Skills
• Representative quote
• Picture
• Goals, related to the project
• Previous Experience
• Motivations
• Frustrations

A persona is a fictional character with a whole life outside of your project.

Personas

• Name: Ms Emily Johnson

(Emmy)

• Job: Graduate Student, F/T,

Music Education, dog-walker P/T

• Demographics:

25/F/Philadelphia, comes from a middle-class, midwestern family

• Skills: teaching, music

composition, working with animals

• Goals: To find hosting for her

dog-walking business website

• Motivations: Afgordable options, Ease
• f use, support, stability
• Frustrations: Technical jargon, paying

for things she doesn’t need, limited time for troubleshooting

• Previous Experience: Her friend

helped her build the website on her computer, new to web site ownership, new to hosting. I’ll never stop learning

• r sharing what I’ve

learned.

Personas -> Actors

We now have a picture of a specific type of user coming to the site. Ideally we would want a few examples of each persona group. We can collect these through research While our Actor is still known as Site Visitor in our use cases, when we are coming up with what actions the Site Visitor might take, we have examples in mind.

Bringing it all together to tell the full story

Once we build out the Use Cases, we’ll have a complete view of the project:

• Detailed, deliverable User stories can be added to each Use Case
• Sprints can be planned better, fewer blockers
• The scope of the project has been thoroughly defined, but can be

easily reduced or increased in estimable ways.

• We have an outline for QA/Testing
• We have shareable documentation on the project

What are the downsides?

• It requires the team to slow down.
• It is time consuming to do it right.
• You need a system to keep all this product documentation together,

accessible, and alive.

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

George Will

If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word.

Margaret Atwood

Kickofg!

At some point you have to stop documenting and start doing. When the team find something that was missed:

• Add it in
• Check to make sure it isn’t afgecting anything else
• Update other afgected areas
• Adjust upcoming sprints with new user stories
• Keep Being Awesome and Tell the Whole Story!

Recommended Resources

• Usability.gov on Use Cases:

https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/use-cases.html

• Usability.gov on Personas:

https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html

• Gatherspace: http://www.gatherspace.com/use-case-examples/
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_case
• Writing Efgective Use Cases by Alistair Cockburn:

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Efgective-Cases-Alistair-Cockburn/dp/02017022 58

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Thank You!