This lesson teaches how to define the project requirements by identifying application
features and writing user stories that capture specific aspects of each feature.
Learning Outcomes
Distinguish between functional and non-functional requirements.
Write a user story from a product or feature description.
Identify and correct poorly written user stories.
Write acceptance criteria for a user story.
Identify and decompose story epics.
Identify the need for a Spike story.
Identify the Minimum Viable Product.
Study Resources
For your study of this topic, use these resources.
All three videos are assigned as a pre-class
activity; start there. The articles and blogs provide additional context and examples; focus
on the articles on spikes and MVP.
Use the Wikipedia articles as references for deeper exploration.
Video Lessons
Agile at Work: Planning with Agile User Stories by Doug Rose available on Lynda.com through the RIT library.
(3:27)
NOTE: In one place, the Creating user stories video makes an equivalence between the Definition of Done list and the Acceptance Criteria making it sound like these are the same thing. This is not the most common interpretation which is that these are two distinct lists each serving a different purpose. The Definition of Done is the same in most user stories and is a list of all the process steps that must be completed to finish development of the user story. The Acceptance Criteria are specific to each user story. The criteria are written in a specific format, and each one provides a description of one aspect of the required user story funtionality. Together, all the acceptance criteria should fully define the user story requirements.
(3:53)
(4:34)
Agile Requirements Foundations by Angela Wick available on Lynda.com through the RIT library.
Individually you will identify the application requirements from the
U-Fund Project Description.
You will break down features given for the product in your Domain Model and the Vision Document, into epics and stories. Be sure to use the language defined in your domain model. Don't worry about acceptance
criteria for now.
Use this template
for the list of epics and stories that you come up with.
Decompose the MVP features, from the Vision doc, into Epics and User Stories. Give yourself about 30 minutes to think deeply about what it means to be both a client user as well as a owner "admin" of the u-fund software.
Once you have received approval on your 10% feature enhancement(s), decompose it into Epics and User Stories. Timebox this task to about 15 minutes.
Keep in mind you will need to make and document assumptions about how this feature will work as it is likely that all details will not be known until after MVP (and possible consultation with your "Product Owner").
Post any requirements questions to the Questions to the Product Owner topic in the myCourses Discussions area or, if one is not afforded to you, reach out to your instructor and course assistants.
Click here
for a sample of a good Epic/Story hierarchy and a few good Stories to demonstrate
the level of detail expected.
Save the file as U-Fund Product Backlog.docx and submit the file to
the Defining project requirements - individual Assignments folder in MyCourses by the date shown in you section's schedule.
Defining project requirements - team Sprint 0
Your team will create a Product Backlog in your team's Trello planning board which consolidates the best User Story ideas from all team members. The Product Backlog will include User and Spike Stories, and Epics for the minimum viable product and two enhancements that the team is considering implementing.
Make sure that your Product Backlog is in place by the time indicated in your section's schedule for the Sprint 0 submission.
End-Of-Day Exercises
Defining project requirements - quiz: Watch the three Lynda.com videos from Agile at Work listed above. After watching the videos, take the 5-minute quiz,
Defining project requirements, in the myCourses Quiz area.
This is due at the time indicated on the schedule for your course section.
