To organize a large collection of user stories (or PBIs) in a product backlog is a tough thing to do. As time goes by, and the product grows, what was once a simple list of prioritized items gets unmanageable. Working from a huge list makes it very difficult to navigate and very easy to get “lost” in it. You lose track of what’s going on, what should come next and what’s a low priority.
Story Maps were first introduced by Jeff Patton in 2005. The main idea behind Story Maps is that single-list product backlogs are a terrible way to organize and prioritize the work that needs to be done. A richer structure is necessary. A user story map is a powerful tool that enables an agile team to groom their product backlog and plan the product releases more effectively. Story mapping is a great approach for organizing user stories of our product in a holistic view.
A user story map helps you arrange user stories into a useful model for understanding the functionality of a system, identifying holes and omissions in your backlog, and effectively plan holistic releases that deliver value to users and businesses through releases.
A user story map captures the journey a customer takes with the product including activities and tasks they perform with the system. Creating a story map collaboratively ensures team members are on the same page from the start of the project throughout the ongoing development of new releases.
Here are a few benefits of using a story map as a user story tool:
Listed below are some of the reasons why you need a user story mapping tool like Visual Paradigm in story mapping.
Story mapping consists of ordering user stories along two independent dimensions. The “map” arranges user activities along the horizontal axis in rough order of priority (or “the order in which you would describe activities to explain the behavior of the system”). Down the vertical axis represents increasing sophistication of the implementation.
Given a story map so arranged, the first horizontal row represents a “walking skeleton“, a barebones but usable version of the product. Working through successive rows fleshes out the product with additional functionality.
Visual Paradigm’s Story map supports a 3 or 4-level hierarchical structure for requirements gathering which is suitable for either complex, medium or simple projects. Story map starts from a collection of user features received from different sources (i.e. use case, BPMN, WBS or even mind maps) into the backlog of the story map, and these user features will be realized as user activities and into a related walking skeleton (user tasks). And these tasks can be breakdown further into epics, and then user stories for software development.
3-level Story Map for Medium Size Project
The 3-level story map involves three compartments: Activities > Tasks > Stories (Default)
The 4-level story map adds Epics into the 3-level map: Activities > Tasks > Epics > Stories (Configurable to)
Products are typically described by hundreds of requirements which are organized in the product backlog. Theme or epics cannot be completed in one sprint so they are broken into more user stories and subsequently a group of related tasks. Epics are then delivered in releases. But even small user stories from different epics can have something in common. Such a group of user stories is called theme.
Have you ever been confused by the use of terms like Theme (or feature) or epics in Agile Development? New-comers may not know what differences are and even lead to mistakes.
Scrum doesn’t have “stories”, “epics”, etc. Scrum has Product Backlog Items (PBIs), which are often prioritized, split and refined into epics, user stories, technical tasks, spikes and bugs in a just-in-time manner in the backlog grooming process.
A theme provides a convenient way to indicate that a set of related epics have something in common, such as being in the same functional area. By assigning a financial value to Themes, managers can ensure the highest value is being delivered and that the project/program is aligned with its objectives and the strategic direction of the organization.
An Epic is useful as placeholders for large requirements. It probably won’t fit into a sprint and should be broken down into stories. Epics are usually defined during the initial product roadmap and decomposed into stories in the product backlog as more is learned and is usually written in a User Story format. The decomposed stories in an epic have a common objective and a specific outcome or high-level user need or part of the journey or process someone takes in using the service.
User stories are the smallest units of user functionality in agile which can be delivered in one agile sprint. They are typically estimated using story points and defined using INVEST criteria. User stories should deliver a vertical slice of functionality to the customer that is valuable and complete by the end of an iteration. A user story must deliver particular value to the user and must be describable in simple language that outlines the desired outcome.
Tasks are decomposed parts of a story that get into HOW the story will be completed. Tasks can be hour estimated if desired. Tasks are usually defined by the people doing the work (developers, QA, etc), whereas stories and epics are generally created by the customer or the product owner on behalf of the customer. Thus, the tasks no longer need to be understandable by business users and so can be highly technical. The process of breaking a story down into tasks also helps the development team better understand what needs to be done.
User Story Map is becoming a popular user story management technique through the efforts of Jeff Patton and others. The user story tool allows you to establish multiple levels and dimensions for a product backlog through the breakdown of user needs as user activities, user tasks, epics, and user stories. Typically, an agile development team makes use of a story map in collaborative meetings in identifying the desired results the end-users want to achieve.
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