Steve Neiderhauser

User Stories Rock

On Monday, I attended Mike Cohn's User Story class in Dallas. User stories are a concise, flexible way to write requirements for Agile projects. They take the form:

As a <user role> I want a feature so that <business benefit>

Agile is about software craftsmanship so even when talking about user stories we're also talking about design.  My favorite topic in Mike's class is tracer bullets.  Instead of splitting stories based on different technology layers, write user stories that provide a full slice of functionality.  With a tracer bullet, you shoot the tracer through all layers of the architecture.

What are the benefits?

• Reduces architecture risk
• Easier to prioritize stories
• Software application can be released early because features are complete

Agile Teams and Funding

During a training session, someone asked if Agile teams should be created per project.  I answered that instead of being project focused we should create a team, allow the team to stay together and develop a velocity… they would work on any number of software projects within a product area.

Being project focused also leads to flaws in funding.

In this article about project-based funding, Marty Cagan describes three fatal problems with the project-based funding model.

The true benefit of funding teams?  "The dedicated product team model will not only help your money go further, but most importantly it generates better results in terms of speed to market, degree of innovation, and business results."

Kanban

I often use a Kanban approach to help teams deliver services or zap software bugs.

I've created a short presentation showing a few Kanban benefits.

How to deal with vendors

There I was, sitting in an ISO Quality class when the instructor started talking about the quality of parts from outside vendors. Sure, you could try to implement a quality program at a company you have no control over.  Or you could create an option to switch vendors.

Apple has a history of switching CPU vendors when the parts are below Apple's expectations or specs.  Consider the latest reports of Apple possibly switching from Intel to another chip set that consumes less power.

Architects must understand the value of key product parts so they know where to build in the option to switch.

Change your Meetings

Nancy Duarte decided that the meetings at her company could be a tad better so she brought in Sunni Brown for a Gamestorming workshop.  A downpour of creativity and innovation followed.

On Nancy's blog you'll notice pictures of sticky notes and other lego-like artifacts that are easy to pick up and move around.  I think it would be eye opening to attend the Graphic Jam session and learn sketching techniques to help visually commicate ideas to your coworkers.

It's the shift to a visual framework that raises your ability to deliver at new levels.