User Stories Applied

by Mike Cohn

Thoroughly reviewed and eagerly anticipated by the agile community, User Stories Applied offers a requirements process that saves time, eliminates rework, and leads to better software. A great way to build software that meets users’ needs is to begin with “user stories”: simple, clear, brief descriptions of functionality that will be valuable to real users. In User Stories Applied, Mike Cohn provides you with a front-to-back blueprint for writing these user stories and weaving them into your development lifecycle.

You’ll learn what makes a great user story, and what makes a bad one. You’ll discover practical ways to gather user stories,even when you can’t speak with your users. Then, once you’ve compiled your user stories, Cohn shows how to organize them, prioritize them, and use them for planning, management, and testing.

Featured contents include:

  • user role modeling: understanding what users have in common, and where they differ
  • Gathering stories: user interviewing, questionnaires, observation, and workshops
  • Working with managers, trainers, salespeople and other proxies
  • Writing user stories for acceptance testing
  • Using stories to prioritize, set schedule, and estimate release cost
  • End-of-chapter practice questions and exercises

User Stories Applied will be invaluable to every software developer, tester, analyst, and manager working with any agile method:XP, Scrum…or even your own home-grown approach.

An eBook version including EPUB, MOBI (Kindle), and PDF versions can be purchased at InformIT.


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Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    • Foreword by Kent Beck
    • Table of Contents
    • Introduction
  2. Part 1: Getting Started
    1. An Overview
    2. Writing Stories
    3. User Role Modeling
    4. Gathering Stories
    5. Working With User Proxies
    6. Acceptance Testing User Stories
    7. Guidelines for Good Stories
  3. Part 2: Estimating and Planning
    1. Estimating User Stories
    2. Planning a Release
    3. Planning an Iteration
    4. Measuring and Monitoring Velocity
  4. Part 3: Frequently Discussed Topics
    1. What Stories Are Not
    2. Why User Stories?
    3. A Catalog of Story Smells
    4. Using Stories with Scrum
    5. Additional Topics
  5. Part 4: An Example
    1. The User Roles
    2. The Stories
    3. Estimating the Stories
    4. The Release Plan
    5. The Acceptance Tests
  6. Part 5: Appendices
    • An Overview of Extreme Programming
    • Answers to Questions
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