Looking for guidance to create User Stories and tasks
Hello,
I recently started to volunteer with a Non-profit Org as a Product Owner intern. They are creating a App that would give financial literacy to teens. I am looking for some help for creating task/ user stories for the web pages Some of the pages have been created but need changes as requested by the stakeholder. I can send the information and what I have worked on from my little knowledge and need some guidance. All of the team is remote and the product owner is having a lot on his plate. I will connect with you via Linkedin and share the details. .
Is there a Product Backlog with all the features that are needed?
If there are items in the Product Backlog, work with the Development Team to refine them so they are small enough to get done in one Sprint.
If you're going to choose the Product Owner path, I highly advise you to take the in-person PSPO and the PSPO-Advanced classes. You will learn a lot from the instructor and your peers.
Hi Uma,
If you want one-to-one advice, you might be better either inviting an expert into your organization, or perhaps attending meetups in your area, and seeing if you find someone kind enough to help.
But if you're willing to engage a bit more on this forum, I'm sure you'll find people who are happy to help. I personally find it a lot more rewarding to provide answers that are available to everyone.
I'm willing to give some generic advice to begin with.
I assume you're working with Scrum, as defined by the Scrum Guide. If you haven't done so already, I recommend you read the Scrum Guide, and I've highlighted some terms in bold, where I think it's important to see how they're defined in the guide.
Without knowing more about your context, I'd say there are two important things to consider.
- A busy Product Owner needs to invest enough time so that they are in a position to delegate to the Development Team
- User stories generally work best when they contain just enough information to trigger the right conversations.
As you already have a Product Owner, and Scrum does not allow two Product Owners owning the same product, I'm going to assume you are a member of the Development Team, who helps ensure the whole Development Team has more understanding of the product, and allows the Product Owner more options in delegating responsibilities to the Development Team.
Is the Product Owner's future vision for the product clear? Where does he want to take it? What is perceived as valuable over the short, medium and long term? How will success be measured? Is it about achieving certain metrics, or being able to satisfy particular users/customers/stakeholders in a particular way? What is known about the desired outcome, what is assumed, and what is yet to be discovered?
If you or other colleagues on the Development Team understand most of this, then the Product Owner is perhaps already in a good position to delegate.
Otherwise, I see a significant risk that this whole initiative will be unsuccessful.
It's important that there is enough understanding across the whole Scrum Team, so although you may be the specialist member of the Development Team who understands the most about the product, you will probably increase the chances of success by sharing knowledge, and collaborating during refinement.
This could mean that as an entire team (if possible), you all write user stories together. Failing that, you could write very short user stories and discuss them with the rest of the team.
It could be that as a Development Team you come up with a proposed plan, and you only involve the Product Owner on aspects that you need to validate.
The actual format of user stories isn't very important, but it does matter that they trigger the right conversations. It's common to identify who has the need (e.g. briefly describe the type of user), the reason that this user wants or needs help, and a high level description of a perceived solution.
So one example of a user story from the past might be:
As a member of 19th century high society, in order to get to my social functions more promptly, I want faster horses to pull my carriage.
Because of the information in this story, it is clear that horses wouldn't only need to be fast, but they would need to also be strong enough to pull a carriage.
Because the intended user is known, there is suggestion that the solution would also need to be something a member of high society would use.
But most importantly, because it is clear that the need is to get somewhere more promptly, there is freedom to investigate alternative solutions.
This user story could have facilitated the invention of the automobile.