Task: Identify User Roles and User Stories |
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This task describes how to identify and capture the initial set of user roles and user stories for the system under development. |
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Purpose
- To identify and capture the requirements that form the basis of communication
and agreement between the stakeholders and the development team about what
the system must do to satisfy stakeholder needs.
- To understand the requirements at a high level so that the initial scope
of work can be determined.
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Relationships
Roles | Primary:
| Additional:
| Assisting:
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Inputs | Mandatory:
| Optional:
| External:
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Outputs |
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Main Description
This task is about having an initial conversation with stakeholders to identify what the objectives are for the system
under development. The team and stakeholders brainstorm to identify and capture the user roles and personas of those
who will interact with the system and what user stories provide their objectives and reasons for using the system.
User stories are captured at a high level (user story statement only) to encourage further conversation about
them when it is time to add details.
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Steps
Determine sources of information
Be prepared for requirements-gathering sessions with stakeholders
by gathering and reviewing information related to the problem domain, problem
statement, business environment, and key stakeholders. Most of this information
should be available in the vision statement. Also review the existing requirements
repository for stakeholder requests. |
Identify and capture user roles and personas
Conduct User-Roles Modeling sessions to help you brainstorm with stakeholders. Go
through candidate user roles repeatedly until you have identified and captured an initial set of user roles, with
their goals for the system and how they will interact with it.
Another useful technique is to identify one or more personas for each user role. A persona is an imaginary
representation of a user role. It helps identify the reasons that people typically use the system and how they
will interact with the system.
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Identify and capture user stories
Conduct story-writing workshops to help you collaborate with stakeholders and gather the information needed.
Conduct a couple of brainstorming sessions to start identifying as many stories as possible, without worrying
about their size at this point. Capture the identified user stories for later prioritization, refinement, and
detailing. Keep these brainstorm sessions short (1 to 2 hours), limit negative feedback, and avoid lengthy
debates about user stories.
To write independent and valuable user stories at this stage, follow the INVEST Model.
The identification of new user stories should trigger the addition of new work items for the project in the Work Items List.
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Identify and capture epics
Epics are large-scope stories that represent complex requirements, typically identified and captured in early
iterations of development lifecycle. Capture epics the same way you capture user stories. Epics, however, do not comply
to all principles of the INVEST Model (for example, epics are not at the right size to be assigned to an
owner in one iteration).
See Epics and Themes for more information.
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Identify and capture domain terms
If there are ambiguous or domain-specific terms that need to be clearly defined, make sure that you work closely with
stakeholders to capture these terms in the glossary and that you use these terms consistently. |
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Properties
Multiple Occurrences |  |
Event Driven |  |
Ongoing |  |
Optional |  |
Planned |  |
Repeatable |  |
Key Considerations
Use various techniques to make gathering requirements easier. Face-to-face
meetings with stakeholders are the most effective way to understand stakeholder
needs and to gather and validate requirements. When face-to-face conversation
is not an option, you can use other means of communication, such as video conferences,
conference calls, instant messaging, or project collaboration tools, such as
IBM Rational Team Concert.
This task is one aspect of initially envisioning requirements, as part of
agile modeling early in the development lifecycle. |
More Information
Concepts |
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Guidelines |
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Tool Mentors |
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