Re: Top-down User Stories

Jana,

I concur with all of the others who have responded so far. It should work
but it may not work. The key elements that are not well identified here
are the amount of collaboration and the nature of feedback loops.  What
strikes me in your description is step two, " the product owner should
write user stories".

The question is, how do the user stories get decided before the product
owner writes them down?  This is the point where user research &
experience, and technical research & experience, come together with
business stakeholders to work out priorities and possible solutions.

It all depends on your company's culture and the product owner's
personality. If it's biased toward a command-and-control culture, and the
product owner is not collaborative by nature,  then having that person
write down what they want built and how they want it built probably will
not provide a framework for agility.



Marjorie H. Pries
Lead Consultant / Utility Infielder

ThoughtWorks, Inc.
http://www.thoughtworks.com


"Don't believe everything you think."
     --seen on a bumpersticker



Jana Jecmen <jana.jecmen@...>
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03/17/2009 08:18 AM
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[agile-usability] Top-down User Stories









Hi All,
 
My company is developing the strategy for going Agile. Here is how we plan
to maintain the Backlog:
product management should specify a "theme",
product owner should write User Stories for it,
developers should estimate them and eventually split them into tasks.
This strategy is believed to give us a framework to stay on track and to
deliver what product management wants.
 
Did anybody apply a similar top-down approach in practice?
 
I like this strategy, but I have a nagging suspicion that this is not an
Agile methodology. Shouldn't the User Stories be created in a bottom-up
fashion in Agile?
 
I would appreciate your comments. Thanks,
 
Jana