How can you break down large user stories to estimate them effectively?
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Estimating user stories is a crucial part of agile software development, as it helps teams plan, prioritize, and deliver value to customers. However, some user stories are too large, vague, or complex to estimate accurately, which can lead to unrealistic expectations, wasted resources, and missed deadlines. How can you break down large user stories to estimate them effectively? In this article, you will learn some practical techniques to split user stories into smaller, more manageable chunks that can be estimated with confidence and clarity.
Large user stories, also known as epics, are problematic for several reasons. First, they are hard to estimate, as they involve many unknowns, dependencies, and assumptions. Second, they are hard to prioritize, as they span multiple features, functionalities, or user needs. Third, they are hard to deliver, as they require more time, effort, and coordination than smaller stories. By breaking down large user stories, you can reduce uncertainty, increase flexibility, and improve feedback loops.
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Mr. Jamie Morris, PMP, CSM
Sr. Project Manager / Logistics Analyst VI at CALIBRE Systems, Inc.
Breaking down user stories is akin to slicing a big cake into smaller, more manageable pieces. Why do we do this? Well, big user stories can be overwhelming for a single sprint. Therefore, we break them into smaller tasks that are easier to handle. You want simpler stories that allow for faster progress, where responsibilities are clear, and acceptance criteria are concise. You want to showcase progress while remaining flexible, so if circumstances change, the team can adapt quickly. In essence, breaking down user stories is like making your work more bite-sized, which helps your team work more efficiently and deliver results quicker. It's a fundamental aspect of ensuring that your Sprint Backlog is both manageable and achievable.
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Sagar Shah PMP®
Technology Evangelist | IT Consultant | Agile Mentor | Solution Architecture | Digital Transformation | Prompt Engineering | SAFe - Scaled Agile Framework | Pre-Sales Consultant | RFP Specialist | 10K+ Followers
Break down large user stories to estimate them effectively by identifying specific, tangible tasks or subfeatures within the larger story. Collaborate with the team to decompose the story into smaller, manageable components that can be estimated more accurately. This granularity not only aids in estimation but also facilitates better understanding and tracking during development, allowing for more precise planning and delivery.
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When breaking down large user stories, it's important to define the boundaries and limits of what the story covers. To do this, ask yourself what the minimum viable product (MVP) is for the story, what core functionality or value it must deliver to the user, and what nice-to-have features or enhancements can be added later. Additionally, consider any edge cases or exceptions that the story does not need to handle or support. By answering these questions, you can identify the essential and non-essential aspects of the story and create smaller stories that focus on each aspect.
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Dayana George
Software Test Engineer [PSPO I, PSM I, SMAC, ISTQB]
For the MVP, the Product Owner must focus on the Progressive refinement. This will give a useful feature to the user, plus give room for improvement. Find a solution to reduce the working time on the story for a maximum of 2 -3 days. Further refinement can be based on the finding of small works that can be finished by one person without much help. Prioritize the stories based on their size, urgency, and importance. Use apt tools like MosCoW, Hippo, or Iron Triangle methods.
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Zayn Ahmed
Product Manager @ Allup | Agile Project Management, PMO Services, PMO set-up | Building rapid development teams
Neat trick: 1. Talk informally to a good developer. 2. Ask them how they will develop the story. 3. Listen closely. Their vocabulary is going to give you a very good idea of: - Pre-req details/conditions - Phases of the story - Fastest way to build - Good-to-have features that can be added later Then, you can convert your insights into smaller stories with defined scope and priorities.
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Breaking down large user stories by workflow involves mapping out the steps or stages that the user goes through to achieve a goal or complete a task. To do this, you must first identify the user persona and the user goal that the story addresses. After that, list all of the actions or interactions that the user performs, from start to finish. Then, group these actions or interactions into logical and meaningful units or segments. Finally, create smaller stories that represent each unit or segment of the workflow. By following these steps, you can capture the user journey and experience in smaller stories.
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Hari krishna Mandalapu
Maximo Senior Consultant
A workflow is a sequence of steps or actions that the user needs to take to achieve their goal. Complex user stories can be divided into smaller and simpler user stories with clear path by using Workflow mapping. For example, the workflow for ordering food online can be divided into different smaller user stories as given below: • Search for restaurants near me. • Choose a restaurant and a menu item. • Add the item to the cart and review the order. • Enter the delivery address and payment details. • Confirm and place the order. • Track the order status and delivery time.
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Partha Sarathi Kundu
Serverless Developer | AWS Certified | AWS Community Builder
To break down user stories by workflow, start by identifying the key steps or tasks within the user story. Then, organize these steps into a logical sequence that represents the workflow. This helps in understanding the user's journey and ensures that each part of the story aligns with a specific task or feature.
Breaking down large user stories into smaller chunks can be done by applying criteria or constraints that limit or define the scope of the story. You can use user roles or types, such as admin, manager, or customer; data types or sources, such as text, image, or video; device types or platforms, such as web, mobile, or desktop; and business rules or logic, such as validation, calculation, or authorization. This will help you create smaller stories that address specific scenarios or conditions.
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Harsh Suman
Product Team Manager @ EC-Council | Driving Digital Transformation with Agile Solutions
User stories can be broken down keeping in points below view points 1. Functional Requirement 2. Complexity 3. Technical Requirements 4. Data and Schema 5. Environmental parameter's 6. Business rules 7. Business Workflow 8. Other workflow 9. information flow.
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Abed Aarabi
Technical Project Management | Digital Transformation | Full-Stack engineering | B2B SaaS | Autodesk Platform Services | CrossFit 🏋🏻♂️
Functionality: Start by focusing on the core functionality within the user story. Break it down into specific, self-contained tasks. This allows for independent development, testing, and deployment of each task. 2. Acceptance Criteria: Examine acceptance criteria closely. Transform these into individual sub-criteria or tasks, ensuring that every requirement is addressed explicitly. 3. Priority: Prioritize tasks as "must-have," "should-have," or "nice-to-have." This helps teams focus on critical tasks first, enhancing resource allocation and release planning. 4. Dependencies: Identify and manage task dependencies to maintain a smooth development flow. Arrange tasks logically to minimize roadblocks and delays.
Breaking down large user stories into smaller ones can make estimating them more accurate and precise. To do this, you should use relative estimation techniques, such as story points or t-shirt sizes, rather than absolute estimation techniques. Additionally, it's beneficial to use historical data and empirical evidence instead of guesses or assumptions. Furthermore, collaborative estimation methods, such as planning poker or affinity mapping, are more effective than individual estimation methods. By following these tips, you can estimate small user stories with more confidence and clarity.
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Parag Shah
Certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC) | Professional Scrum Master (PSM™ I) | Scrum Trainer | Program Manager | PMI Volunteer
There are many ways to estimate. What is important to note is how is the team going to use this estimate? Using it to measure performance or productivity is a big no. Using it just to determine how much to take for the next sprint is useless. Estimation has to be practiced with a long term vision. Even with all the unknowns, it is essential for the leadership to get a high level idea on how much is it going to take (time) and cost (money). When the teams build a practice to follow a certain estimation technique, do it consistently and diligently using historical data, it enables them to forecast the remaining work.
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Hassane HASSAR
Agile Business Analyst
As a BA, in an Agile SAFe context, to better estimate the User Stories by Devs and QAs, we rely on a reference User Story of 5 pts which answers several questions such as: 1. Is the subject known by the dev team? 2. Are there dependencies with others (CRM, Data, API, etc)? 3. Does the technical documentation exist? 4. The number of WS calls? 5. etc.
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The final step in breaking down and estimating user stories is to validate and refine them. The INVEST criteria can be used to check if the stories are independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, and testable. Additionally, the acceptance criteria should be used to specify the conditions or requirements that the stories must meet. Furthermore, the feedback loop should be used to review and revise the stories based on input from stakeholders, customers, and users. By employing these techniques, it's possible to validate and refine your small user stories.
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Partha Sarathi Kundu
Serverless Developer | AWS Certified | AWS Community Builder
Breaking down user stories by workflow allowed us to better manage dependencies between front-end and back-end tasks. It also facilitated parallel development, as different team members could work on different workflows concurrently. This approach contributed to faster feature delivery and a more streamlined development process.
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Farha Samreen
Lead Business Analyst @ Big data |Analytics |Core Banking| Financial Appraisal, AML, LMS, LOS
Validating and refining small user stories effectively involves continuous collaboration and feedback loops. Business analysts engage stakeholders, ensuring a shared understanding of requirements. They prioritize stories based on business value and feasibility, refining them for clarity and simplicity. Regular demos and prototypes facilitate visual validation. Acceptance criteria, defined collaboratively, provide clear boundaries. Stakeholder feedback is embraced, and iterations are made promptly. By fostering open communication, addressing concerns, and adapting swiftly, small user stories are validated, refined, and tailored to meet user needs effectively within Agile workflows.
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Michael Guo
Mission-Driven Entrepreneur | LinkedIn Top Voice - AI & Data Science | Co-Founder | Advisor | Mentor | CTO | CPO | GM | Metaverse Standards Forum Principal Member | AWS CTO Fellowship | Collaborative Article Author
In my Agile journey since 2005, I've discovered that deconstructing complex user stories with granularity and simplicity is the key to success. The approach I advocate involves breaking down sizable user stories or projects into smaller, more manageable units. Ideally, a user story should be scoped to be completed in no more than 3 days or less than 3 hours. By adhering to this level of granularity, you create the space to reprioritize up to three times within your 2-week sprint. This means you can seamlessly introduce new tasks and swap out existing ones as the situation demands. This adaptability is a powerful tool for ensuring you consistently meet your deadlines and milestones.
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Cezar Sevilhano
Technical Product Owner | Integration | Backend Development | Systems and People
Beaking down user stories facilitates more accurate estimation and performance metrics. However, successful implementation requires a high level of collaboration, often achievable by mature development teams. Challenges can arise, such as code dependencies, unrealistic testing scenarios, and release or deployment bottlenecks. In some instances, when dealing with complex user stories, teams may choose to keep them intact and collaborate directly on the same task to avoid wasting time in the breaking down process solely for the sake of adhering to agile principles. Remember that, as always, common sense, effective communication, and experience play a significant role and should take precedence over rigid processes.
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