User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development

Mike Cohn

Addison-Wesley Professional, Mar 1, 2004 - Computers - 304 pages

Thoroughly reviewed and eagerly anticipated by the agile community, User Stories Applied offers a requirements process that saves time, eliminates rework, and leads directly to better software.

The best 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.

• 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 schedules, and estimate release costs
• Includes 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.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - EmreSevinc - LibraryThing

This short book promises to explain what User Stories are, what they aren't, how to create and utilize them within an Agile/XP approach, and finally how to bring everything together in a short, yet ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - jrep - LibraryThing

Clear, readable, quick-moving yet substantive, this book combines a thorough introduction into the concept and uses of user stories, with insights into their strengths relative to similar or confusing tools like "use cases."

Contents

• Getting Started: 1
• Estimating and Planning: 85
• Frequently Discussed Topics: 131
• An Example: 189
• Appendices: 231
• References: 259
• Index: 263

About the author

Mike Cohn is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, a process and project management consultancy and training firm. With more than twenty years of experience, Mike has been a technology executive in companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 40s, and is a founding member of the Agile Alliance. He frequently contributes to industry-related magazines and presents regularly at conferences. He is the author of User Stories Applied (Addison-Wesley, 2004).

Bibliographic information

• Title: User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development; Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Beck)
• Author: Mike Cohn
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004
• ISBN: 0132702649, 9780132702645
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Software Development & Engineering / General