Last updated 3/26/2013 Copyright 2011-2013 Agile For All. All rights reserved.

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HOW TO SPLIT A USER STORY
PREPARE THE
INPUT STORY
APPLY THE
SPLITTING
PATTERNS
WORKFLOW STEPS
OPERATIONS
BUSINESS RULE
VARIATIONS
INTERFACE
VARIATIONS
VARIATIONS
IN DATA
SIMPLE/COMPLEX
DEFER
PERFORMANCE
BREAK OUT A SPIKE
MAJOR EFFORT
EVALUATE
THE SPLIT
Does the blg story satlsfy
|NvLST` (except, perhaps, small)!
Are the new storles
roughly equal ln slze!
Does the story descrlbe
a worknow!
Can you spllt the story so you do
the beglnnlng and end of the work-
now rst and enhance wlth storles
from the mlddle of the worknow!
Can you take a thln sllce
through the worknow rst and
enhance lt wlth more storles later!
Does the story lnclude multlple
operatlons! (e.g. ls lt about "managlng"
or "congurlng" somethlng!)
Can you spllt the operatlons
lnto separate storles!
Does the story have a varlety of
buslness rules! (e.g. ls there a domaln
term ln the story llke "nexlble dates"
that suggests several varlatlons!)
Can you spllt the story so you
do a subset of the rules rst and
enhance wlth addltlonal rules later!
Does the story do the same
thlng to dlnerent klnds of data!
Can you spllt the story to
process one klnd of data
rst and enhance wlth the
other klnds later!
Can you spllt the story to
handle data from one
lnterface rst and enhance
wlth the others later!
Does the story get the same
klnd of data vla multlple lnterfaces!
when you apply the obvlous
spllt, ls whlchever story you do
rst the most dlmcult!
Could you group the later
storles and defer the declslon
about whlch story comes rst!
Does the story have a slmple
core that provldes most of the
value and/or learnlng!
Could you spllt the story to
do that slmple core rst and
enhance lt wlth later storles!
Does the story get much of lts
complexlty from satlsfylng
non-functlonal requlrements llke
performance!
Could you spllt the story
to [ust make lt work rst and
then enhance lt to satlsfy the
non-functlonal requlrement!
Are you stlll baMed about
how to spllt the story!
Can you nd a small
plece you understand
well enough to start!
Can you dene the l-3
questlons most holdlng
you back!
Take a break
and try agaln.
wrlte a splke wlth those
questlons, do the mlnlmum
to answer them, and start
agaln at the top of thls process
wrlte that story rst,
bulld lt, and start agaln
at the top of thls process.
Does the story have a
complex lnterface!
|s there a slmple verslon
you could do rst!
Try another pattern on the
orlglnal story or the larger
post-spllt storles.
Try another pattern.
ou probably have waste
ln each of your storles.
Try another pattern.
Are there storles you
can deprlorltlze or delete!
|s there an obvlous story
to start wlth that gets you
early value, learnlng, rlsk
mltlgatlon, etc.!
Comblne lt wlth another story
or otherwlse reformulate lt to get
a good, lf large, startlng story.
|s the story slze ':a to
'- of your veloclty!
|s each story about
':a to '- of your veloclty!
Do each of the
storles satlsfy |NvLST!
Contlnue. ou
need to spllt lt.
oure done.
Try another pattern to
see lf you can get thls.
oure done, though you
could try another pattern
to see lf lt works better.
YES
NO
s
t
a
r
t

h
e
r
e
` |NvLST - Storles should be:
1
2
3
|ndependent
Negotlable
valuable
Lstlmable
Small
Testable
last reso
rt
YES
NO