As Agile practitioners, we often encounter large, complex user stories that seem overwhelming at first glance. These "epic" stories can be challenging to estimate, plan, and complete within a single sprint. In this post, we'll explore various techniques to break down these behemoths into smaller, more manageable pieces. We'll use a real-world example to illustrate how different splitting strategies can be applied.
Let's consider the following large user story for an e-commerce platform:
"As a customer, I want to be able to search for products, filter results, add items to my cart, and complete the checkout process so that I can purchase items online."
This story is too big and complex to be completed in one sprint. Let's look at different ways to split it.
1. Splitting by Workflow Steps:
We can break down the story based on the different steps in the user's journey:
- Story 1: As a customer, I want to search for products.
- Story 2: As a customer, I want to filter search results.
- Story 3: As a customer, I want to add items to my cart.
- Story 4: As a customer, I want to complete the checkout process.
2. Splitting by Business Rules:
We can identify complex business rules and create separate stories:
- Story 1: As a customer, I want to search for products using keywords.
- Story 2: As a customer, I want to see relevant product recommendations based on my search.
- Story 3: As a customer, I want to apply multiple filters to my search results.
- Story 4: As a customer, I want to add items to my cart and see the total update in real-time.
- Story 5: As a customer, I want to apply promotional codes during checkout.
3. Happy Path vs. Edge Cases:
We can separate the main scenario from exception cases:
- Story 1: As a customer, I want to complete a standard purchase flow (happy path).
- Story 2: As a customer, I want to be notified if an item in my cart becomes out of stock during checkout.
- Story 3: As a customer, I want to be able to save my cart if I'm not ready to purchase.
4. Splitting by Data Variations:
We can create stories based on different types of data:
- Story 1: As a customer, I want to search for and purchase physical products.
- Story 2: As a customer, I want to search for and purchase digital products.
- Story 3: As a customer, I want to search for and purchase subscription-based products.
5. Splitting by CRUD Operations:
Although less applicable to this example, we could focus on different operations:
- Story 1: As a customer, I want to create a new cart (Create).
- Story 2: As a customer, I want to view my cart contents (Read).
- Story 3: As a customer, I want to update quantities in my cart (Update).
- Story 4: As a customer, I want to remove items from my cart (Delete).
6. Splitting by Interface Elements:
We can divide the story based on different UI components:
- Story 1: As a customer, I want a search bar to enter product keywords.
- Story 2: As a customer, I want a sidebar with filter options.
- Story 3: As a customer, I want a responsive grid to display search results.
- Story 4: As a customer, I want a persistent cart summary widget.
7. Thin Vertical Slices:
We can create end-to-end slices that deliver small but complete pieces of value:
- Story 1: As a customer, I want to search for a product by name, view the result, and add it to my cart.
- Story 2: As a customer, I want to view my cart, proceed to checkout, and complete a purchase with a credit card.
- Story 3: As a customer, I want to filter search results by category, select an item, and add it to my cart.
By applying these splitting techniques, we've transformed our original, gigantic story into several smaller, more manageable user stories. Each of these can be estimated, planned, and completed more easily within a sprint.
Remember, the goal of story splitting is not just to create smaller stories, but to create valuable, independent increments of functionality. The best splitting strategy will depend on your specific context, team, and project needs.
By mastering the art of story splitting, you'll improve your team's ability to deliver value consistently and frequently, one small story at a time.
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