1

HOW TO SPLIT A USER STORY 3

EVALUATE
PREPARE THE THE SPLIT
INPUT STORY WORKFLOW STEPS Can you take a thin slice

enhance it with more stories later? Are the new stories

Does the big story satisfy Can you split the story so you do roughly equal in size?
INVEST* (except, perhaps, small)? the beginning and end of the work-
YES
NO OPERATIONS Is each story about NO

Can you split the operations

BUSINESS RULE
YES
Combine it with another story
or otherwise reformulate it to get into separate stories? VARIATIONS Try another pattern on the
a good, if large, starting story. Can you split the story so you original story or the larger
DEFER Does the story describe
enhance with additional rules later?
Do each of the post-split stories.
stories satisfy INVEST?
PERFORMANCE
Does the story include multiple
Could you split the story Try another pattern.
operations? (e.g. is it about "managing"
then enhance it to satisfy the Are there stories you
Does the story have a variety of can deprioritze or delete?

st a
non-functional requirement? business rules? (e.g. is there a domain
You’re done. Continue. You

rt
he
need to split it. Try another pattern.

Does the story get much of its
complexity from satisfying
non-functional requirements like
performance?
re
that suggests several variations?) You probably have waste
2 in each of your stories.
APPLY THE VARIATIONS
Is there an obvious story
to start with that gets you
SPLITTING Does the story do the same IN DATA early value, learning, risk
mitigation, etc.?

Could you split the story to Does the story have a simple
PATTERNS Can you split the story to
process one kind of data Try another pattern to
core that provides most of the see if you can get this.
value and/or learning? last You’re done, though you
enhance it with later stories? reso other kinds later?
rt could try another pattern
to see if it works better.
SIMPLE/COMPLEX When you apply the obvious
Does the story have a
complex interface?
split, is whichever story you do

Could you group the later BREAK OUT A SPIKE

stories and defer the decision
Does the story get the same
kind of data via multiple interfaces? how to split the story?
* INVEST - Stories should be:
Independent MAJOR EFFORT Is there a simple version
Negotiable
Valuable Can you split the story to piece you understand
Estimable handle data from one INTERFACE well enough to start?
Small
Testable VARIATIONS
with the others later? questions most holding
you back?
Take a break
build it, and start again and try again.
at the top of this process. Write a spike with those
questions, do the minimum
to answer them, and start
again at the top of this process
Visit http://www.richardlawrence.info/splitting-user-stories/ for more info on the story splitting patterns
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