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Familiarizing oneself with a certain Scrum concept, developing it, and teaching it to others will increase the depth and breadth of your understanding of the methodologies. In this article, we will explore the topic of user stories in Scrum, a fundamental concept that every CSP-SM should excel in.
User Stories are a technique used in agile methodologies, including Scrum, to capture a description of a product feature from the end-user perspective. They define what the user wants to achieve, the goal, and why. A user story creates a simplified description of a requirement, including the type of user, what they want, and the reason.
An exemplary user story can take a format like this:
“As a [type of user], I want [an action] so that [a benefit or value]”
A good user story should encompass the following attributes (also known as INVEST criteria – Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable):
A CSP-SM needs to master the crafting of user stories, creating them from the perspective of the user. Any technique that facilitates this perspective-taking is encouraged, such as role-play or personas. User stories should be written by all members of the team to ensure diverse perspectives. The collaborative effort allows the team to build a shared understanding of the system and its context.
Knowing the components of a user story can help structure the narrative more effectively:
Be ready to discuss and negotiate the details, focusing on achieving a shared understanding.
As a CSP-SM, teaching this concept to your team is crucial for effective product development. Here are three strategies to explain user stories:
Training your team to develop and utilize user stories effectively is a vital part of agile methodologies. As a pathway to becoming a CSP-SM, understanding and teaching this aspect is a crucial step to improve your team dynamics and efficiency in delivering valuable features.
Answer: False
Explanation: Scrum Master and Project Manager are different roles. The Scrum Master is a servant leader for the Scrum team, while a Project Manager is typically overseeing and directly managing the work of the team in a traditional project management.
Answer: True
Explanation: The Scrum team’s progress is usually measured using a burn-down chart. This visual tool shows how much work is left to be done versus time.
Answer: False
Explanation: Agile development welcomes changing requirements. Agile methods deem changes as a part of building a solution that maximizes customer value.
Answer: Product Owner
Explanation: In Scrum, the person responsible for writing user stories is the Product Owner. However, this doesn’t mean that the rest of the team can’t contribute to the creation of these user stories.
Answer: False
Explanation: While Scrum was originally developed for managing and developing products, it has been widely used in areas such as research, sales, marketing and advanced technologies.
Answer: Transparency, Inspection, Adaptation
Explanation: The three pillars of Scrum are Transparency (what’s being done), Inspection (quality check) and Adaptation (improving).
Answer: All of the above
Explanation: Scrum framework consists of three major roles – Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Delivery Team (also known as Scrum Team).
Answer: True
Explanation: A Sprint is a time-boxed period where a specific set of tasks has to be completed and prepared for a review.
Answer: Burnup Chart
Explanation: Sprint Backlog, Product Backlog, and Sprint Burndown Chart are Scrum artifacts, whereas Burnup Chart isn’t.
Answer: False
Explanation: The daily scrum is not a status meeting. It is a 15-minute event for the team to sync and plan the work for the next 24 hours.
Answer: True
Explanation: The end of each Sprint should result in a potentially shippable (usable) increment of the product, regardless of whether the Product Owner chooses to actually ship.
Answer: Product Owner
Explanation: The Product Owner is responsible for managing and prioritizing the product backlog.
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