I’ve been involved in agile development for a few years but was only recently introduced to the process of story mapping - after reading Jeff’s book I’m feeling more and more like story mapping has been a big missing link.
For instance, one of the common challenges I have faced in the past is deciding on how to get thin vertical slices of releasable features that add value. We used user stories in the past - but looking back at the process we always battled to see the whole picture and often didn’t reach our intended goal.
I believe the process of story mapping fills this gap - this is the most effective approach I have seen to getting really good thin vertical slices of real value in a usable and pragmatic way.
Not only did I gain a deeper insight into story mapping, I also gained a deeper insight into user stories. Understanding how to move between items on a story map to user stories and back was invaluable. Jeff’s account of the history of a user stories and how they encompass multiple levels of size brought user stories back in to perspective.
My favourite section in the book was Jeff’s analogy of user stories being like the asteroids game. I immediately saw some anti-patterns we’ve done in the past. I’m not going to ruin it for you, but be sure to read that chapter.
I would recommend User Story Mapping to everyone involved in the agile process. Thank you for making the time to put these thoughts on paper - it has been invaluable.
Notes
- Read Rock Breaking
- Read Rock Breakers
- Read Stories are actually like Asteroids
Buy on Amazon
ISBN-13: 978-1491904909
