stories, defects and tasks

Stories, Defects, Tasks and Tests

3 types of work items

User Story

A new piece of functionality

Must always add value to the

product

3 C’sCa

rdConversation

Confirmatio

n

Written reminder about the feature Details about the feature that we get by talking to users

How to we know that we’ve built the right thing?

In order to get some cashas a bank customerI want to withdraw money from an ATM

“Gherkin” format List formatGiven a jpg or png imageWhen I upload itThen it should be savedAnd it should be resized

Accepts JPG imagesAccepts PNG images

Resizes to decent size

Be careful not to describe the “How”

INVESTIndependent

The user story should be self-contained, in a way that there is no inherent dependency on another user story.Negotiable

User stories, up until they are part of an iteration, can always be changed and rewrittenValuable

A user story must deliver value to the end userEstimable

You must always be able to estimate the size of a user storySmall

User stories should not be so big as to become impossible to plan with a certain level of certaintyTestable

The user story must provide the necessary information to make test development possible

Defect

A previously “done”

feature is not working as expected

Needs enough detail that somebody who knows nothing about

the product can reproduce the issue

Detailed steps to reproduce

What did you expect to happen?

What actually happened?

Screenshots (Before and after)

Task

Defines the solution to the

problem

Defects and Stories have

tasksTasks must belong to

something

Defects/bugs for open stories are

tasks

SMARTSpecific

What? Why? Who? Where? Which?Measurable

How much? How many? How long?

AssignableMust be completable

by a single personRelevantWorthwhile? Right time?

Time-boundWhen? Can it be done in

the time available?

Acceptance Tests

Acceptance Criteria describe what needs to be

built“Build the right thing”Acceptance Tests describe how it

was built“Build the thing right”

Two forms of Acceptance

Criteria“Gherkin” formatMore descriptive, but easier to incorrectly specify implementation details

List formatEasier to write, and easier

to see gaps

Given a jpg or png imageWhen I upload itThen it should be savedAnd it should be resized

Accepts JPG imagesAccepts PNG images

Resizes to decent size

Should never contain

implementation details!

Acceptance Tests usually only use the “Gherkin”

format

Example!Acceptance criteria

Acceptance test (Scenario)Given a baby animal younger

than its recommended selling ageWhen we try to sell itThen we should be told it’s too young.

Given a rabbit called Fluffy who is 1 ½ months old

When we try to sell FluffyThen we should be told Fluffy is

too young.We should be prevented from selling animals younger than the recommended age

Given a puppy called Fang who is 1 month old

When we try to sell FangThen we should be told Fang is

too young.