How does design work relate to Tracker?

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There are no design stories.

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There are no development stories.

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Stories represent work that yields business /

user value.

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Design work generates and defines stories.

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Development work consumes and

eliminates stories.

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Design is making decisions

• Researching in support of decisions

• Thinking through many potential decisions

• Getting stakeholders to agree on decisions

• Making decisions explicit enough to be built

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All development work is represented in

Tracker.

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Not all design work is represented in Tracker.

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How does design improve velocity?

• Design work unblocks development work.

• Design work should answer questions about ‘how should this work’ so the developer doesn’t have to ask them.

• Design work yields assets, so the developer doesn’t have to make or find them.

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Design in the lifecycle of a story

• Creation

• Definition

• Development

• Acceptance / Rejection

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Story creation

• Anyone can create a story

• Design work yields new stories

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Story definition

• Design work yields definition for stories

• Responsibility for definition shared between designer and PM

• Developers can define stories too, but it’s not a primary responsibility

• Product owner should sign-off each story definition before developer starts it

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Story development

• Development work turns stories into working software

• In-flight design tune-ups reduce rejections Rejections have moral, time, overhead cost

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Story acceptance

• Rejecting stories based on DEFINED design is legitimate. (Tune-up to preempt this)

• Any increases in scope due to tune-ups or rejections should become a new story—no matter how small!

• Making a designer/PM prioritize a tweak is sometimes enough to push it off.

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