Here at Fishtank Consulting, our award-winning, industry-leading experts ensure businesses succeed with Sitecore. In combination with our focus on technology-first, we adopt an agile approach to our project implementations. This means we create user stories to document our Sitecore project requirements. Common in most agile methodologies.
In this blog, we will focus on what user stories are and how to create them using an example Sitecore implementation.
What Is A User Story?
According to the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK® Guide), the purpose of a user story is defined as:
"A small, concise statement of functionality or quality needed to deliver value to a specific stakeholder."
In software development and project management context, a user story is a brief sentence describing what a user needs in one part of a system and why. It uses informal, natural language and is often written from the perspective of an end-user, or user of a system.
By focusing on stakeholder value, user stories reflect the needs of the user. It invites the exploration of the requirement by prompting conversations with several stakeholders and grouping functional requirements for delivery.
Elements Of A User Story
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | The title of a user story describing an activity a stakeholder wants accomplished with the system. Typically, it’s an active-verb goal phrase similarly titled to a use case. |
| Statement Of Value | No mandatory structure, but the most common format includes three components:
|
| Acceptance Criteria | Defines the boundaries of a user story to help the team understand what the solutions needs to provide in order to deliver value for the stakeholders. May be supplemented with other analysis models as needed. |
What Is An Epic?
Epics allow us to capture a large complex workflow in a set of related user stories all working forward the same goal. Because epics capture a complete workflow, a team can tackle each user story individually. This mean that an epic is not deliverable until every user story is complete. An epic can cater to multiple users or personas and interact with other user stories.
User Story Usages
Why you should consider using user stories as a method to documenting requirements in your agile approach to managing a project:
- Captures stakeholders needs
- Prioritizes development
- Provides insight into delivering value
- Basis for estimating & planning delivery
- Generates user acceptance tests
- A unit for tracing requirements & reporting
What Is Not A User Story?
Let’s clarify what a user story is NOT:
- Detailed requirements
- Set in stone
- A list of multiple requirements
Benefits And Limitations To Using User Stories
| Benefits | Limitations |
|---|---|
|
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Writing User Stories For A Sitecore Content Hub Implementation
Let’s look at writing some user stories using an example Sitecore project implementation. We will need to consider the different elements of each user story outlined earlier in this blog.
If we were going to look at writing some example user stories for a Sitecore Content Hub implementation, let’s first think about the requirements of the system and the potential stakeholders that might be involved.
Content Hub serves a number of purposes, from digital asset management to unifying the management and production of your content workflow. The stakeholders we will focus on in this example are our content authors on the marketing team, the users of this requirement.
The first module of Sitecore Content Hub we will focus on is Sitecore Digital Asset Management (DAM). Sitecore DAM empowers marketing teams to store and manage digital assets, such as images and videos, in a single place. You can find more information about the documentation here.
Sitecore DAM Implementation Requirements
| Element | Sitecore DAM Example |
|---|---|
| Title | Uploading Content Requirements |
| Statement Of Value |
I want to upload assets to a single repository, So that we can store and manage our digital assets and integrate them across Content Hub modules. |
| Acceptance Criteria |
Use Case: As a content user, I can easily upload assets on the Create page in Sitecore DAM.
Given I'm logged in as a content author with access to Sitecore DAM, click Create in the menu bar I can upload files to our Content Hub instance. After clicking the Upload button at the top-right of the Create page, I can import files using the following methods:
|
Content Search Requirements
| Element | Sitecore DAM Example |
|---|---|
| Title | Content Search Requirements |
| Statement Of Value |
I wantsearch for content, So that I can browse, preview, and download content media files for campaigns and collateral. |
| Acceptance Criteria |
Use Case: As a content user, I can easily search for content, in order to browse, preview, and download media files for campaigns and collateral in Sitecore Content Hub.
Access the Assets in the top menu. Assets can be searched using several search features, including:
|
Recap
We hope you found this blog about what a user story is and how it can be used to document requirements for a Sitecore implementation helpful. This is after all, only scratching the surface as far as how to create effective user stories for complex Sitecore project, or any project for that matter.
We challenge you to continue using user stories to break down project requirements into small, implementable, and most importantly, testable pieces of functionality. Remember, user stories are ultimately a placeholder for a business analyst to have a conversation with their stakeholders to find and deliver the most value for the least amount of effort. If you have any other questions, feel free to reach us at [email protected]!
