Coming Up With User Stories
Part of being a Product Owner is also managing the Product Backlog by adding, updating, and removing Product Backlog items as necessary. These need to be collaborated on with the development team because their tasks will primarily depend on the user stories. While this can take place anytime they are able to, the best place to do so would be during Product Backlog Refinement. Discussion on the user stories can continue whenever possible until it’s time to commit them to the Sprint Backlog during Sprint Planning.
Breaking Down and Refining User Stories
When user stories are just newly ideated and entered into the Product Backlog, they are still very high-level and sometimes vague. Since the Product Backlog is a living document, it is normal to revisit it and refine the user stories and tasks for future Sprints. The nuclearity of Product Backlog Items will vary from team to team. The Product Owner and the developers need to work with each other to decide on that, but there is a simple guide that can be used for this.
If the Definition of Done is a guide for teams to know when a user story is completed for closure, the Definition of Ready is a guide for teams to know when a user story is ready to be worked on. Before an Agile team could properly commit to finishing work, they should be able to understand first what it is they need to develop.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: