I am writing (or planning to write) a series of blog posts to share my learning's from the User Story mapping workshop at YOW 2014 with Jeff Patton.
User story mapping is a technique used to provide a holistic view of the project and gain shared understanding. There is (obviously) more to it, you can check out Jeff Patton's work on it or read one of the blog's on how we did it here.
Collaboration Secrets:
Collaboration when done correctly can yield results which individuals would fail to achieve. It is an integral part of working as a team. So there is no doubt that collaboration is a key to developing a good story map and also for developing shared understanding. During the workshop Jeff introduced us to some secrets for healthy collaboration. Though they might seem obvious they are at times forgotten to difficult to implement. Lets have a look at each of them:
Secret 1: Shut Up!
This seems a little odd when the whole point of collaboration is to talk and share ideas. But according to Jeff the less you say the more you listen and hence more you understand. The key is to know when to shut up and let someone else share their thoughts. Listening to others also helps in Shared Understanding as this helps you clarify if everyone is on the same page.
Secret 2: Fewer people, works!
While creating user story maps its essential to work with fewer people or smaller groups. That does not mean that the rest of the team should feel left out of the process. There can be multiple sessions with a smaller group rather than having a board room discussion with 15 people. As a ball park, its good to work with a team of 3 to 5 people.
Having less people means less chaos and everyone gets a chance to have their say. The smaller groups can be strategically formed to have an input from different teams or from people with different skill sets.
Secret 3: Move Fast!
When doing User story mapping its essential to know that we aren't building the ultimate story map which once created cannot be altered. Hence its OK to miss out on details cause we will have time to do it at the later stage if needed. The idea is to get sufficient details with which you can work! The next point helps with moving fast.
Secret 4: Time box
Time is of essence in most situations and its no different when it comes to collaboration. Hence its a no-brainer that time boxing is a key secret to collaborating. Each round of User Story mapping is time boxed which helps to keep discussion from going astray. We need to have sufficient information which gives satisfying (good enough) level of detail. Before starting any round decide on the time for how long should it go for and then stick to it. This will also mean disciplining everyone to only talk about relevant topics and park the rest on for later if there is time.
The fast paced approach also keeps everyone active (this was my observation from the workshop)
If you have any cool collaboration tips so share.
