This document summarizes Daniel Davis's presentation on story mapping. It introduces Daniel's background and experience in business improvement and agile practices. The presentation then covers key aspects of story mapping, including creating story cards, building a story map by arranging the cards to show workflow, decomposing stories into smaller tasks, and using the map to plan releases. Tips are provided such as keeping the board visible, using color coding, and focusing on collaboration over the physical map. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions.

1. Story Mapping Made Real
@daniel_davis

2. Who I am?
Business Improvement Consultant
Agile Practitioner/Developer
Innovator
Hacker
Maker
Cub-Scouts Cub Master
Professional Snowboard Instructor
Where I’ve been?
AAA Life
Delphi
General Motors
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Cengage Learning
Delta Dental
Gordon Food Service (GFS)
Cintas
Farm Bureau Insurance

3. Focus For The Session
Principles over Prescription
Discussion over Presentation
Experiential Learning over Listening

4. Agile is a(n)…
- Set of Practices
(i.e. Scrum, Kanban, XP)
- Attitude
Less about Software Development & Methodology
& More about an Approach to…
- Relentlessly DeliveringValue
- Continuously Improving
Agile - Basic Understanding

5. Workshop - 3 minutes
Assemble Into Working Groups

6. Creative Exercise - Rebus Puzzles
PERSONALITYPERSONALITY

7. Creative Exercise - Rebus Puzzles
FAREDCE

8. Creative Exercise - Rebus Puzzles
JOBINJOB

9. Creative Exercise - Rebus Puzzles
TRY STAND
2

10. Creative Exercise - Rebus Puzzles
ABCDEFGHIJKLM
NOPQRSTVWXYZ

11. Creative Exercise - Rebus Puzzles
VA DERS

12. Creative Exercise - Rebus Puzzles
Workshop - 5 minute
As Teams CreateYour Own

13. A large view of a product or feature
that states what is required from a
high level and defines the value it
provides to the business.
Value Story

14. pecific
easurable
ctionable
ealistic
ime bound
• Make or save the company money
• Defend a market
• Find a market (learn)
• Meet a policy or regulation
•Awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, advocacy
!
* always try to put in financial terms
^ can be broken down (hierarchal)
Value Story - What & Why
S
M
A
R
T

15. As BestValue Insurance, we want to allow
online payments within the next 6 months,
so that our company can save $500,000
per year by reducing 50% of our paper,
printing, and postage costs.
Value Story - Example

16. Write (Invent) Team’s Value Story
Workshop - 5 minutes
Having Trouble Inventing your own?
- Alien Abduction Insurance
- PayPal ATM Service
- Drone Photo Spy System

17. • Named & Well Defined Users
• Focus On A Specific Users Perspective
• Use to guide your Story Creation. “As ______”...
- Used To Derive Project Expectations
- Used To Validate Functionality Decisions
• Include All Users –
- Internal ~ Sales, Accounting, App Admin, Support, etc...
- External ~ Customers, Users, etc...
• Force Rank to understand focus and priority
• Keep it SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE
Personas

18. You are
Not
Your
Target User
Personas

19. • Donna
• Document Control Manager
• Manages the acceptance and flow of
documents captured in a records repository.
• Power User
• Famous Quote: “Will the workload ever let up?”
Simple Personas - Example

20. • Named Users
• Specific Perspectives
• Used To Derive &Validate
• Both Internal and External
Determine 3 - 5 Personas
Workshop - 5 minutes

21. A story card is one or more sentences that capture
what a user does or needs to do as part of his or her
job function.They are the basis for defining the
functions a system must provide, and capture the
'who', 'what' and 'why' of a requirement in a simple,
concise way.
Story Cards - Defined

22. Story Cards are often limited in detail by what can be
hand-written on a small paper notecard.
!
A Story Card can be a…
- placeholder for a conversation
- specific detailed requirement
- or even a single word
Story Cards - Defined

23. As a(n) ______ (Who / Role / Name / User / Persona)
I want ______ (What / Activity)
so that ______ (Why / Reason)
Story Card Structure (End Goal)

24. • Free Form Text
• Exceptionally Creative
• Just Enough To Say What You Expect
• Don’t Get Caught Up In The Structure
– You Can Always Clean Up Later
Story Card Structure (For Story Mapping)

25. Write 25+ Story Cards (High Level Granularity)
Workshop - 3 minute
Non-Collaborative Brain Dump

26. Workshop - 12 minute
Collaborative Session
Write 25+ Story Cards (High Level Granularity)
Don’t Forget …
- Cards for Unknowns or Concerns
- Cards for Technical Questions
- Cards for Set-up and/or Deploy
- Cards for Training

27. The process of laying out your stories in a manner that
visually represents the intent and organization of the
system, product or process from the users perspective.
Start with the larger stories and arrange them from left
to right to show the flow along a time line.
activity
Time
Story Mapping

28. Add in the smaller task centric stories underneath to further
describe the flow.
activity
task
Time
Story Mapping

29. • Visually Identify
• Value
• Breadth of Features
• Depth & Flow within Features
• Non Functional Requirements
• Priority
• Gaps or Holes
• Improvise As Needed (Create New Cards)
Goals for a Story Map

30. Stack stories vertically to represent the things done at the
same time (or conditions) and horizontally to represent the
things done in sequence (then conditions).
activity
task
Time
next
same time
Story Mapping

31. Workshop – 20 Minutes
1. Review Cards
2. Layout Highest Level Cards
3. How Would Persona X Do This?
4. Add Cards as Needed
5. Layout Second Level Cards
6. How Would a Different Persona Do This?
7. Add More Cards as Necessary
8. Fill in any Remaining Gaps or Holes
9. Repeat as needed until Map is Complete
Story Mapping - Go For It!

32. The story map should start to show a larger picture of the
system and can be now be used to drive further
decomposition of the stories.
Time
Story Decomposition

33. • Break Up A Flow
• Defer Non Functional Requirements
• Find A Way To Simplify A Technical Problem As A
First Pass
• Break Up Business Requirements
• Split Up Operations
• Pick Simple Interfaces
• Break Up At Conjunctions (And, Or, But)
• Spike A Solution
Story Decomposition
Breaking Down A Story

34. Break Down To Smaller Card Levels -
!
As Dan, I want to drive to Fairbanks Alaska this
summer to pan for gold, so I can become wealthy.
!
As Dan, I want to replace the bathroom in my
mothers home, so she can more easily use the
facilities and to repair the leaks in the pipes.
Story Decomposition - Practice

35. Break Down To Smaller Card Levels -
!
As Jim, the shipping clerk, I want to change the
quantity of items shipped on a purchase order, so the
order accurately depicts the quantity of items shipped.
!
As Jenny, the inventory control manager, I want to
replenish inventory when an automatic order point is
hit, so that I do not run out of parts on the
manufacturing floor.
Story Decomposition - Practice

36. Story Decomposition - Give It A Try
Workshop - 5 minutes

37. Sizing
Can take all shapes and forms, from Fibonacci to T-Shirts
sizes. One thing is for certain though, it will be wrong no
matter what you use, so don’t put to much time into it.
Story Mapping

38. Sizing
Workshop - 5 minutes

39. Update for Necessity
The process of updating the story map where the vertical
axis is now used to portray the necessity of stories.
Time
Necessity Story Mapping

40. Backbone - The essential activities of the system.
The Walking Skeleton - Least amount of user stories to
support the thinnest thread through the system.
Time
Necessity Story Mapping

41. thin line - is like a tracer bullet
• Mitigate Risk
• Gather Learning
• Determine Business Return
• Establish MinimumViable Product (MVP)
Story Mapping

42. Release Planning
By defining some horizontal groupings the story map can
now be used to easily plan out feature releases or iteration
breakdowns.
Time
Necessity Story Mapping

43. Story Mapping - Slicing
Workshop - 5 minutes

44. Story Map - Example
Epic!
Feature! Feature! Feature!
Epic!
Feature! Feature!
Story! Story! Story! Story! Story!
Story! Story! Story! Story!
Story! Story! Story!
Story! Story!
Story! Story! Story!
Story! Story!
Story!
Release 1!
Release 2!
Epic!
Priority!Priority!

45. Story Map - Example

46. Story Map - Example

47. • Keep Board Up In Office – Evolves As Project Does
• Add Color Stickers & Post-its
• Work Based On Event Time – Start to End
• Mitigate Infrastructure Risk Early - Go End To End
• Ideal Starting Point – 2 SME, 1 PO, 1 Facilitator
(If Not The Whole Team)
• Focus On Creativity
• Write Cards First (50+) Before Setting Up Board
• Don’t Over Think Any Part Of Process
• Don’t Be Afraid To Move Cards Or Even Columns
• More Space Is Better
• Use Blue Tape
Tips & Tricks

48. It’s not really about the actual physical story
map, that just happens to be a visual bonus.
!
It’s about the conversations and collaboration
that take place while building it.
!
Be open, creative, and have fun with it.
Guiding Principle

49. Q & A

50. Business Solutions Consultancy
For those who value... value.
Clients collaborate with us to solve
business problems.
!
The first step is figuring out how we can
either make or save them money.
BUSINESS AGILITY

51. Daniel Davis
!
ddavis@pillartechnology.com
!
daniel.davis.tech@gmail.com
!
@daniel_davis
!
linkedin.com/in/davisdaniel
Thank you!