WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR STORY CREATION?

As you adopt #Agile, #SAFe, or any other form of #scaledagile, one thing that is bound to come up is “Who is responsible for creating the teams stories?”

Agile teams typically use Stories (small increments of effort that deliver value). These stories, depending on the agile model you are using, are often defined by a descriptive #value statement that provides insights into the intended outcome. In the #ScaledAgileFramework, you may recall a statement that is made up of our customer request with benefit, or “As a {customer}, I want {a new function}, so that {benefit or solution}. They also consist of low level requirements or acceptance criteria that will help the team and Product owner understand what is expected to be delivered.

In a Waterfall environment, requirements are most commonly developed before any work is started and that doesn’t change here, however, we are defining these criteria more loosely, meaning they are flexible, with fewer fixed and more variable requirements. This provides more autonomy for the teams to make decisions and change on the fly as things make sense. So be sure to only write acceptance criteria that are fixed and to define only those parts that the customer may have required.

But who is responsible? Who is the right person or people to take on this very important role of defining the work in a way that is easily understood? It obviously can’t be the Product Owner, they simply don’t understand everything as well as the team. It can’t be the team, as they will use so much jargon that none of our stakeholders will have any idea what the work means! So who is it? Is it our Scrum Master? That coach who facilitates all our agile practices and ceremonies.

In reality, none of these people are solely responsible, they all are. Let’s look at this in terms of a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed)…

The #ProductOwner (PO) does own the team backlog and as such is both responsible and accountable for ensuring the work that enters and exits the teams Kanban is the most valuable work at the time. They are responsible for working with #ProductManagement to understand the most important Features and Components in the Program backlog, and to ensure those are broken down into smaller incrementally deliverable chunks that the teams can collaborate on and deliver. So does this make them responsible for writing stories we can all understand? No, with a caveat. Product Owners will need to create “Skeleton stories” that is the best they can provide based on their expertise. These skeleton stories should provide the team w enough understanding to further discuss and refine. The PO will also be responsible and accountable to any work exiting the Kanban, as they are the individual who approves or accepts the work as complete and accurate.

Once the PO has created these skeleton stories, the work will still need to be further refined. This too is a responsibility of the PO – to schedule enough ceremonies /events/meetings, often called refinement or grooming, to enable the teams to discuss all the stories in the backlog, understand them enough, and estimate their effort. The Scrum Master (SM) can also schedule these (as appropriate) and is responsible for maturing the teams processes, agile knowledge, and practices; to this point the SM should facilitate these events and understand how to use the three C’s (Card, Conversation, Confirmation) to ensure it goes smoothly. The SM is responsible for the teams understanding of the process, and often consulted regarding work that they may have some substantial experience. They should never be a part of the estimation unless they too are doing the work.

As the teams come together to conduct refinement activities, the PO should read a story, the teams then discuss it in detail, then confirm their understanding and estimate its effort. Team members are all responsible for the stories being written well and should consider themselves within a consultative role to the PO, to ensure she also understands the work. It is still the PO remember, that owns the backlog and has authority over its contents.

So, as we continue to develop stories, remember, we can and should always work as a team. While we all have our own responsibilities as it relates to Stories creation and sequencing in our backlog, it is the responsibility of every person on the Agile Team, including the SM and PO to ensure the work is appropriate and done efficiently. Remain Agile.