Executable Specifications with Scrum: A Practical Guide to Agile Requirements Discovery

Chapter 6. Confirming User Stories with Scenarios

The previous chapter explained that conversations enable you to tackle the uncertainty and lack of agreement between stakeholders. It demonstrated how backlog grooming is a key process in initiating these conversations. Unfortunately, whatever the quality of the conversation, few teams can confirm the desirable outcome appropriately. Words have different meanings to different people. For example, if you are asked to think of a Volkswagen, you might think of a Beetle, whereas the other person was referring to a camper van. By relying solely on user stories, this can easily lead to miscommunication between the software development team and the stakeholders. To confirm expectations without a hitch, ...