Sensemaking in the Agile Forest
SERIES ARTICLE
By Henny Portman
The Netherlands
Introduction
Ever eaten a cake whole? Surely it eats much easier if you serve the cake in small pie slices. It works the same way with large user stories. If you cut these large stories into small pieces, known as ‘slices’, delivery goes much faster. So read more about slicing user stories here. Parts of this article are based among other things on blogs from Niroshan Madampitige, 7 proven strategies for story slicing, Ilia Pavlichenko, 9 Reasons to Slice User Stories Better, Mark J. Balbes, A practical guide to user story splitting for agile teams.
Maybe the biggest story can’t even be delivered in one sprint. This means you can’t demonstrate or deploy or with other words there is nothing to be happy for as a customer. If you slice it in two parts you could hopefully deliver one. Slicing further helps you to be more predictive and deliver multiple working stories and learn faster due to the customer feedback.
Ilia Pavlichenko gives us nine reasons why we must slice user stories:
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Editor’s note: This is the 10th article in a series by Henny Portman, one of the world’s leading authorities on “agile”. Based in The Netherlands, Henny coined the term “agile forest” in 2019 to describe the many agile frameworks that have emerged over the last 20 years. This series is intended to help readers better understand the agile concept, navigate through the ‘underbrush’ and more successfully apply whichever framework is selected for their projects.
How to cite this article: Portman, H. (2023). Slicing user stories, Sensemaking in the Agile Forest series, PM World Journal, Vol. VII, Issue I, January. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/pmwj125-Jan2023-Portman-Slicing-user-stories-sensemaking-in-agile-forest-series.pdf
About the Author
Henny Portman
The Netherlands
Henny Portman, owner of Portman PM[O] Consultancy and was partner of HWP Consulting, has 40 years of experience in the project management domain. He was the project management office (PMO) thought leader within NN Group and responsible for the introduction and application of the PMO methodologies (portfolio, program, and project management) across Europe and Asia. He trains, coaches, and directs (senior) programme, project and portfolio managers and project sponsors at all levels, and has built several professional (PM(O)) communities.
Henny Portman is accredited in a variety of qualifications, including P3O, PRINCE2, MSP, MoP, PRINCE2 Agile, AgilePM, AgilePgM and AgileSHIFT trainer and an SPC4 SAFe consultant and trainer. He is a P3M3 trainer and assessor and PMO Value Ring Certified Consultant (PMO Global Alliance). On behalf of IPMA, he assesses mega and large projects for the IPMA Project Excellence Award. In addition to this, he is an international speaker, author of many articles and books in the PM(O) field, and an active blogger. More at hennyportman.wordpress.com
Henny can be contacted at henny.portman@gmail.com
To view other works by Henny Portman, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/henny-portman/
