Introduction
Have you ever faced the challenge of slicing user stories into small enough slices that fit into a sprint or a few days of team effort? If so, you're not alone. When I was coaching at Scrum Alliance, many of the teams we worked with weren’t doing software. They shared they struggled to make their user stories small enough to fit into a sprint. To help, Simon Orrell, my fellow coach, offered to organize a short workshop on story slicing. We invited the teams to bring in some of their user stories that they were having trouble splitting, and we would coach them through the process.
I brought a few well-known patterns for them to learn and see which ones might apply. We discussed Richard Lawrence’s Story Slicing diagram and Mike Cohn’s S.P.I.D.R. patterns. These are excellent tools, but what I learned by watching Simon became my favorite technique that I now use almost all the time. It is more intuitive than the others, easier to learn, and is only one technique. This approach simplifies user story splitting like never before. We call it the Conjunction Junction pattern, and it's about to transform the way you approach slicing user stories.
Discovering a More Intuitive Approach
In the workshop, one team shared one of their user stories. Simon wrote this up on the whiteboard:
"As a Guide, I want to post content on the SA site so that I can help more people with Scrum."
Simon then, as a great coach tends to do, asked questions. His questions were very focused on words in the user story. Let’s watch Simon facilitate using this approach with this User Story.
"Guide"
He circled the word “Guide.” He then asked, “Are there different kinds of Guides?”
In Scrum Alliance, a guide-level certificate includes Certified Coaches and Certified Trainers. This helps to identify different personas within the user story.
Split Stories:
As a Certified Coach…
As a Certified Trainer…
He then asked if they had different needs around posting content. I can't recall the answer, but let's pretend they said yes. Coaches cared about X, and Trainers cared more about Y. So, this was a possible split to consider, but then he moved on.
"post…"
He circled the word “post” and then asked, “What are the steps to post content?”
The team replied: submitting content, reviewing content, making approval decisions, gathering feedback, and publishing content.
Split Stories:
Trainer submits content.
Scrum Alliance reviews content.
Scrum Alliance decides whether to approve content.
Trainer receives feedback on content.
Scrum Alliance publishes content.
Again, a set of possible smaller usable slices to consider.
"content..."
Next, he circled the word “content” and asked, “What types of content do they want to post?”
They listed different types of content: mini-lessons, articles, webinars.
Split Stories:
Mini-lessons.
Articles.
Webinars.
So, we have a set of 10 possible slices to consider from this one technique in a matter of 5 minutes. Indeed, we can even combine these to create even smaller slices. They chose not to use the persona split, trainer and coach. They ended up slicing it first by the content type and then further sliced it by the post workflow steps. Such as:
Articles: submit, review, feedback, approve, publish
Mini-Lessons: submit, review, feedback, approve, publish
Why The Name 'Conjunction Junction'
Simon’s knack for simplifying things was inspiring. Unlike my approach, which took a good amount of time to learn each pattern, identify the one that fits, and use it, Simon's approach was so intuitive that they were able to slice it from one to 10 smaller stories in about 5 minutes. When I asked him what his approach was called, he replied, “I don’t know, I just do it.” So, I named it Conjunction Junction, inspired by the “Schoolhouse Rock!” cartoon many of us remember from childhood. The line, "What's your function?" fits perfectly because the goal is to vertically slice stories so they result in something that is usable and functional.
Understanding the Conjunction Junction Pattern
Below is a legend that outlines ways to slice user stories based on English grammar:
NOUNS
Represent people, personas, or data elements. Use nouns to identify specific users or data types involved in the story.
VERBS
Represent actions or workflow steps. Use verbs to outline the tasks or processes that need to be performed.
ADVERBS
Indicate non-functional requirements or performance aspects. Use adverbs to describe how actions should be performed.
PLURALS & COMBINATIONS
Indicate combinations or multiple items. Use plurals to manage different types of similar elements.
ADJECTIVES
Represent statuses or business rules. Use adjectives to specify conditions or statuses of elements in the story.
Putting It into Practice: Another Example
Here’s another example that Simon laid out during a CSPO course we taught together:
User Story: "As a Marketing/Sales Manager/Analyst, I need to be able to quickly create various reports so that I have insight into client trends and team performance."
Using the Conjunction Junction pattern:
Nouns (Persona): "Marketing/Sales Manager/Analyst"
Identify the different roles: Marketing Manager, Sales Manager, Analyst.
Split Stories:
As a Marketing Manager
As a Sales Manager
As an Analyst
Verbs (Actions/Workflow): "create various reports"
“What are the steps to create reports?”
Split Stories:
Submit data for reports.
Process data to generate reports.
Review generated reports.
Finalize and approve reports.
Distribute reports to stakeholders.
Adverbs (Non-Functional Requirements/Performance): "quickly"
This indicates the need for speed and efficiency in creating reports. A common technique here is deferred performance splitting: start slow, then increase the speed.
Split Stories:
Manually generate reports with basic data.
Automatically generate reports with some manual interventions.
Automatically generate reports quickly.
Plurals (Combinations): "various reports"
Different types of reports: client reports, trend reports, team performance reports.
Split Stories:
Client satisfaction reports.
Weekly sales trend reports.
Monthly performance reports.
By using the Conjunction Junction pattern, we broke down this complex story into smaller, actionable tasks that each role could focus on, ensuring clarity and manageability.
The Power of Simplicity
What makes the Conjunction Junction pattern so powerful is its simplicity. By analyzing the grammar of your user stories, you gain immediate insights into potential splits. This method is not only easy to learn but also incredibly effective in practice.
While other splitting patterns like SPIDR (Spike, Path, Interface, Data, Rules) or Richard Lawrence’s Story Slicing pattern sheet offer structured approaches, the Conjunction Junction pattern covers all bases without the need to memorize multiple or story through different techniques, making it accessible to everyone. Thank you to Simon Orrell for introducing me to this technique. For more of Simon’s insights, check out his blog at Snowdolphin.com.
Conclusion
The Conjunction Junction pattern stands out as a straightforward and effective method for splitting user stories. By focusing on the grammar of user stories, this technique provides a simple yet powerful way to create functional and usable tasks. Embrace the Conjunction Junction pattern, and you’ll find that creating actionable user stories is not just achievable but also intuitive and enjoyable.
Get The Infographic
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