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Why we need a granularity concept for user stories

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference contributionResearchpeer review

Abstract

User stories are a widespread instrument for representing requirements. They describe small user-oriented parts of the system and guide the daily work of developers. Often however, user stories are too coarse, so that misunderstandings or dependencies remain unforeseeable. Granularity of user stories needs to be investigated more, but at the same time is a hard-to-grasp concept. This paper investigates Expected Implementation Duration (EID) of a user story as a characteristic of granularity. We want to find out, whether it is suitable as a quality aspect and can help software teams improve their user stories. We have conducted a study with software engineering practitioners. There, many user stories had a relatively high EID of four or more days. Many developers state to have experienced certain problems to occur more often with such coarse user stories. Our findings emphasize the importance to reflect on granularity when working with user stories.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAgile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming
Subtitle of host publication15th International Conference, XP 2014, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages110-125
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9783319068619
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Event15th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2014 - Rome, Italy
Duration: 26 May 201430 May 2014

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Business Information Processing
Volume179 LNBIP
ISSN (Print)1865-1348

Conference

Conference15th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2014
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityRome
Period26 May 201430 May 2014

Keywords

  • Requirements quality
  • User requirements
  • User stories

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Management Information Systems
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Business and International Management
  • Information Systems
  • Modelling and Simulation
  • Information Systems and Management

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