The User Stories and Planning Game Tutorial was presented at both XP Universe (XPU) and XP2001. This chapter is a summary of the combined tutorial experiences. The tutorial had very little lecture; instead, small groups performed a series of interactive exercises. Each exercise was followed by a discussion with the entire group. The goal of the tutorial was to familiarize participants with the aspects of Extreme Programming (XP) that involve stories, estimation, and planning. Participants gained experience in writing and explaining user stories, assisting customers in producing stories, estimating stories for release planning, selecting and explaining stories for iteration planning, breaking down stories into tasks, and estimating tasks. ExercisesThe tutorial consisted of four short exercises: (1) planning, (2) defining acceptance tests, (3) estimating stories, and (4) writing stories. Each exercise enabled the participants to learn by doing. The exercises can be done in any order; in fact, we have tried several different orders. The order described is the one we like best. Each exercise was completed (including discussion) in two hours or less. None of the exercises require any previous knowledge of XP or any programming skills. The participants did the exercises in small groups of approximately eight people. |