Task: Identify User Roles and User Stories |
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This task describes how to identify and capture the initial set of user roles and user stories for the system under development. |
Disciplines: Requirements |
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Purpose
- To identify and capture the requirements that form the basis of communication
and agreement between the stakeholders and the development team about what
the system must do to satisfy stakeholder needs.
- To understand the requirements at a high level so that the initial scope
of work can be determined.
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Relationships
Roles | Primary Performer:
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Inputs | Mandatory:
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Outputs |
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Main Description
This task is about having an initial conversation with stakeholders to identify
what the objectives are for the system under development. The team and stakeholders
brainstorm to identify and capture the user roles and personas of those who
will interact with the system and what user stories provide their objectives
and reasons for using the system.
User stories are captured at a high level (user story statement
only) to encourage further conversation about them when it is time to add details.
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Steps
Determine sources of information
Be prepared for requirements-gathering sessions with stakeholders
by gathering and reviewing information related to the problem domain, problem
statement, business environment, and key stakeholders. Most of this information
should be available in the vision statement. Also review the existing requirements
repository for stakeholder requests. |
Identify and capture user roles and personas
Conduct User-Roles Modeling sessions to help you brainstorm with stakeholders. Go
through candidate user roles repeatedly until you have identified and captured
an initial set of user roles, with their goals for the system and how they will
interact with it.
Another useful technique is to identify one or more personas for each user
role. A persona is an imaginary representation of a user role. It
helps identify the reasons that people typically use the system and how
they will interact with the system. |
Identify and capture user stories
Conduct story-writing workshops to help you collaborate with stakeholders
and gather the information needed. Conduct a couple of brainstorming sessions
to start identifying as many stories as possible, without worrying about their
size at this point. Capture the identified user stories for later prioritization,
refinement, and detailing. Keep these brainstorm sessions short (1 to 2
hours), limit negative feedback, and avoid lengthy debates about user stories.
To write independent and valuable user stories at this stage, follow the INVEST Model.
The identification of new user stories should trigger the addition of new
work items for the project. |
Identify and capture domain terms
If there are ambiguous or domain-specific terms that need to be clearly defined,
make sure that you work closely with stakeholders to capture these terms
in the glossary and that you use these terms consistently. |
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Key Considerations
Use various techniques to make gathering requirements easier. Face-to-face
meetings with stakeholders are the most effective way to understand stakeholder
needs and to gather and validate requirements. When face-to-face conversation
is not an option, you can use other means of communication, such as video conferences,
conference calls, instant messaging, or project collaboration tools, such as
Rational Team Concert (RTC).
This task is one aspect of initially envisioning requirements, as part of
agile modeling early in the development lifecycle. |
More Information
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