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User Stories & Backlogs

Learning Objectives
  • Explain the features and benefits of Agile Development
  • Write precise user stories with acceptance criteria
  • Create acceptance criteria that make stories testable and unambiguous
  • Prioritise backlog items using scope, dependency, and ROI evidence
  • Organise scope into a sequence that a delivery team can plan

Pre work​

Set up​

If nobody has done so already, copy and paste this command into Slack.

/prework Technical User Stories and Acceptance Criteria

Research​

Task

Research the terms "waterfall" and "agile" in a development context.

What are the benefits & drawbacks of each approach?

Research​

Task

Research online for the following terms:

  • What is a user story?
  • What makes acceptance criteria testable?
  • What is the difference between a requirement, a task, and a user story?

Experiment​

Task

Draft at least two user stories for the PVC project and add three acceptance criteria for each.

Submission​

Submission

Please share your answers in the Slack thread.

Workshop​

Introduction​

Remind trainees that a Phase 1 recommendation must be buildable; broad ideas don't get built.

Introduce task decomposition: breaking larger work into small, measurable pieces so both developers and stakeholders understand what's being delivered.

Agile development​

Ask trainees to explain the difference between waterfall and agile development.

Share the Agile Manifesto and highlight the benefits of efficient, adaptable feedback loops.

Explain that various more complex frameworks have been built on top of Agile principles.

Scrum for delivery thinking​

Introduce Scrum as a framework that encourages incremental delivery through a prioritised backlog.

Explain that even if the organisation uses a hybrid model, Scrum thinking helps analysts ask better questions:

  • What is the smallest valuable increment?
  • Which stories are ready for refinement?
  • Which capabilities depend on earlier ones?

Warn trainees not to treat Scrum as jargon to drop into presentations without changing their thinking.

Kanban for flow thinking​

Introduce Kanban as a way to visualise work moving through stages and to spot bottlenecks.

Demonstrate a simple board structure:

To Do | In Progress | Review

Explain that each ticket will move through the system in a predictable way, allowing careful tracking of work.

Discuss how overly large stories or hidden dependencies quickly create blockage.

Introduce Jira as a way to run a Scrum/Kanban process.

Explain that each trainee works on their own board in their own free Jira workspace, so nobody needs admin rights from the coaches.

Walk through signing up for a Jira workspace, creating a board, inviting a coach to the workspace, and making some simple epics for the PVC case.

User Stories​

Ask trainees to define the difference between Jobs-to-be-Done and user stories: user stories are a later stage that focus on specific implementations, rather than overall capabilities.

Introduce a practical story template:

As a [user], I want [need], so that [business outcome].

Demonstrate a good example:

As a customer, I want to view vet availability so that I can schedule an appointment without waiting for a representative.

Contrast it with a weak example:

Build account page.

Highlight that strong stories sit between broad requirements and implementation tasks.

Technical stories in this course​

Explain that the stories here need to be slightly more precise than generic agile examples because they bridge business analysis and delivery readiness.

Show a recommended set of fields:

  • Title
  • Story
  • Business value
  • Acceptance criteria
  • Dependencies
  • Priority
  • Notes or assumptions

State that this structure works well in Jira and also forces better thinking before Jira.

Acceptance criteria​

Ask trainees what acceptance criteria are for.

To define what must be true for the story to be considered working.

Demonstrate the difference between poor and better criteria.

- Build verification page
- Connect to API
- Add button

Highlight that tasks belong in implementation planning; acceptance criteria belong in quality definition.

Group challenge​

Challenge trainees in pairs to write three stories for one PVC epic.

Direct them to include at least three acceptance criteria per story.

Grant trainees 15 minutes.

Circulate and help anyone whose criteria are still implementation tasks.

Gather the trainees and review one story from each pair.

Ask the group how they would test each story.

Conclusion​

Ask trainees to explain how Scrum and Kanban help an analyst, not just a delivery manager.

Confirm that the strongest answers refer to incremental thinking, dependency visibility, and flow awareness.

Stress that the next workshop will convert this scoped structure into actual Jira stories and acceptance criteria.