What Are Words For? - Writing Better User Stories - Mike Cohn

This week’s tip is about the imprecision of words.

Take, for example, something I read on a website once: We provide bouncers for children’s parties.

What did you think of when you read that?

I thought of big, burly, heavily muscled men in tight T-shirts who won’t let certain kids into the backyard clubhouse.

After seeing “we provide bouncers for children’s parties,” I was left wondering, what type of kid’s party needs a bouncer? And were there really enough kids in need of bouncers that this company had formed to serve them?

But this isn’t what the company meant. The company provides those big, inflatable bounce houses kids like to jump in. And apparently those are called bouncers by those in the know. So, this company really does provide bouncers to kids’ parties.

As much as I love words, words can be imprecise. They don’t always mean what we think they mean. My definition of bouncer and the company’s definition were completely different.

Because words aren’t as precise as we might think, an over-reliance on written words can lead to misunderstandings.

Writing is great and is sometimes the absolute best way to convey something. But sometimes, talking is better.

One of the nice things about user stories is they combine both. User stories have a written element–often just a sentence or two on an index card. But the backbone of most user stories are the conversations aimed at discovering details.

I’m confident that putting conversations back in your user stories will help you succeed with agile

How to connect with AgileDad:

- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/

- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/

- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/

- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/