50 Quick Ideas on User stories

· December 21, 2014

Now, if there ever was a book that filled a need this is it! I cannot count the number of teams and companies that have struggled to get user stories right - this book is packed with practical, solid, experienced based advices on how to improve how you use user stories to your advantage.

Throughout the short book the authors share their vast experience and again and again shows us that user stories is less about the tool and more about the thinking and approach to software development that follows with it.

I like the structure of each idea that gives a background, a rational and some practical advice on how to get started. Add to this the funny, informative and beautiful graphics that accompanies each idea and you end up with just an awesome book.

The book is organized in 5 parts that connects nicely into the natural software development cycle. For each of the part there’s 10 ideas that you might benefit from, or that can help you improve. To me, this book serves best as a reference book, or something that you use for inspiration when trying to solve a particular problem or situation in how user stories are used. Reading the book as prose from start to finish made it a bit hard to remember all the things I learned, for me.

That might also be my only criticism to the book; each idea leaves me wanting more. But that’s built into the format of such a short, succinct book - I guess. Luckily the authors have left us with plenty of further reading, links and a site where further discussions can be held and more material can be found.

If you ever found yourself not understanding how to fit user stories into your process, or if you think that user stories are not really worth doing - read this. It opens your eyes for more ideas and more options.

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