Tool Mentor: Managing User Stories with IBM Rational Team Concert |
This tool mentor describes how to manage user stories by using IBM Rational Team Concert.
Relationships
Related Elements | Capture Confirmations Identify User Roles and User Stories Refine User Roles and User Stories
Main Description
# Introduction The following topics are prerequisite reading before you start with this tool mentor: Getting Started with Work Items Getting Started with Iteration Planning This tool mentor assumes that you have administrative privileges in Rational Team Concert and that you have created a project by using the scrum process template. All steps in the sections that follow are performed in the Work Items view. This tool mentor includes the following sections: Creating an epic Creating a user story Breaking down a user story Prioritizing user stories Capturing user story details For more information on the topics covered here, see [ELL08] and [SMI09]. ### Creating an epic Epics are large-scope stories that represent complex requirements. In later iterations of the development lifecycle, you can partition epics into more granular stories. Then you set priorities and add details. To create epics in Rational Team Concert, repeat these steps for each epic: Within the Team Artifacts tab, expand you project area and right-click on Work Items. From the drop-down menu, select New > Work Item. In the Create Work Item window, select Epic. In the epic editor, add information to the epic in these fields: Summary, Filed Against, and Planned For. Click Save. ### Creating a user story User stories can be created, refined, detailed, and prioritized in Rational Team Concert. To create user stories, repeat these steps for each story: Within the Team Artifacts tab, expand you project area and right-click on Work Items. From the drop-down menu, select New > Work Item. In the Create Work Item window, select User Story. In the user story editor, add information to these fields: Summary and Filed Against. Click Save. ### Breaking down a user story Epics and other large user stories are broken down to prioritize them and to add details. After creating the epics and finer-grained user stories as described previously, define the relationships to show which epics originated which user stories. Follow these steps: Find an epic (for example, by running a query that returns all work items of type epic), and open the epic editor. Click the Links tab. In the Links section of the tab, click the Add button and select Add Children. Within the Select Work Items tab, type text in the Containing id or text field. In the Matching work items of type list, select fine-grained user stories that are related to this epic, and click OK. ### Prioritizing user stories User stories are prioritized so that they can be assigned, refined, and detailed. To prioritize user stories in Rational Team Concert, follow these steps: Run a query that returns all work items of type user story. In the Work Items tab, right-click on the P (Priority) cell of a user story. From the drop-down menu, select Change Priority. Select the appropriate priority for the user story (for example: Low, Medium, or High). Repeat Steps 2 through 4 for each user story for which you want to change the priority. Stories start in the backlog, which is identified in the Filed Against field. When they are ready for implementation, move the stories to a Sprint Backlog or Iteration Plan in the Planned For field. Note: As an alternative to those steps, you can open the user story editor and change the priority field one story at the time. ### Capturing user story details Fine-grained, prioritized user stories are detailed through conversations with stakeholders, so that development can begin and the level of completeness can be defined and agreed to by stakeholders. To capture user story details, you can use one or a combination of these Rational Team Concert features in the user story editor: Within the Overview tab, add details (for example, data exchanged by users with the system) in the Description field. Click Save. In the Acceptance tab, add acceptance conditions (for example exceptions, error conditions, and constraints) in the Criteria of Acceptance tab. Click Save. Given that capturing user story details is an interactive process between stakeholders and team members, it helps to use these collaboration mechanisms provided by Rational Team Concert to enhance communication and capture information: Within the Overview tab, expand the Discussion section, and then click Add Comment to capture the decisions and the rationale for those decisions so that stakeholders and all team members have a history of all discussions related to a user story. Within the Links tab, in the Subscribers section, click the Add button to add team members and stakeholders who are interested in receiving notification when the user story is updated.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 1987, 2009. All Rights Reserved.