Story Mapping in Under 200 Words
There are numerous articles on the topic of story mapping which already do a fine job of describing the technique, the most significant of which are the ones where Jeff Patton first articulated, and ultimately elaborated upon, story mapping. What I seek to do here is provide a brief set of instructions which can be easily written on an index card.
So here we go: story mapping in less than 200 words (and one picture), starting now …
Step 1. Identify the “things people do” (User Tasks). Write User Tasks on blue note cards (second row of the diagram below).
Step 2. Group the User Tasks. Move the User Tasks to reflect initial guesses about sequencing/workflow.
Step 3. Identify User Activities. Write User Activities on orange note cards (top row of the diagram below).
Step 4. Sequence the User Activities. Move the User Activities to reflect what is known about the workflow; rearrange the User Tasks as needed so they fall under their respective User Activities.
Step 5. Walk the Skeleton. Take a step back and see if any User Tasks/User Activities are missing or duplicative.
Step 6. Identify user stories. Write user stories on yellow note cards.
Step 7. Evaluate the relative size of the user stories. Write the T-shirt size of the user stories on each one. (Or skip this step if you do not typically estimate user stories.)
Step 8. Sequence the user stories. Have an initial conversation about how to sequence the user stories, where the ones to be done soonest are at the top, and the ones to be done later are further down in the stack.
Note: Thanks to Steve Rogalsky for creating the illustration.
Note 2: See also my post called Impact Mapping in Under 200 Words (the two techniques can be even more effective together).
