Awesome List of resources on Agile Software Development.
10 Powerful Strategies for Breaking down User Stories in Scrum (with Cheatsheet) - by Christiaan Verwijs. “In Scrum, a vertical break-down is more useful, in which user stories are broken down into smaller user stories (instead of technical tasks). If user stories are broken down vertically, they are broken down in such a way that smaller items still result in working, demonstrable, software. Functionality will not be split across technical layers or tasks, but across functional layers. So, if the user story is ‘As customer I can pay for my order, so I can get my products’, it can be broken down into smaller user stories like ‘As customer I can pay by wire transfer, so I can get my products’ or ‘As customer I can pay with credit card, so I can get my products’.”
A Practical Guide to User Story Splitting for Agile Teams - by Mark J. Balbes. “Many small stories add up to a releasable feature, but each story should be releasable by itself. This allows the product owner and the team to get quick feedback on the larger feature being built, with the expectation that this will steer the ultimate direction of the feature and maximize user value.”
How to Split a User Story (Flowchart) - by Agile For All. A flowchart showing different patterns split a user story.
INVEST in Good Stories, and SMART Tasks - by Bill Wake. “As you discuss stories, write cards, and split stories, the INVEST acronym can help remind you of characteristics of good stories. When creating a task plan, applying the SMART acronym can improve your tasks.” INVEST: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable; SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-boxed
Slicing User Stories, Delivering Value - by Ellen Gottesdiener. A summary of a webinar “focused on helping teams manage their backlogs, improve sprints and release planning, and increase delivered value”.
Splitting user stories – the hamburger method - by Gojko Adzic. “This method works very nicely because it is visual, and it gets people thinking about alternatives while still staying in their comfort zone. It also works nicely with ‘bite-size chunks’ analogies. And you can easily explain why releasing just a technical task doesn’t make sense because no sane person would eat only the lettuce.”
Twenty Ways to Split Stories - by Bill Wake. “There’s usually a lot of value in getting a minimal, end-to-end solution present, then filling in the rest of the solution. These ‘splits’ are intended to help you do that.”