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Splitting of stories

Last post 06:24 pm June 12, 2018 by Timothy Baffa
3 replies
05:54 am June 12, 2018

In the grooming session, the team found that the story they will be picking up for the sprint cannot be split in any ways and it would be so large that only the development work can be completed in the sprint ( 2 weeks that is) and do the testing work in the next sprint.

We tried to discuss on the different parameters for splitting the story - INVEST method, flowchart way, SPIDR method.

What does one recommend for such a scenario? Can we allow such a large story to be spilled over two sprints?


02:21 pm June 12, 2018

We tried to discuss on the different parameters for splitting the story - INVEST method, flowchart way, SPIDR method.

What lead the team to conclude that no hypothesis can be validated within a single Sprint time-box?


02:54 pm June 12, 2018

Why it is not divisible? 

Focus on the value the story is entailing and how it could be worked and delivered separately. 

Is the story clear? A lack of details might result in a poor estimation. Did the Product Owner participate in the grooming session? If so, have your team considered involving the stakeholder's feedback so the story may be observed differently and refined to a comfortable level? 

only the development work can be completed in the sprint ( 2 weeks that is) and do the testing work in the next sprint

Does your Definition of Done allow this?


06:24 pm June 12, 2018

What I have found that has helped my teams immensely is crafting an item's acceptance criteria as BDD (Given/When/Then).   Once this is completed for an item, it can usually be split by any combination of BDD statements to deliver a single piece of business value.

If you are familiar with composing acceptance criteria this way, then see if you can split an item using one or more BDD statements.   If you are not familiar with this practice, I urge you and your team to learn and practice it to the point that it becomes part of your "readiness" criteria for forecasting in a sprint.


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