However, using product backlogs has its limitations. In fact, those limitations were the reason why Jeff Patton, an agile enthusiast, started seeking an alternative way of organizing that user information back in 2005. What he came up with forever changed how we develop software—he created the Story Mapping approach.
From Flat Product Backlogs to Story Mapping
Before moving forward, it’s important to c level contact list clarify what we mean by user story, as this is a key term for Story Mapping. Basically, a user story is an informal description of the features of software, written from the perspective of the user in plain natural language. It usually follows the same structure:
Traditionally, business analysts, project managers, stakeholders, and product owners all describe what they want the software to do by using the structure above. How they are expected to do so, or even why they are doing it. Some of the common problems of those flat product backlogs include:
- No user story prioritization or hierarchical prioritization without further context might cause confusion and priority conflicts.
- No big picture, as each user story in the product backlog doesn’t organically integrate with the rest to describe the product as a whole.
- No user journey, as the more general activities are decomposed into smaller pieces that end up feeling more like development tasks than user activities.
Naturally, there are methods and practices to deal with those problems. But there’s also Story Mapping, which is an alternative approach that doesn’t have those problems, to begin with. That advantage is what turned Patton’s approach into a highly popular technique for strategizing product development.
What Is Story Mapping?
Basically, Story Mapping is the practice of why gender diversity matters producing user story maps. As its name implies, a user story map is a way of mapping out user stories and other backlog items in a visual manner.
sive nature of the user story maps, it’s best to build them through a collaborative effort. That means the product owner or the engineering manager aren’t the only ones responsible for it. The creation of user story maps should also include business analysts, project managers, stakeholders, product owners, and even engineers, all of who can add valuable user stories and different perspectives on how to prioritize them.
Why Use Story Mapping?
By using the structure I described shops 9177 above, a team can overcome the limitations of the flat product backlog and provide a clearer path to the development. In fact, a well-organized story map provides several benefits.
