As a product owner I want to follow a process that adapts to my current working situation so I can take on my responsibilities within the project as well as with the rest of my work. One sprint ago I stopped writing user stories alone and instead do it with the team.

Now one sprint later I tell you how it turned out.

So instead of me preparing user stories I start a two to three hour workshop with the team where we write the user stories together.

I start with the vision for the next things I want the team to deal with. The goal is to get everybody on the same page as of what the target is and why we want to do it.

Then I chose an appropriate part of the concept that was written earlier and present it to the team. I answer questions and together we break it down into user stories.

The benefit was immediately visible as I can now be sure that the user stories don’t miss out on anything as more than just my pair of eyes were involved. I also know that the stories are understood just as I intend.

But also the team felt safer. Mostly due to the vision part which allows them to understand the user stories and their relationship. Instead of just working seats for a sprint duration they already know what the final car will look like and where the seat they build will fit in.

Today we had another retrospective meeting and guess what most of the negative feedback has vanished. The team repeatedly confirmed that it was happy with the slightly modified process and their performance is amazing.

Can it still be called (true) Scrum? I don’t give a flying fart.

SCRUM

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