Job Stories In Agile Business Analysis

Introduction To Job Stories

Job stories are a way to describe user activities in an agile business analysis. They are used to provide insights into how a user will interact with a product or service. This blog post will explain what job stories are, why they are important, and how they can be used.

According to the IIBA:

Job Stories are used to represent a product backlog item or requirement in terms of a job to be done by a stakeholder.

Job stories provide a structured way of understanding how a user interacts with a product or service. By understanding how a user interacts with a product or service, business analysts can better understand the user's needs and create solutions that are tailored to meet those needs.

The job story follows a standard syntax in the form of:

When [situation]

I want to [motivation]

So I can [expected outcomes]

The situation defines when a job needs to be done. It is the context to the story or the thing that is triggering the story in a particular situation. There can be a wide variety of situations to which there are a wide variety of possible solutions.

The motivation can be based on internal or external forces. The motivation is the counterpart to adding context to a situation.

The expected outcomes mitigate the motivation, which provoked the situation. It is the desired outcome.

Example:

When [situation]

When I’m renting bikes, for my ten year old kid and me

I want to [motivation]

I want to be able to search for the closest bike sharing center

So I can [expected outcomes]

So I can avoid walking too far

Job stories do not need to be written from a single point of view. They can be written from a third person point of view.

Third Person Point Of View

When someone [situation]

Actor(s) [motivation]

So that [expected outcomes]

Job stories provide more context than user stories. This is because job stories focus on the motivation and struggles the user experiences. Focuses more on the desired state.

Strengths Of Job Stories

Job stories provide a way for business analysts to understand the user's needs from their perspective. This helps the business analyst to design solutions that are tailored to the user's needs. By understanding the user's perspective, business analysts can create solutions that are more effective and efficient.

Job stories also provide a way to communicate the user experience to other stakeholders. They can be used to help stakeholders understand user needs and how those needs can be met. This helps stakeholders to make informed decisions about product or service design. Other strengths include:

• Format makes you focus on stakeholders motivations instead of defining implementation
• Can use job stories and user stories together

Limitations Of Job Stories

• Can be confusing if two formats are in use
• Do not exaggerate when decomposing job stories
• Try not to be too wording

When using both user stories and job stories together, user stories are used for the features that could solve the problem and job stories are used to document the motivation and outcomes for the stakeholders.

In Summary

Job stories give preference to situations and motivations over roles and attributes that user stories highlight. User stories are based on personas and provide a reference to the different types of users and what they do but don’t reveal why they do something. Knowing motivation is important and job stories can accomplish that remarkably well. As such, job stories are still a great way to gather requirements.