What is story splitting?
Story splitting is the process of breaking one single user story into smaller stories. However, it’s not about breaking it into component tasks, but rather complete stories or slices that still deliver value to the user.
The easiest way to understand it is with an example. So, let’s say that you and your team are working on developing software that helps HR teams manage their company intranet. When working on a user story, you use the common “As a… I want to… so that…” template (also known as the “Connextra format”). Here’s what you come up with:
As an administrator I want to publish content to our company intranet so I can keep employees updated.
This user story gives you the functionality you need to focus on: administrators need to be able to publish content to the site. But, as you think about that further, you’ll realize that there’s a lot of different functionality rolled into that seemingly simple story. For example, you realize that:
- Administrators need to be able to publish different types of content (videos, documents, text updates, etc.)
- Administrators need to be able to schedule content to publish
- Administrators need to be able to preview published content
- Administrators need to be able to collaborate on content
Suddenly that single user story seems far more daunting than when you started, right? It’s far more than you could deliver in a single sprint. That’s the beauty of story splitting: it forces you to break that larger user story down into smaller stories that are more manageable but still valuable.
