Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

Literally one of the most important and valuable books I've read in the past year. And the most important process we have used that has radically changed how effective our agile product planning and management works.

Story Mapping as described in this book has been a huge benefit to our process and we're starting to roll it out to all new project to great effect. It really was the missing link to writing good stories and having that system level view from a user journey perspective.

So many POs have talked about it finally giving them a view of the software that was at the right level for them to manage.

Plus new team members coming on projects get up to speed on what's going on so much faster.

It's well written and exhaustive without being exhausting. A must read IMO.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

The book is well structured and filled with real-life examples. That makes it great to understand the concepts and get armed to start applying them in the reader's own context.
It is also a very good refresher for experienced Agile practitioners.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

The book has been a revelation for me and the missing piece of creating software in a leans and agile manner. The first two chapters are worth the price of admission alone. It's a deep dive into story mapping and may overwhelm at first but I encourage anyone to start applying it because that is the best way to learn.

I also love the writing style as I find it a good balance between casual and concise.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

Your stories are broken.

I know that's a bold statement and there is *some* chance that I am wrong in your case... but the fact is most teams write their stories wrong. I say this having been an executive, developer, and consultant with agile presses since 1999.

Jeff Patton's book will be a revelation for 99% of those doing agile. For the first time you will learn what stories really are, what you've been writing them wrong, and how to put them in the correct context for maximum success. This will be enlightening for the beginning to intermediate reader. For the more experienced, such as myself, you are sure to learn (or be reminded of) countless tips for building better stories.

If you want to be successful with agile then BUY THIS BOOK.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

This is one of the few techniques from Software Development that can be applied many other places as well.

It could be used to clarify the situation in Syria, for example - by listing all the events, and all the actors, that have been there, perhaps starting in 1980. This has to be done before any peace conference can be effective.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

This book was a surprise. It describes a easy to use process to enable the discovery of user needs in a way that provides developers with a fuller understanding of what the software needs to accomplish instead of what features the software needs to provide. The book is well-written and the author provides examples and explanations that supplement and support his ideas.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

This is a bigger book than the title suggests. Jeff Patton has managed to pack three separate really good books into the 324 pages of his "User Story Mapping".

Most obviously, it's an excellent book on User Story Mapping. For me it's one of the core practices I use during agile & lean product delivery. It's useful during discovery & development — and Jeff covers both those cases with several real world examples to help drive the value of the practice home.

It's also an excellent book on user stories. I've seen far too many people create bad user stories by misunderstanding their intent, slavishly using templates, or misunderstanding how the team can use them as a tool to explore risk and scope. The book covers all these issues and more — giving a fantastic overview on how to work productively with stories.

Finally it's a book on product management in an agile world. The conversations about user stories and user story mapping all take place in the wider context of how to do effective product discovery and development in an agile and lean environment. How they can be used to discover opportunities, build shared understanding, validate learning, and build better products and services.

And he manages to do all of this in a clear, practical and jargon free way. If you've not figured it out already — I *really* like this book. It's something that anybody involved in agile product development will get value from. Thoroughly recommended. Go buy it for your team now.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

Excellent book. A must read for product design & development teams and for entrepreneurs alike.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

"User Story Mapping" provides an excellent foundation for anyone interested in learning more about the practice of story writing. Especially compelling are the first handful of chapters, including author Jeff Patton's extended pow-wow with a musician's business plan.

The book is not for people with a solid story mapping practice already in place. Expect many process flow illistrations, cheerful anecdotes, and a few case studies. But if you are considering "User Story Mapping" to help you solve story mapping on a new project you're on (e.g., what should stories look like for an upgrade of an existing project?), this is not the book for you.

Comments about oreilly User Story Mapping:

I have found that as suggested in the book that it really engages the users and keeps the conversations going as they feel they can actively participate rather than reporting their requirements.