6. POA Techniques

6.25 Story Mapping

Guide to Product Ownership Analysis

IIBA.org KnowledgeHub Guide to Product Ownership Analysis 6. POA Techniques 6.25 Story Mapping

Purpose

Story Mapping is used to assist in creating an understanding of product functionality and the flow of usage, and to assist with prioritizing product delivery.

See section 7.20 of Agile Extension V2 for details.

In the context of product ownership analysis, practitioners can elevate this tool to track the flow of PBIs and prioritization of product features. It can also be used:

As an input to iteration and release planning.
To plan desired outcomes in different agile horizons
- For example, it can be used as a component of the product roadmap or in the context of planning MVP for the product.
To discover dependencies and critical paths to realize different product features.

POA Domain	Story Mapping:
Applying Foundational Concepts	Story maps usually provide a top-down view of: PBIs, Epics, Stories, and Steps in a delivery horizon. Story maps can be summarized to identify product goals and objectives for better alignment to business or customer goals.
Cultivate Customer Intimacy	A story map is a fluid tool that captures customer activities and goals as relatable stories and allows the discovery of pain points. Similarly, the view can be reorganized from a drill-down of PBIs to user stories to a sequence of user stories for a specific user. This helps POA Practitioners to realize how each user would interact with the product and reveals gaps.
Engage the Whole Team	The product team uses the story map to get a bigger picture to plan their activities more effectively. The team can provide additional input by reviewing how stories are developed relative to each other.
Make an Impact	Story maps are effective as a visual tool in iteration planning, release planning, and team discussions. They can be used as a visual anchor for product teams to track progress and provide a sense of accomplishment when a story gets delivered.
Deliver Often	Story maps changes often as the delivery priorities for the PBIs, schedule and budget change. By keeping the story map current the product team always has visibility into how the product is progressing.
Learn Fast	Story maps provide several cues for POA Practitioners to course-correct, by identifying gaps in the flow of PBIs. They can also provide quick learning on how to adapt iterations and releases if some of the story development activities become distressed.
Obsess About Value	A story map is an excellent tool to visualize the value for different customer personas vs. value delivered.