BEYOND THE SCRUM GUIDE: EMBRACING AN AGILE MINDSET

Splitting user stories or product backlog items (PBIs) is a crucial aspect of Agile development that highlights the importance of maintaining shippable and valuable user stories in order to achieve sprint or release goals. While the Scrum Guide does not explicitly mention the term user stories (borrowed from Extreme Programming) or the INVEST rule (created by Bill Wake), experts suggest that scrum teams should focus on granularity in order to make their user stories SHIPPABLE and VALUABLE. From my experience, I've noticed that only a small proportion of user stories abide by the INVEST rule. Therefore, it's crucial to prioritize the shippability and business value of the stories, ensuring that they are valuable to the business and can be shipped within the sprint.

However, there is often confusion about who is responsible for splitting user stories. The Scrum Guide places the onus on the product owner but does not mention the role of a business analyst (BA) in Scrum. In reality, it may fall on the scrum master to train and enable the scrum team to write user stories on their own, or to involve a BA or an SME, to guide them through the process. In some cases, the scrum master may need to take on the responsibility of writing user stories for a certain period of time, or utilize an AI tool to generate stories with required prompts (scenarios), gradually enabling the team to use the tool themselves. Ultimately, while the product owner is the product vision keeper, the scrum master is the scrum keeper and plays a critical role in enabling the team to adopt Agile practices and become self-organizing by hook or crook.

As an agile enthusiast first, I believe in having an Agile mindset that goes beyond just the Scrum Guide and Agile Manifesto. While these frameworks provide helpful guidance, I don't view them as strict rules. Rather, they serve as tools that help me work towards achieving product vision and goals. While it's important to follow the Scrum Guide, it's just the beginning of the agile journey. Also, I understand that being Agile requires more than just adherence to the Scrum Guide. It involves embracing flexibility, innovation, and growth, which ultimately helps me build my agile muscle.

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