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In my Data Warehouse(More like data logistics because of we just transport data with a minimal transformation to a central HUB) project(which is said to be Agile-SCRUM) team have been writing User stories like

  1. As an analyst, I want to prepare the specification sheet so the development can start
  2. As a Developer, I want to develop the Transformation layer so that the HUB can be loaded
  3. As a tester, I want to test the table so the same can be moved to production

Now for a fact I know that this is not how you write User stories since none of these represent functionality, they just represent a technical task.

I proposed something like,

  • As a data consumer, I want the table to be tested so there will not be any issues during consumption

And for this I got questions like "The consumer never asked the table to be tested, we test it because of the process we follow. The consumer only asked for data so why should we say as a consumer in the User story"

I do not know how to answer that and also I feel the User stories can still be composed in a better way but still sticking to the principle that "User stories are chunks that can be completed within 1-2 days"

I need some help to understand how others do it in a SCRUM Data logistic project and any suggestion on how this can be composed better

Vidhyasaghar
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1 Answers1

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This is a tricky situation as the data warehouse sound like it is may be a component rather than a product.

I can think of two possible approaches and the one you chose would depend on the setup of your organisation.

Write stories for end-user features

I'm guessing the data warehouse will be used for reports, etc. As such, a user story might be something like:

As a sales director I want a report on monthly sales so that I can plan my sales strategy

This story may then have several sub-tasks, such as:

Import sales data using SQL script

Create warehouse schema

Validate data

...and so on.

The challenge here will be if the work your team is doing is kept separate from the end-user features. In other words, you are implementing the data warehouse component and it does not include the reporting front-end.

Reframe the stories to focus on the users of the data warehouse

If the warehouse is a component to be used elsewhere in the organisation you could reflect this in your stories.

For example:

As a report writer I want the data in the data warehouse to be reliable so that I can write my reports with the confidence that the data is valid

This may then have a sub-task like:

Ensure all tables are tested

Barnaby Golden
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