Unifying User Stories, Use Cases, Story Maps: The power of verbs

by Alistair Cockburn

Use cases, user stories, and story maps have been circling like comets, competing for the same energy of the same people at the same time. There is something obviously similar about all three but just exactly what isn't obvious. In this ground-breaking book, Dr. Alistair Cockburn, noted expert on all three techniques, co-author of the Agile Manifesto, and author of the definitive work Writing Effective Use Cases, puts them all together, showing how they both complete and complement each other. Cockburn starts by attending to the seven key concepts without which none of them can be written well, and with mastery of which you can move freely between them. From there he breaks down user stories, then use cases, then story maps one by one, in clear and practical terms. Finally, he shows how to move between them, making them more effective in combination. The book contains exercises and drills, making it suitable for self study and classroom teaching.

180 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2024

About the author

Alistair Cockburn is an American computer scientist, known as one of the initiators of the agile movement in software development. He cosigned (with 16 others) the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.

Reviews

[Gandhi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure if it really unified User stories, use cases and story maps

The book gives clear definitions of the three concepts and some best practices/opinions. I think the online material, websites or books of original authors do justice to these topics than Alistair. The last few pages that I hoped would bring these concepts together rather than a common sense interpretation of how to use the tools together.

[Slávek Rydval · Rating 3 out of 5]

The text works well as an introduction and explanation of terms. Adding examples would make it even stronger. However, the typesetting is very poor.