User Story Slicing For Maximum Efficiency and Impact?
Ever wondered how to slice 🔪 your user stories for maximum efficiency and impact?
Let’s dive into the difference between Vertical vs. Horizontal User Story Slicing!
Vertical User Story Slicing 🍕
Dividing a feature into smaller, complete functionalities that cover all layers (UI, business logic, database).
So you can deliver end-to-end functionality in each slice.
Example: In an e-commerce app,
Slice#1: “As a user, I can browse items in a category.”
Slice#2: “As a user, I can sort items in a category.”
This includes UI, services, and database for each slice separately.
Horizontal User Story Slicing 🍅
Breaking down work by architectural layers (UI, database, etc.), focusing on one layer at a time.
Each slice focuses on a specific technical aspect.
Example: In the same app,
Slice#: “Develop the database schema for product categories,” focusing only on the database.
Slice#2: “Develop the Front-end for the product categories.
Key Differences 💡
1- Completeness: Vertical slices are complete features delivering value to the user, while horizontal slices might not be valuable on their own. 🚙 🍰
2- Integration: Vertical slicing ensures regular integration and helps in identifying issues early, whereas horizontal slicing might delay integration. 🚀
3- Feedback: Vertical slicing allows for faster feedback from users as each slice is a functional piece, unlike horizontal slices. 🛴
4- Risk: Vertical slices help in managing risk better by delivering small, complete features. Horizontal slices can sometimes hide risks until late in the project. 🚨
5- Focus: Vertical slicing keeps the focus on user needs and business value, while horizontal slicing is more about technical implementation. 🙋
In practice, most agile teams prefer vertical slicing as it aligns well with agile principles of incremental delivery and user-centered design. 🪜
However, horizontal slicing is often needed in situations where establishing a strong foundation for the application is critical, especially in the early stages of development.