Sample Project Backlog

Here are some ideas on how to structure your product backlog for the project. I recommend sticking with the theme structure below. Remember to:

• Create user stories which follow the INVEST principles, and in particular, limit the scope of a user story to something you can achieve in the sprint (e.g., 2 weeks).
• Make the stories specific to your chosen dataset and mission. So say “Display garbage pickup areas on a map” rather than “Display the data on a map”.
• Attach a priority to each user story.
• Add acceptance criteria so you can define “done”.
• Use the ‘role-goal-reason’ template to format your stories.

Theme 1 - Import and clean data

Stories in this theme describe how to access the data on the remote server, and translate it into a format useful for manipulation. For example, you will need a user story about data translation (e.g., XML parsing). Some form of this theme should figure prominently in Sprint 1.

Theme 2 - Storage

Stories in this theme should be about data persistence once uploaded. Think of this as a weak form of caching. You might leave these to sprint 2.

Theme 3 - Tabular and geographic layout

Some stories in this theme concern verifying and displaying the imported data. For example, as a User I want to view the number of imported records, in order to verify the import worked. You will want a few stories from here in Sprint 1. Other stories in this theme will concern advanced visualization of the data on a map or 3-d layout. I suggest you leave these stories for Sprint 2.

Theme 4 - Sharing

The stories in this theme describe how your users will be able to share information. You may want a couple of these stories in Sprint 1, but I suggest you leave most of these stories for Sprint 2.

Theme 5 - User Management

The stories in this theme describe which categories of users will be able to access information. You will likely want a couple of these stories in Sprint 1, but I suggest you leave some of these stories for Sprint 2.

Theme 6 - Software attributes

In order to capture some of the non-functional properties of the application, these stories will talk about attributes. For example:

• make the program usable
• make the program responsive
• make the program attractive