Slicing the Cake

Slicing user stories… Even though there are very good resources with patterns to help you slice user stories, applying these patterns properly does not seem to be that simple…

As an agile coach and trainer I always relied on Richard Lawrence's material to teach people how to properly slice user stories to a sprintable size. I know there are several variations (like the SPIDR approach of Mike Cohn), but still, Richard's story splitting patterns and flowchart are my preferred resources. For those who don't know the slicing patterns of Richard Lawrence: Guide to Splitting User Stories

Now, understanding how to slice user stories is 1 thing, being able to do so, is something else. As a coach I experienced many times that people don't really know how to get started with these patterns. What if we could turn it upside down and start from the slices and see how they relate to a larger user story? That inspired me to come up with a card game about story slicing. The aim of the game is 3-fold:

you learn the purpose of slicing user stories and which pattern to apply when
you see how slicing patterns can help you to do story mapping
you get some good examples you can refer to once you need to get started yourself