←Back to the Kraken The Kraken · Arm Nº 02 · Endless planning

User Story Mapping for Agile Teams

Planning itself is not the problem.
Not having a common language is.

The short answer

A voyage ends, and the next one begins. A readable plan needs no second meeting.

Most crews sail many voyages at once. If every plan is built differently, everyone has to be walked through it again, and again. One shared way of reading every plan is what ends the endless meetings.

Mark the harbours. Plot the route.

Where are we?

The harbour we leave from.

Where are we heading?

The harbour we want to reach.

Which route?

Around the island, clear of the rocks.

Present the plan and everyone follows, right?

But …

Only those who know the symbols can read the chart

Every sailor learned how a chart is built.
That is why they can read any chart, even one they never saw being drawn.

IslandLand to sail around.

MainlandThe coast. Solid ground.

RocksKeep clear.

Deep waterSoundings in fathoms. Safe for heavy ships.

ShallowsA heavy ship gets stuck here.

LighthouseSomething everyone steers by.

AnchorageA safe place to stop.

WreckSomeone learned it the hard way.

Every chart is different. The way to read it is the same.

Kinds of endless planning

Five ways a plan stays unreadable

The plan exists. It just cannot be read by everyone.

Same talk, every weekEverything has to be explained again, and again.

Whoever was in the roomOnly those who were in the meeting know where the plan stands.

Every crew draws its own chartEach plan is made its own way, with no common language behind it.

The plan lives in one headIt was never written down. When that person is away, so is the plan.

Somewhere among the starsNobody knows where we stand, or where exactly we are heading.

How endless planning shows

Typical indicators. Not a complete list, but the ones that show up most often.

Sign 1“What are we doing next?”Sign 2Missed one meeting, lost track of the planSign 3Every team keeps its plan in a different formatSign 4Onboarding takes weeksSign 5The goal is “somewhere better”Sign 6The same questions, answered over and overSign 7The plan says where to go, not what it takesSign 8Nobody can say where we areSign 9The status shows the wish, not the truth

Same cards. A different interface.

A backlog is one long list. New cards land at the bottom, and the overview gets lost. A story map holds the very same cards, laid out the same way on every map.

The same on every map

PersonaWho the voyage is for.

NarrativeThe steps the customer or user takes, in order.

EffortWhat has to be done, below the line.

SlicesOne piece of value, one leg of the voyage at a time.

Where we areThe slice we work on now. The next one adapts to what we learn.

The chart for working with AI

AI fills every gap the plan leaves unanswered … … with hallucinations.

A story map answers what AI needs: who it is for, how it should be used, and what has to be done. Agile never meant less planning, only planning that adapts. With or without AI.

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