abstract: An exploration of user stories through the lens of actors, objects, and purposes, and what this reveals about the true nature of Agile practices.
This covers off the three aspects of business value:
* To whom are we providing value?
* With what are we providing value?
* What value is being provided?
There are three categories of thought this can be grouped into:
* Actors
* Objects
* Purposes
An actor is anyone we interact with, who intends to derive something of value from us.
An object is any “thing” we intend to use, to provide value
A purpose is the value we intend to provide.
All good stories must answer all three questions.
## How Big Is The Story?
This is where estimating comes in. Estimation involves:
* Effort - The degree of difficulty or amount of work expected during the development process. This should include testing.
* Complexity - The number of elements, their relationships, their interdependencies, and the amount of research needed, to complete the story.
* Risk - The scope of the “unknowns” of the story; external dependencies; potential problem areas; amount of experience with the technologies involved; etc.
These factors constitute a relative measure of story size, not an objective one (like height, weight, or volume).
