What Is a User Story? Understanding Its Role in Agile Development and UX
September 4, 2024
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Drive to Value with Agile Methods . Master an adaptive approach to product development
Instructor: Alex Cowan
61,784 already enrolled
(2,839 reviews)
Recommended experience
Beginner level
Some familiarity with software development is helpful, but not required.
(2,839 reviews)
Recommended experience
Beginner level
Some familiarity with software development is helpful, but not required.
How to determine what's valuable to a user early by focusing your team on testable narratives and creating a strong shared perspective
How to drive a focus on outcomes over outputs by facilitating a culture of experimentation and a test-driven, results-driven approach to agile
How to charter and focus an analytics (and data science) program that enhances your core objectives
How to iteratively identify and test the right agile practices from leading frameworks like scrum, XP, and kanban to your team's work
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Beyond practices and beyond principles, you'll learn the applied skills that enable an agile team to succeed. While applying an evidence-based approach across the four courses, you'll practice what you've learned by creating an actionable, adaptive focus for a digital product team.
Applied Learning Project
You will apply agile practices to a project of your choice or to a provided venture concept. Over the course of the Specialization, you will define what's valuable to the user, design end to end testing, and charter your team with an adaptive view of the right agile practices that make sense for them. You’ll finish the Specialization with a portfolio-building design brief that demonstrates your learning and specialized skills in agile product development.
How to evaluate and explain the relevance of concepts and practices from the agile development methodologies
How to create a strong shared perspective and drive to value using design methods like personas and problem scenarios
How to diagnose what software will be valuable to the user and how to test your ideas using agile user stories and prototypes
How to facilitate narrative collaboration with user stories and prototypes
How to drive valuable outcomes for your user and reduce waste for your team by diagnosing and prioritizing what you need to know about them
How to focus your practice of agile by pairing qualitative and quantitative analytics
How to do just enough research when you need it by running design sprints
How to accelerate value delivery by investing in your product pipeline
How to naturally, habitually tie your team’s work to actionable analytics that help you drive to user value.
How to pair your hypotheses on customer personas and problem with analytics.
How to test propositions (a la Lean Startup) so you don’t build features no one wants.
How to instrument actionable observation into everything you build (a la Lean UX).
How to select and test agile practices to adaptively improve your team’s practice of agile
How to create an agile team charter that aligns your team’s focus with company strategy while leaving it free to work creatively
How to facilitate retrospectives with your team to iteratively, collaboratively improve your practice of agile
How to support your team’s transition to agile
A premier institution of higher education, The University of Virginia offers outstanding academics, world-class faculty, and an inspiring, supportive environment. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University is guided by his vision of discovery, innovation, and development of the full potential of students from all walks of life. Through these courses, global learners have an opportunity to study with renowned scholars and thought leaders.
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The Digital Product Management Specialization is a superset of the Agile specialization- you've already earned it.
You may earn Project Management Institute (PMI) professional development units (PDUs) and Contact Hours for completing courses in the specialization. To do so, log in to PMI to access your account and submit a report.
At the end of the specialization, you’ll be able to:
Explain how key agile methods fit into best current practices across software engineering, general business, and product design; and how those matter for your particular project
Apply product design best practices to your project through user stories, prototypes, and narrative collaboration
Focus your work on outcomes (vs. output) with hypothesis-driven development
Introduce agile practices to your team & customers on an incremental, success basis
Integrate your activities across development, QA, and operations
Conduct phase-appropriate usability testing
We suggest you take the courses in the order presented to get maximum benefit from the materials.
While no specific background knowledge is needed, learners might find it helpful to have a basic understanding of digital product development.
Coursera courses don't carry university credit, though some universities may choose to accept Specialization Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more.
Admission to Darden is highly competitive and based on a number of requirements, including undergraduate record and degree, GMAT scores, and work experience. Successful completion of the Specialization is in no way a guarantee of admission, but please do mention this achievement in your application.
All course materials are for your personal use while participating in this course. You are not allowed to share or distribute them in any form; however, they are available for licensing. If you’re interested, please contact DardenOnline@darden.virginia.edu.
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free. If you cannot afford the fee, you can apply for financial aid.
Financial aid available,