Chapter 1 of User Story Mapping outlines the challenges of shared understanding and importance of visual documentation to highlight how to utilize stories in software development.
As a creative writer, I find this topic of integrating storytelling into software extremely fascinating. After working in class with whiteboards and sticky notes, I’ve found the author’s statement that “most anything can be used as a tool to communicate” to be true. In addition, the concept of viewing documents analogous to viewing vacation photos was so interesting to me. As a group, we’ve looked back at the picture of our planning board and pondered about what it said. It’s almost inevitable that people will look at a document and think/remember different things; the important part is facilitating collaboration so that everyone is on the same page of their shared understanding.
This term of “shared understanding” is also another interesting point of the piece. The author’s example of drawing stars vs literally writing stars on a birthday cake is a hilarious and almost ridiculous instance—but it’s a great demonstration of what shared understanding means. He highlights that “shared documents aren’t shared understanding”, and this is very true. I’ve realized in the many group activities I’ve been a part of that communication truly is key; it’s important that everyone talks with one another to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Overall, this article was extremely fascinating. I think it really bolstered the importance of person-to-person communication in the design process, and it also altered my perception of how important written documents are. Yes, they’re important—but the bulk is the conversation about the document that comes after.
