On the „Meet the experts – Agility“ in this year, an open space titled „Theme concept versus User stories“ took place. The flash point for this open space was the assumption appearing in scrum lectures, that theme concepts would not be required any more. They would be replaced by user stories.

My experience has taught me to face this assumption very doubtfully. In my opinion, theme concepts are a very helpful tool in project work, even for agile projects. As an agile approach is not based on static requirements, a theme concept can no longer have the function to stipulate the business requirements, which have to be realized within the scope of the project. Much more, the function of the concepts has to be found in the pre-project phase, where it is used to structure the collected business requirements. In the course of the project and after finishing it, it roughly illustrates the requirements and helps to get a handle on the topic. In this way, it makes it easier to collect and structure new demands. (read more…)