Why We Created StoryMapper or A Story About How Programmers Address Communication Issues with Clients👾

Intro

It’s no secret that StoryMapper emerged three years ago as an internal product of the company 1Service

For the past 15 years, we have been engaged in the integration of ERP systems for enterprises and large companies. And where there are large companies, there is a lot of bureaucracy, even more nuances, processes, approvals, and, of course, data📝.

We know how to work with this — digitizing large business systems and processes, making them transparent, setting up automation, and bringing the system into order. And at the core is always strong business and systems analytics.

«This is not what we asked for»😯

Like many who work on custom projects, we often faced the situation where the client orders one thing but actually wants something else. As a result, we end up renegotiating, reworking, and going through yet another round of revisions and approvals.

Time to Market increases📈, along with the client's Costs for the project.

It’s uncomfortable. In fact, for everyone.

Because our policy is to provide the best service in a timely manner, while the client wants results.

And we started to think...

We don’t work like that anymore. But how?🤔

Through experience, we discovered that Gherkin is a universal language that is understandable to both the client and the developer.

Thanks Mykhailo Poliarush for example

The greatest advantage of Gherkin is that it is perfectly suited for test cases🕹 and documentation🗂

This significantly sped up the approval process. However, it still left unresolved the issue of how to promptly inform the client about the project's progress and document that the client confirmed these specific developments.

We needed to devise a convenient way for the client to see:

• All necessary data on how their service should work (descriptions in Gherkin)

• Approvals of these developments (confirmation that yes, we are developing this)

• As well as how the project is progressing (the speed of our work and how it functions)

Eureka!💡

Our technical team is at the core. And, of course, developers solve everything simply — they need to code💻🤓

So we created a platform that stores all project information in the form of a User Story Map, which already contains User Stories described in Gherkin.

The interface of StoryMapper - it's the live Story Map and functionality dashboard

🗂And surprisingly — it serves as living documentation and a project dashboard.

🕹We integrated tools for running tests and project code.

The User Story Map came to life — it began providing information not only about the structure of the project but also about how its parts function.

For more details on how this works, see the article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/empowering-agile-development-unveiling-superpowers-storymapper-y6wbf/?trackingId=2SLsvs%2BDSYG%2F990FpWgxog%3D%3D

Now Only Like This! 🚀

We now use StoryMapper as the foundation for every project we take on. It serves as both a means of communication with the client and a visual work plan for us.

This is what can be called being on the same page. Now we are always on the same page with the client both figuratively and literally — StoryMapper is one platform for all stakeholders to work together 🤝

This significantly simplifies communication during project development.

No more ambiguities.

Now the client gets exactly what they approved, and it works exactly as required. Without extending project timelines or hidden costs.

You can see how the product work - if there is some critical broken or not.

🌟Unexpected Benefits — Project Support and Knowledge Retention

It’s worth mentioning that we discovered the created platform is suitable not only for initial development but also for ongoing project support.

Testing of new relases🕹

Any new updates that will be implemented can undergo preliminary testing in the StoryMapper system to check compatibility — whether the new release breaks existing functionality or not.

This radically speeds up the testing 🔋and refinement process. And there lies a significant reduction in costs 📉.

After all, you can test the product before release rather than fixing bugs post-factum (based on feedback from users or employees when hundreds of thousands of dollars have already been lost).

An excellent tool for onboarding new people to the project💁♂️💁♀️

Thanks to its versatility, the User Story Map clearly illustrates the project's goals, the activities performed by the user, the User Stories that occur within each activity, and the scenarios through which these User Stories can be implemented.

In this form, it is an incredibly convenient tool for people who are diving into the project from any side.

A new BA can quickly understand the structure, a new PM can swiftly assess key points and the user journey, see what exactly brings money to the company, and new Devs and QAs can immediately grasp what needs to be refined, what requires testing, and the algorithms (rules) by which the product operates.

🌎It seems we have created something that could be useful to others

Thus, instead of just solving the communication task with the client, we built a whole platform for communication among all stakeholders in IT production.

What can I say — at its core is knowledge about methodologies, the right approach to structuring and describing a project, and understanding how it should work. We couldn’t do anything else and created something that makes the process as transparent as possible, saves companies hundreds of thousands of dollars, and makes the work of specialists easy and enjoyable.

👋And now our big task is to find out if this product can be useful to other teams engaged in IT production, whether it’s custom development or in-house processes.

We believe that a convenient project structure is what people need to avoid wasting their life time on routine searches, approvals, and negotiations. It allows them to focus on what they are masters at and what brings results to the company.

🤝And now we are looking for partners for demo integrations of our StoryMapper platform. If that’s you, please reach out to our CVO:

Olga Zhuravleva

And we will organize a demo and connect you to the system!🚀

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Thank you for reading the article!❤️

Share your experience:

• Have you encountered similar systems that can provide a unified vision for the entire team?

• What tools are you currently using?

• Is speeding up Time to Market important to you?

• Is reducing Costs important to you?