Story maps

Story maps organize user stories into a visual presentation, in the form of a grid, to help capture functionality, plan releases, groom the backlog, and identify a journey. Story mapping helps Agile teams understand customers and problems by ordering user stories along X and Y axes; the axes can represent priority, complexity, states or stages, or any other aspect of a story's life cycle. 

Creating a story map

Create a story map on the story maps page:

1. Select Programs in the top navigation bar and select the program you want to view information about.
2. On the sidebar, select Reports in the list of options.
3. Select Story maps; the story maps page displays.

To create a story map:

1. On the story maps page, select the Add Story Map button in the upper-right. The New Story Map panel displays.
2. Enter a map name and a map description in the appropriate fields, and then click Save; additional fields for creating rows and columns populate the panel.
3. The columns will form the X axis of the story map grid. Enter a name, order number (starting with 1, not skipping numbers; displayed from left to right), and color for the first column. Click the Add button and repeat this step as many times as needed to create desired columns and order.
4. The rows will form the Y axis of the story map grid. Enter a name, order number (starting with 1, not skipping numbers; displayed from top to bottom), and color for the first row. Click the Add button and repeat this step as many times as needed to create desired rows and order.
5. Click Save; a View Story Map link displays next to map description.
6. Click the View Story Map link; the story map columns and rows display in a visual grid.

Proceed to the next section to learn how to add stories to the story map.

Adding stories to a story map

Follow these steps to add stories to the story map:

1. Using the column headings as the X axis and the row headings as the Y axis, click in a grid cell where you want to add a story (or stories). A blue + icon displays in the lower-right corner of the cell.
   
   
   
   Click the + icon and select either New or Existing: New opens the New Story panel, where you can create and save a new story, which will be added to the cell in the form of a card) upon saving; Existing opens the Bulk Add Stories panel, where you can filter to find existing stories, which will be added to the cell (in the form of a card) upon saving. One or more stories can be added to each cell in the grid. Repeat as many times as needed to add stories to the grid in the desired cells.

Additional actions: 

• Drag and drop story cards to move them to a different cell in the grid.
• Click any card to open the Story slide-out panel, where you can edit and save story parameters.
• Use any of the filters, located at the top-right of the page, to highlight stories by specific criteria.
• To delete a story card, hover over the card until a red X icon displays in the top-right corner of the card; click the X icon to delete.
• To add additional columns or rows to the grid, click the blue + icon located at the end of the column/row headings.
• To view information about a story’s parent feature, click the feature’s name in the lower-left corner of the card. A Stand-alone label indicates that a story is not associated with a parent feature.

Group stories into features

To group stories into a feature, follow these steps:

1. Click the Group into Feature button at the top-right of the page; the page is now in Select mode.
2. Select the stories you want to group into a feature by clicking on the desired cards; the selected cards are highlighted.
3. Click the Create Feature button at the top-right of the page; the Add New Feature From Story Map window displays.
4. Enter the name, description, program, and PI for the feature, and then click Save; the New Feature panel slides out to display the newly created feature.