Example Mapping for Quality Coaches

Discovery Work

One of my first tasks as a software tester was to critique requirements. Before any software could be written, and with little context, my instructions were to critique them using the 4c's; clear, concise, correct, complete.  Software development could begin only when the requirements had been critiqued and tests outlined.

In doing this, we not only prevented mistakes and identified misunderstandings, but we also developed a shared understanding of what we were building that went beyond an agreement on wording. For example, the 4 C's meant we had:

• scope agreement
• knowledge of critical logic  
• implicit assumptions identified
• possible risks to the success  
• a reasonable estimate of time required to perform work

After leaving this company, I discovered this approach was atypical, which is a shame given the benefits it provided. Reduced ambiguity and better shared understanding, reduced rework, the risk of feature failure and helped teams remain within the "flow of work" as less context switching took place. A bonus was that estimates become more accurate, resulting in improved confidence when delivering customer value.

Discovery Workshops

Fortunately, since then, much work has been done to raise awareness of discovery work and its benefits.

There are many discovery workshops such as OOPSI, example mapping, and three amigos, each with its strengths. For example, I find OOPSI, created by Jenny Marr, great for complex scenarios such as value streams. Alternatively, Example Mapping by Matt Wynne is ideal for smaller user stories. But, of course, everyone has their own personal preference.  

Example Mapping

Example Mapping's strength is its focus on visualisation through examples.

This workshop is based on but differs from Matt Wynne's initial workshop in that its format is #remotefirst. Plus, there's an opportunity for self-reflection and discussion after the exercise.

Example Mapping for Quality Coaches

Participants: quality coaches, teams wanting to learn about example mapping

Pre Reading: Share Matt Wynne's blog post on Introducing Example Mapping. It explains the concept and provides terminology and instructions on how to run such a workshop with a team. (For the benefits of conciseness I assume you've read this).

Benefits of my workshop:

• Allows participants to experience & learn example mapping in a safe context
• Provide time for reflection on example mapping in their work context  
• Allows teams to reflect and discuss potential benefits and challenges of this approach

Essentials:

You will need:
-Miro with example mapping template (or similar tool)
-Zoom (or similar tool)
-90 minutes
-prepared slide deck

Prework:

• Using Miro, create an example mapping template for a pre-selected story. The story I use has three rules to keep the experience short and sharp.  
• In slides, provide an overview of the purpose of example mapping, focusing on how it's easy for misunderstandings and mistakes to come about. You can use my slide deck if you like (see below for link).  
• Allocate the role of the facilitator for each group and provide them with instructions on what they need to do.
• Slide of discussion-type questions post-exercise (see below for link).  

Exercise Instructions:

• Break up the group into teams no bigger than 5, giving each group its own space on Miro with a story, and blue, green and red card templates to use in the exercise
• Each team should have a facilitator that acts as a product manager.
• Ask each group to come up with at least 1 example for each rule.
• Any questions the facilitator can't answer, are placed on a red card.
• Merge the groups  
• Ask each group to share their examples and place them on a shared board
• Ask each group to share their questions and place them on a shared board
• Encourage observations on the nature of the examples and the questions wrt to the story. Keep this short. 5 minutes max.

Discussion & Self Reflection

Time for some in-depth discussion providing an opportunity to consider how this type of workshop applies to their context. I encourage people to respond in chat or verbally, depending on their preference and energy levels.

The following questions are some self-reflection/discussion questions. I give participants time to read the questions and think about which ones they want to answer. Alternatively, split participants into breakout rooms and get them to discuss three questions with the intent of sharing these insights as one group.

Discussion & Self Reflection Questions

Some possible questions are:

1) What are your thoughts on example mapping?
2) What went well for you?
3) What was challenging for you?
4) How would example mapping work for a product team?
5) What might the challenges be in rolling out such a concept?
6) What might the benefits be?
7) What might be the first next step you could take?

Discussions are my favourite part of any workshop as it's where participants apply their experience to their context*. For example, when I recently ran the workshop, we observed the following:

• Often teams may feel they don't "have time" to perform such a workshop.
• Don't roll out example mapping just for the sake of it. Instead, ask yourself: "Is there a problem here?"
• Quality Coaches can ask open-ended questions without knowing the context of the story.  
• Having a Delivery Lead run the workshop can be helpful, allowing you to participate.  
• Rollout example mapping as an "experiment" instead of a permanent fixture in a process.  
• The first time performing this might take longer than the suggested 25 minutes. Manage expectations with teams that this amount of time will reduce as teams become more skilled at using example mapping.

Teaching Moments

I like to end the class with a couple of slides on practical tips. You can download the full detail of the workshops here:

That's it! Have a go, I'd love to hear how the workshop worked for you!

Continue to support my work by maintaining attribution and linking back to my online book. Thank you for your tremendous support, you rock!

*I learned about experiential workshops after attending PSL with Jerry Weinberg, Johanna Rothmann and Esther Derby.

** Payroll exercise inspired by Jim Holmes

Kudos to Michele Playfair who gave me the suggestion to try this out.

Example Mapping Workshop for Quality Coaches © 2022 by Anne-Marie Charrett is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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