User Stories Assignment Software for the bid process in train maintenance industry a. An introduction to guide your peer reviewers Briefly introduce your area of interest, using the Positioning Statement you developed in the last assignment. The business model of TrainFix Inc. is to do maintenance for trains. To acquire a contract for train maintenance, an offer as a reaction to a request for proposal has to be made. A team grouped around a bid manager is responsible for generating these offers. For [bid managers] who [work in the train maintenance business and have to accomplish the bidding process], the [Offer Database] is an [enterprise software solution] that [helps all members to track the status of offers]. Unlike [a paper based solution], our product [can be shared and collaboratively worked on no matter what time or location the user sits]. b. You should also include the personas and problem scenarios from the last assignment to help your peer reviewers understand what you ve done so far. For bid managers, with a lot of offers to tackle and often working off-site getting the job done in time is difficult especially as requests for quotations come at unpredictable intervals. Andreas, the bid manager manages the project and pulls the strings to get the necessary data from his team. The data for the calculation of the offer is produced by John, the supply chain manager and Alex, the engineer. Based on this the bid manager makes an offer. His boss Thomas (the head of sales) gives the okay to hand it over to the potential customer. Andreas starts then negotiating with the client and contracts the business. I ll focus on Andreas the bid manager. Right now, he uses phone and emails to coordinate and to get project updates which makes it difficult for him to keep everything on track. Project description For [project managers] who [work in the train maintenance business and have to accomplish the bidding process], the [Offer Database] is an [enterprise software solution] that [helps all members to track the status of offers]. Unlike [a paper based solution], our product [can be shared and collaboratively worked on no matter what time or location the user sits]. Brainstormed list of personas Andreas - the busy bid manager
Thomas - the head of sales Alex - the engineer John - the supply chain manager Charly - the demanding customer A detailed persona Andreas is a multi-project manager and responsible for reacting to customer requests and writing offers. He started as an engineer in the company and knows his colleagues for 5 years now. From time to time he also negotiates with the customer. Although he is a conservative paper user, he is open for new technologies. His smartphone and laptop go everywhere he goes, but he is using standard software and the basic functions. Most of his work consists of managing the bid process by holding meetings and coordinating the project team. He is one of two doing the job in the company and gets a lot of requests for quotations. 30% of his time he is on the road. Sometimes he loses track of the different offers and hands them off beyond the deadline, which results in the loss of the project. In his spare time he enjoys having an after-work beer with his friends and goes sailing from time to time. Thinks Sees Feels Does Andreas thinks the bid process should be so much more systematic and more easy to manage. More offers could be done on time using advanced software, but he has not the time to have it developed. Andreas sees that he sometimes falls behind the schedule. Most of the time because some of his project members can t deliver the information on time and he realizes this too late. Andreas has to make the deals and react professionally to customer requests but he feels the pressure of necessary success. He feels bad loosing potential customers by getting the offer out too late. As sort of the spider in the middle of the web Andreas is also responsible for the process of the bidding process. If he is convinced the other members of the project team should follow. Problem scenarios and alternatives pairs Problem Scenarios Current Alternatives Value Proposition
What problems and needs does the persona have related to your area of interest? He would like to have a better overview on the status of the different bid projects. He is slow on reacting to changes and bad in prioritizing the bid offers. He would love to focus more on the contracting and less on the project management. What does the persona do right now to solve or work around this problem or meet this need? Right know he uses an excel table in his laptop which he updates as soon as he gets some news from his project members. Right now he uses a magnetic white board with the written project numbers on top. He changes the priority usually midweek or if he gets updates of his team members. Right now he is trapped by inefficient projectmanagement work leaving him no choice but to focus on this part of the job. A user story Develop a user story that flows from your persona. Use the formula, As a [persona], I want to [do something] so that I can [derive a benefit]. For example, As Ted the HVAC technician, I want to identify a part that needs replacing so I can decide my next steps. As Andreas is pretty busy he wants to get standard stuff automated and access the data when he is on the road: As [Andreas the bid manager], I want to [have an up-to-date overview of the status of all the offers that are in the evaluation process] so that [I can manage and prioritize them and increase the efficiency of my workflow].
Photo(s) of your storyboard Storyboarding helps make sure that you ve got (and/or are developing) real, functional empathy for your persona and problems scenarios. Create a storyboard
Andreas - the bidmanager - is on the train to negotiate a contract with a customer. He wants to know the status of the calculation projects without a hassle. He logs on and checks the other open quotations. Alex the engineer is part of the calculation crew. He just finished putting the data for project 1 together and uploads it to the database from his office PC. He then notices a new prioritized project (project 3 before 2). He immediately starts working on it. Andreas - the bidmanager. On checking his emails he receives a new important request for quotation and enters the data in the new online database. He then prioritizes it (project 3). Andreas - the bidmanager - is happy to see that all the data from project 1 is available and is planning to make an offer in the afternoon when he returns from the customer. Child stories and test cases Develop a complete list of child stories and test cases These should detail all the steps involved from the beginning to end of your epic. Add test cases and definitely add notes to yourself in areas where you know you have some discovery to do, some questions to ask. As Andreas the bidmanager, I want to be up-to-date with all the offers in calculation and manage them easily. Child story I want to have the data on hand everywhere I go I want to shift priorities of projects without writing emails or using a telephone I want to know the status of the calculations. Test cases Make sure the data is online available. Make sure there is a nice user interface for mobile devices with limited screen space. Make sure it s possible to search project online. Make sure it s possible to mark projects with a level of priority to bring them in order. Make sure it s easy to identify what calculations are ready and how much info is missing. Make sure every member of the calculations team can alter the status. I want to download the data. Make sure it s possible to download the data in different formats which can be used to edit in other tools. Make sure every member of the calculations team can upload the data.