I often come across situations where creating and editing actions are very similar, but they are not exactly the same story. So should they be handled as separate user stories, or as one? For example, I could have:
Option A:
US A1: As a system administrator, I want to create new user accounts so that I can specify what services the users can access, and the users can access the system.
US A2: As a system administrator, I want to manage user accounts so that I can change what services the users can access and reset their passwords.
vs
Option B:
US B1: As a system administrator, I want to create and manage user accounts so that I can specify what services the users can access, and ensure that the users can make use of the system.
Is approach A or B correct, or is it simply a matter of personal preference or pragmatism depending on the complexity of the create vs edit functionality?
Best Answer
The key thing to consider here is whether your stories are manageable chunks of work.
To be manageable they need to be:
So, if you find that merging two stories somehow compromises any of the above points, then don't do it.
Personally, I prefer working with many small stories as I find it easier to estimate that way. The trade-off is that you then need to be careful about the ordering of related or dependent stories in your sprint (a fairly trivial task).