There is no question that artificial intelligence, specifically Generative AI, has gained traction and is rapidly transforming different sectors. In a recent OpenAI research, they found that approximately 80% of the U.S. workforce will see an impact on at least 10% of their tasks using GPT, and on the other hand, around 19% of workers may see an impact on at least 50% of their tasks using the same technology. This clearly highlights the current potential of the use of this technology and the vast reach it will have on our day-to-day lives.
The utilization of generative AI in Agile project management is an integral part of this conversation. Software agile teams are envisioning great advantages of using Generative AI tools for numerous sprint planning tasks, that will significantly optimize the way the teams work. One notable area where Generative AI can make a significant impact is in the creation of user stories.
Generative AI and User Story Creation
Creating user stories in Agile projects is a complex and time-consuming process. It involves most importantly understating the user’s needs, defining the functionality and its requirements, as well as setting the acceptance criteria.
At Encora, we have demonstrated using Proof of Concepts of varying complexity that Generative AI can be leveraged to automate the user story creation process and provide detailed user stories along with its acceptance criteria. This automation can save product managers time and allow them to focus on more strategic tasks.
While harnessing Generative AI tools to create user stories, it is important to note that this does not substitute human interaction. Although the capabilities associated with Generative AI will increase and strengthen over time, it is critical to review the outputs and train the system on the business goals to get more aligned responses.
The Impact of Generative AI on Agile Projects
At Encora, we are leveraging Generative AI across the entire spectrum of software and digital product engineering along with our clients to help development teams optimize their day-to-day tasks, thus allowing teams to focus on those tasks that add more value in the software development life cycle.
Some of the benefits that we’ve observed from our experience of using Generative AI for user stories are:
- Enhanced efficiency
By automating the user story creation task, Generative AI can reduce significantly the time invested in this important aspect of sprint planning. While reviewing and refining user stories might be needed, with more time at hand, product managers can focus on more important tasks such as defining upcoming features, connecting with customers to gather feedback, and planning the product’s continuous improvement, etc. - Improved quality
Generative AI models can generate user stories that adhere to standard formats and include all necessary information reducing ambiguity. These well-defined user stories can lead to alignment in an agile team, resulting in improved quality in the development process. - Increased consistency
Creating user stories following a defined format, Generative AI can ensure consistency among all user stories. Consistency also leads to team alignment on the work to be done and therefore, a smoother development process. - Continuous learning and improvement
Generative AI models have the capability to learn from each interaction. As the model is trained with more information and as it generates more user stories, it can generate more accurate and detailed user stories.
Key Takeaways
Generative AI is a promising solution to augment and enhance many of the tasks that were previously reserved only for human product teams. Creating user stories is a notable example of how this technology can be leveraged to optimize the product development team, and focus on more important and value-creation tasks.
It is vital to learn the ins and outs of Generative AI tools to better understand the best way to apply them to user story creation. Furthermore, Generative AI tools when provided with information to understand the business goals and context, are able to generate better results.
There are many advantages of using Generative AI for user story creation, from output efficiency and consistency to enhanced quality, and the ability of the model to continuously learn. This technology has also the advantage of not only increasing the level of productivity in this particular use case, but also accelerating change and adaptability, which is crucial in Agile teams, and therefore speeding up the rate of delivery and innovation.
Resources:
Gartner Technology trends 2022: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-10-18-gartner-identifies-the-top-strategic-technology-trends-for-2022
Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence https://hai.stanford.edu/generative-ai-perspectives-stanford-hai
Open AI research: https://openai.com/research/gpts-are-gpts
Author bio
Liliana Reina leads the business strategy and operations of Catapult Labs products at Encora. She has a Bachelor's in business administration and entrepreneurship and holds an MBA in digital transformation. She has 10 years of experience in business administration and product management.
