Split Poker – Improving User Story Slicing

Split Poker is a free card game offered by SOAT, designed to aid in the slicing of user stories. This tool can be incredibly valuable, especially for those new to the role of a product owner.

Split Poker Game

The Split Poker game can be downloaded for free here. It will assist your product owner in better breaking down user stories. Indeed, slicing user stories is not always straightforward, especially when one is new to the product owner role.

This card game offers two types of cards:

• Explanation of a slicing type
• Examples of slicing for each type

To simplify their use, the authors have assigned a color to each type of slicing. It will make it very easy to match the explanation card with its corresponding example.

Explanation Cards

[Click to Enlarge – Complete game available on the author’s website]

Example Cards

[Click to Enlarge – Complete game available on the author’s website]

Concept of Split Poker

During a product backlog refinement session, each participant is given a deck of cards. All participants can then propose slicing options to the product owner for user stories estimated at over 5 effort points.

This allows the product owner to choose the slicing approach that seems most coherent without shutting the door to multiple possible slicing perspectives.

It’s a straightforward, participative, and real learning exercise. The rules are not more complicated than that.

Also a Coaching Tool

Although not explicitly mentioned on the author’s website, some agile coaches use Split Poker to help the product owner learn how to slice their initial user stories.

Once multiple user stories are sliced, the product owner can keep their deck of cards and use them for future user story slicing needs.

Reminder: Ideally, this coaching work should be done by the Scrum Master.

Conclusion on Split Poker

In conclusion, don’t hesitate to equip your Scrum teams with this card game. While it may not revolutionize user story slicing, it makes the process much more enjoyable. It’s an ideal tool for product owners.