Want to get involved in the Drupal CRM initiative but don't know a Party from an Arity? Want to make sure that the folks in the CRM API group are working on something that will satisfy your goals for managing contacts and relationships? Make your voice heard by posting your own user stories here!
What are user stories?
Well, Wikipedia says that a user story is one or more sentences in the everyday or business language of the end user that captures what the user wants to achieve. The user stories should be written by or for the customers for a software project and are their main instrument to influence the development of the software.
Some guidelines:
- Be succinct but clear, identifying something you want to be able to accomplish. Example, "I want to be able to import all of my contacts from a spreadsheet without creating duplicates." is more helpful than "I need to import."
- Try and avoid a long "laundry list" of desired functionality, e.g. "must have a mailing list and a call router and a pony." These are hard to parse intros something actionable. Try handling these one at a time, e.g. "I want to be able to mail a thank-you to everyone who attended an event", etc.
- Don't be afraid to get a little 'pie in the sky' or filter yourself based on what you think is possible. There's no guarantee that it will get built, but it's eye-opening to think about the edge cases.
- Be sure to identify your role and/or who you think might be effecting these actions. For example, "A development manager at a nonprofit needs to export all of her 2011 donors and amounts for tax reporting purposes", or "A sales manager at a technology firm would like to view a summary of all customers with pending deals". Again, clarifying with your audience is more helpful because it helps to put us all in the mindset of the end user
For CRM-API members
It's a good idea to stay abreast of these user stories to help keep your discussions grounded. If appropriate, please consider adding a comment to the story with a link to a technical discussion (or vice versa)