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Creating stories in bulk

Updated on December 10, 2021

Save time during your application development by creating stories in bulk. By incorporating stories, you provide traceability for the process of delivering an application and link functional requirements with traceable work items.

For example, you can create a template with of stories that are common to your development process, and then import the stories from the template, instead of creating similar stories multiple times. You can also communicate with your stakeholders offline to prepare a story template, and then conveniently upload the stories into Agile Workbench.
Before you begin: Ensure that your application is not integrated with Pega Agile Studio or other project management applications.

Populating story templates

Automate the creation of stories by populating the columns in a story template with functional requirements. By implementing stories, you can track, manage, and communicate development of your projects. For example, you can define which stories contain features that are essential to your application, so that your development team can prioritize their work.

  1. Download a story template:
    1. In the navigation pane of App Studio, click Overview.
    2. In the Application profile section, click Manage.
    3. In the Application profile header, click ActionsImport stories.
    4. In the Import stories window, download a story template .xlsx file to your local computer by clicking Download the template.
    5. Open the file.
  2. In the Name column, enter text that summarizes what users can do with the functionality that the story delivers.

    If you enter duplicate names, your application creates stories with the same name but different IDs.

  3. Optional: Add supporting information to the story:
    1. In the Description column, enter text that describes the new functionality to implement, the key stakeholders to involve, and the relevant business value.
    2. In the Associated feature ID column, enter the ID of the feature that this story implements.

      For more information about feature IDs, see Finding a feature ID.

      Result: During import, your application promotes features from the built-on application or previous versions, to the current version of your application.
    3. In the Complexity column, select an option to indicate the level of effort that is needed to complete the story.
    4. In the Priority column, select the importance of the story, relative to other stories in the product backlog, to indicate appropriate time for the team to start work on the story.
    5. In the Acceptance criteria column, enter specific metrics or constraints to consider before the team can resolve the story.
    6. Optional: To define more than one criterion, press the Alt and Enter keys to insert a line break in the cell, and then repeat substep 3.e.
  4. Optional: To add more stories to the template, repeat steps 2 through 3.
  5. Save and close the file, without changing the file format.

Importing story templates

Track and manage development of your application by importing stories into Agile Workbench. By importing stories into your project you can ensure that your development team correctly prioritizes work, for example, by focusing on stories with a high priority.

  1. In the navigation pane of App Studio, click Overview.
  2. In the Application profile section, click Manage.
  3. In the Application profile header, click ActionsImport stories.
  4. In the Import stories window, select a story template to upload by clicking Choose File.
  5. Upload the story template by navigating to the location of the file, and then clicking Open.
  6. Click Import.
    Result: The stories that you imported are visible in Agile Workbench, in the Stories tab, as shown in the following figure:
    Imported stories
    A modial dialog box and Agile Workbench with imported
                                stories.

Finding a feature ID

For better traceability of your application development, find the ID of a feature so that you can reference the ID later in a story or story template. As a result, you can conveniently link stories with features, and provide more transparent development process.

Note: Finding a feature ID is optional and available only in Dev Studio. You can continue your low-code application development in App Studio without finding a feature ID.
  1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click App.
  2. Click the Classes tab.
  3. In the search field, enter Data-Application-, as shown in the following figure:
    Searching application features
    Application Explorer with a user input to find application features.
  4. Click Feature to display a list of features.
  5. Optional: To narrow the results, in the Application name column, click the Filter icon, and then enter the name of your application or a built-on application.
  6. Copy the relevant values in the Feature ID column so that you can add the values to the Associated feature ID column in your story template.
For example: The following figure shows a list of application features with feature IDs, feature name, and information about time and user related to the last update of the feature:
Application features
A list of application features with detailed information.

Exporting stories

For more transparent application development process, export stories from Agile Workbench into a file. As a result, you can quickly share information with project stakeholders offline, for example if some stakeholders lack access to Agile Workbench in a development environment.

  1. In the navigation pane of App Studio, click Overview.
  2. In the Application profile section, click Manage.
  3. In the Application profile header, click ActionsExport Stories.
Result: The system saves an .xlsx to your local machine and in the header of the Application profile section you can view the name of the newly downloaded file, as shown in the following figure:
Exported stories
Application profile with a message about exported stories.

Troubleshooting errors with a story template

When you import your stories in bulk to Agile Workbench, you might encounter errors. Typically, errors stem from an invalid story template file type or information missing in the story template.

The template has an invalid file structure or an invalid file type

Import of stories fails because the file that you upload is in a format different from .xlsx. The Import Stories modal dialog box displays information that no file is chosen.

  1. In the navigation pane of App Studio, click Overview.
  2. In the Application profile section, click Manage.
  3. In the header of the Application profile section, click ActionsImport Stories.
  4. In the Import Stories dialog box, click Download the template to save an .xlsx file to your local machine.
  5. Open the file.
  6. Copy the information from your original template to the relevant columns in the file.
  7. Save the file but do not change its format.
  8. In the Import Stories dialog box, click Choose File.
  9. Navigate to the location of your story template, and then click Open to upload the file.

Stories fail import

When you import stories, the import fails. The Application profile header displays a message with a number of failed stories, as shown in the following figure:

Failed import message
Application profile with a message about fail stories import.
  1. On your local machine, navigate to your story template.
  2. Ensure that you provide a value for all stories in the Name column.
  3. Save the file but do not change its format.
  4. Restart the import.

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