Documentation

Stories

Organize and manage projects by breaking them into user-focused development tasks.

Suggest Edits

In Atono, stories capture the requirements and expectations for new features and enhancements. Each story outlines what needs to be built from the user's perspective, helping your team understand both the task and the purpose. By breaking down complex projects into manageable stories, your teams can stay focused, aligned, and deliver value incrementally.

What's a story?

A story explains what needs to be built, why it’s needed, and how it helps the user. It includes a title, a user story, and a set of acceptance criteria.

Title

The title should be a clear, concise summary of the story's main objective. This helps everyone on the team quickly understand the task or feature at a glance, keeps things organized, and improves searchability. Additionally, it clearly indicates what a product manager or developer is enabling or disabling when they toggle a feature flag.

Example title

A story titled Invite users by email clearly describes the core action, helping your team quickly understand the goal."

User story

A user story is a brief description of a feature or functionality from the user's perspective. It typically follows this format:

As a [type of user], I want [an action or feature] so that [a benefit or reason].

This structure helps clarify the user's need and the value the feature brings, making sure your team's development aligns with user expectations and goals.

Atono includes prompts to help you capture all the necessary parts of the user story as you write it, and automatically suggests personas you've used in previous stories. This includes persons associated with stories in workflow steps categorized as 'To do' or 'In progress', and any personas linked to a story moved to 'Done' within the last 90 days.

Example user story

As an <<Atono>> workspace administrator, I want to add more users to my workspace so that they can start collaborating.

Acceptance criteria

Acceptance criteria (ACs) are key to defining when a story is complete. They provide clear conditions for what’s expected and ensure everyone shares the same understanding. ACs provide a shared understanding of the expected outcome and serve as the basis for testing and validation.

Example ACs

  1. The welcome page includes a link to invite new users.
  2. The link prompts the user for one or more email addresses to invite to Atono.
    1. Email addresses are entered individually.
    2. Users can add additional email addresses without using the mouse.
    3. The maximum number of invites is limited so that, if all invitees accept, the total user count does not exceed 50.
  3. If the email address already corresponds to a user in this Atono instance, the current user is informed.
  4. Otherwise, emails are sent to the specified email addresses.
    1. The emails invite recipients to Atono and include a link to a new user registration page.
    2. The link expires in 7 days, and the user is informed of this.
    3. The email is styled according to Atono design standards.
    4. The registration page prompts the user for their full name.
    5. Once submitted, the user registration page creates the account and directs the new user to their home page.

Create a story

Creating stories in Atono helps break down larger tasks into manageable steps. Here’s how to get started with a new story.

  1. In the sidebar, click or hover over Create new.
  2. From the menu, select Story.
    • This opens a draft version of your story that partially overlays your screen, allowing you to navigate to other pages in the Atono web interface while working on your draft.
    • If you minimize the draft window, the sidebar displays a badge on 'Create new' to indicate you have an unsaved draft. You'll need to open and save the draft before you can create another new item.
    • Even if you refresh your browser or sign out, your draft will be there when you return.
  3. Provide the title, user story, and ACs for your story.
  4. Assign the story to a workflow step (like 'To do'), a user, and a team backlog (you can update these later).
  5. Click Create to save your story.
    1. If the story is assigned to an 'In progress' workflow step, you'll be prompted to set the date and time work on the story began for more accurate cycle time tracking.

If you create the story on a specific team's backlog, it appears at the bottom of the list of items in the selected workflow step. If it's not assigned to a team, you can find the story at the end of the 'To do' step in the global Unassigned to team backlog.

Assign a story to a user

Assigning a story to a user helps make sure there’s clear ownership, so everyone knows who’s responsible and progress stays on track.

  1. In the story details panel, click Assign.
  2. Search for or select a user.

To change the assignee or unassign the story, click the name of the current assignee and select a different user, or choose No assignee.

Add a story to a team backlog

Assigning a story to a team's backlog in Atono helps organize and prioritize tasks, ensuring stories align with the team's workflow and project goals.

  1. In the story details panel, click Add to team backlog.
  2. Search or select a team.

You can change the team backlog a story is assigned to or unassign it to move it to the global Unassigned to team backlog.

  1. Click the name of the current team and select a different team, or select Unassigned to team.
  2. In the confirmation dialog, confirm by clicking Change backlog or Unassign from team, depending on your choice in the previous step.
    • If you select to change backlogs, the story is removed from its position in the current team's backlog and moved to the bottom of the 'To do' workflow category in the new backlog.
    • If you select to unassign the story from a team, it's moved to the bottom of the 'To do' step in the global 'Unassigned to team' backlog.

Estimate story size

Estimating the size of a story helps your team gauge the effort required to complete it. By assigning relative sizes (for example, XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL), teams can improve planning, prioritize effectively, and predict how much work can be completed over a given timeframe.

  1. In the story details panel, click Estimate size.
  2. Select one of the available options:
    • Unsized
    • XXS
    • XS
    • S
    • M
    • L
    • XL
    • XXL

📘

Story size is team-specific

If you reassign a story to a different team's backlog, its size estimate is cleared. This ensures the new team can reassess the effort required based on their own processes, expertise, and criteria for sizing.

Story sizing best practices

When estimating story sizes, these practices can help your team plan effectively and stay aligned:

  • Collaborate with your team: Before sizing a story, discuss it as a group to build a shared understanding. Encourage questions, clarify uncertainties, and agree on the size together.
  • Break it down: For large stories (like XL or XXL), consider splitting them into smaller, more manageable stories.
  • Stay consistent: Use the same criteria across your team to ensure reliability.
  • Focus on effort, not time: Size reflects the relative effort required, not specific hours or days.
  • Refine as you go: If the scope or complexity changes, revisit and update its size.

Add a story Slack channel

If your team communicates via Slack, you can link a Slack channel to any Atono story to keep discussions and questions easily accessible. This connection centralizes communication directly within the story, helping your team stay aligned.

For more details on connecting Slack channels and the benefits they provide, see our Slack integration guide.

Reference stories and ACs

Referencing stories and ACs makes it easier to share, track, and manage key details across your team. Here are some useful ways to reference stories and ACs in Atono.

Copy a story ID

Easily copy a story's ID (for example, "STORY-10") to paste into other tickets or communications.

In the story header, next to the story ID, click the Copy ID icon. The story ID is now saved to your clipboard, ready to paste elsewhere.

Copy a story URL

Copying a story URL allows team members to quickly share and access specific stories, facilitating efficient collaboration and communication within Atono.

In the story header, click the Copy URL icon. The URL to the story is now saved to your clipboard.

Copy an AC URL

You can also copy URLs to specific ACs. These URLs remain persistent when you reorder ACs by dragging them to different positions in the list.

  1. Right click anywhere on the line of text of an AC.
  2. From the menu, select Copy URL.
    • The URL is now saved to your clipboard. If you paste it in the address bar of your browser, or if someone click on it, they'll navigate to the story and the specific AC.

References to ACs remain intact when you drag ACs to a new position in the list. They stay attached to the number, letter, or symbol that starts their line, even if that number changes after repositioning. If you disconnect an AC from its leading character (by inserting a line break, for example), the reference will break.

Add a feature flag

Feature flags let you control when and how specific features roll out, giving you flexibility in introducing new functionality. This helps you manage risk and ensure a smooth user experience. To learn more, see Feature flags.

Link items

Linking related items to a story helps you track dependencies, manage related work, and provide context for your team. Keeping these connections visible ensures nothing gets missed as the story progresses. For more on linking items, see Linked items.

Attach files

Attach files to your stories to keep relevant docs, designs, or other assets in one place. This helps your team stay organized and aligned, making it easier to track progress and collaborate on new features. For more on how to add and manage attachments, see Attachments.

Add comments

Comments on stories allow your team to discuss details, ask questions, and provide feedback on features in progress. Keeping these conversations within the story ensures everyone stays aligned throughout development. For more on using comments, see Comments.

Story activities

Every story includes an Activities section with a detailed record of all actions related to the story, from changes in assignees and updates to the user story to modifications in acceptance criteria and feature flags. This history helps your team track progress and decisions over time, ensuring transparency and alignment.

For more details on how to sort, filter, and manage activities, see Activities.

Delete a story

You might want to delete a story when it's no longer relevant, was created by mistake, or is redundant due to changes in project scope. Completed stories are often worth keeping around because they provide valuable references for future work. They help your team understand past decisions, track the evolution of a feature, and offer context for related tasks.

  1. In the story header, click the ellipses (...) icon.
  2. From the menu, select Delete story.
  3. In the deletion dialog, confirm by clicking Delete, or click X to cancel.

Story identifiers in Atono are assigned sequentially. If you delete a story, Atono won’t reuse its number unless it’s the next one in line. For example, if your workspace has 150 stories and you delete STORY-2, the next story created will be STORY-151. If you delete STORY-150, the next story created will use that number. This keeps your story numbers in a logical sequence.

Updated 8 days ago