Many Agile teams struggle with oversized backlog items that never seem to end. Large epics slow down delivery, make planning unpredictable, and create frustration within the team.
This training will teach you how to “split the elephant into baby elephants” — breaking down big, vague ideas into small, valuable, and testable user stories. You’ll see that decomposition is not just about splitting — it’s a thinking framework that connects strategy, delivery, and team communication.
🔹 What You’ll Learn:
💡 Block 1. The Problem of Big Tasks
– Why big epics destroy focus and transparency.
– How to identify when a story is too large for a sprint.
– Common decomposition mistakes and how to avoid them.
🧭 Block 2. Agile Decomposition Techniques
– Impact Mapping — connect tasks to strategic goals.
– User Story Mapping — visualize the product journey.
– Wardley Mapping — prioritize based on business value.
– SPIDR Method — break work down smartly (Spike, Path, Interface, Data, Rules).
📊 Block 3. Models and Practice
– Splitting stories by:
🔸 user roles
🔸 business rules
🔸 interfaces
🔸 data
🔸 customer value
– Turning complex ideas into measurable user stories.
– Creating a “healthy backlog” that scales naturally.
🧠 Block 4. Practical Workshop
– Hands-on decomposition of participants’ real epics.
– Sprint-level backlog design exercise.
– Definition of Ready checklist and validation.
👥 Who It’s For:
– 🧩 Project Managers who want to plan and forecast more effectively.
– 💼 Product Owners who need clear, business-oriented stories.
– 🧑💻 Scrum Masters who aim to prevent sprint overload.
– 🧠 Business Analysts seeking better structure and precision.
– 👨👩💻 Agile Teams looking to increase delivery speed and clarity.
🎯 What You’ll Gain:
✅ Build clear, prioritized, and achievable backlogs.
✅ Apply multiple decomposition patterns depending on context.
✅ Reduce sprint overload and bottlenecks.
✅ Strengthen collaboration across roles.
✅ Increase delivery predictability and product value.
👩🎓 Trainer:
Olesia Ulianova — Ph.D. in Engineering, MBA, CEO of Telesens, Founder of IT Grow Center.
