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Story Splitting Helper (SPIDR)

Free tool
Splitting patterns to try
  • Workflow steps - Split by the individual steps of a multi-step process.
    • List every distinct step the user goes through, in order.
    • Which single step, done alone, still delivers something usable or demoable?
    • Could the first step ship with a manual or hard-coded version of the later steps?
  • Happy path vs. edge cases - Split the main scenario from the edge cases and error handling.
    • What is the single most common, simplest path through this story?
    • Which edge cases are rare enough to defer to a follow-up story, with the happy path shipping first?
    • Are any "edge cases" actually common enough that deferring them would ship something misleadingly incomplete?

Why a story resists splitting

Almost every story that feels too big to estimate is actually several smaller stories wearing one title - the resistance usually comes from not having a pattern to split along, not from the work being genuinely indivisible. The patterns here (adapted from Mike Cohn's SPIDR framework, plus the common CRUD and happy-path variants) are the standard toolkit for finding that seam.

How to use the prompts

Pick two or three patterns that seem plausible for your story and work through their prompts - most stories split cleanly along at least one of workflow steps, business rule variations, or happy path vs. edge cases. If none of the patterns produce a clean split, that's often a sign the real blocker is unknown scope, not size - the Spike pattern covers that case directly.

When splitting isn't the answer

A story that's large because the approach is genuinely unknown - not because it bundles multiple deliverable pieces - doesn't need splitting, it needs a timeboxed spike to reduce the uncertainty first. Forcing a split onto unknown work often produces artificial pieces that don't actually reduce the risk.

Frequently asked questions

Mike Cohn's framework for splitting stories: Spike, Path, Interface, Data, Rules - this tool covers those patterns plus the common workflow-step and happy-path/edge-case variants.
Story Point CalculatorFree story point calculator: rate complexity, volume, and uncertainty to get a suggested card on the Fibonacci scale - plus honest guidance on when to spike or split instead.Sprint Capacity CalculatorFree sprint capacity calculator: team size, sprint length, days off, and focus factor in - real person-days of capacity out, with guidance for scaling velocity when availability drops.Story Points to Hours ConverterConvert story points to calendar time the only honest way - through your team’s velocity. Get a realistic duration range for a backlog or epic, and learn why per-story hour conversions fail.Printable Planning Poker CardsFree printable Scrum Poker / Planning Poker cards - Fibonacci, T-shirt sizes, or Powers of 2. Print or save as PDF, cut them out, and estimate with a physical deck.Estimation Technique ChooserAnswer a few questions about what you’re sizing and your team’s history to get a recommended agile estimation technique - Scrum Poker, T-shirt sizing, affinity estimation, and more.Planning Poker Cost CalculatorSee what paid planning poker tools actually cost at your team size, sourced from each vendor’s own pricing page - then compare it to $0 with OneMorePoint.Velocity CalculatorEnter your team’s last few sprints to get a rolling average velocity plus a realistic range - not just a single decimal number that hides the variance.Fibonacci GeneratorGenerate the agile-modified Fibonacci deck (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ?) or the pure mathematical sequence - pick the term count and see why the gaps widen on purpose.Sprint Goal GeneratorTurn what your sprint is about into a real Sprint Goal - a single objective the sprint serves, not a list of tickets. Free, deterministic templates, no AI.PERT CalculatorEnter optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates to get a weighted expected value and confidence range - the (O + 4M + P) / 6 formula, done for you.User Story GeneratorDraft a user story in the As a / I want / So that format, then check it against the INVEST criteria - free, deterministic, no AI.Acceptance Criteria GeneratorScaffold Given/When/Then acceptance criteria for a user story - free, deterministic Gherkin-style scenario builder, no AI.Burndown Chart GeneratorPaste in daily remaining points and see the ideal-vs-actual burndown instantly - free, no spreadsheet required.Burnup Chart GeneratorTrack scope and completed work as two separate lines - free burnup chart generator that shows mid-sprint scope changes a burndown chart hides.RICE CalculatorScore a feature or idea with the RICE framework - Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort - free calculator, no sign-up.WSJF CalculatorCalculate Weighted Shortest Job First scores the SAFe way - Cost of Delay divided by Job Size - free calculator, no sign-up.Sprint Date CalculatorGenerate a full sprint schedule from a start date, sprint length, and number of sprints - free, no spreadsheet needed.Focus Factor CalculatorDerive your team's real focus factor from a few recent sprints of actual data, instead of guessing - free, feeds directly into the sprint capacity calculator.Meeting Cost CalculatorSee what a meeting actually costs in salary-hours, per meeting and annualized if it recurs - free calculator, fully loaded hourly cost.Definition of Ready BuilderBuild and print a Definition of Ready checklist for your team - toggle the defaults, add your own, free and printable.Definition of Done BuilderBuild and print a Definition of Done checklist for your team - toggle the defaults, add your own, free and printable.T-Shirt Size ConverterConvert t-shirt sizes to a rough story-point equivalent with an editable mapping - free, with an honest note on the false precision this introduces.Retro Format PickerAnswer 3 quick questions about your sprint to get a matched retrospective format - Start/Stop/Continue, Mad/Sad/Glad, Sailboat, and more.Scrum Timebox CalculatorGet every Scrum event's maximum timebox for your sprint length - Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Review, and Retrospective, per the Scrum Guide.Estimation Accuracy TrackerLog estimated vs. actual effort across stories to see your team's real calibration bias - saved locally in your browser, no account needed.Cone of UncertaintySee the realistic estimate range for your project phase - an interactive visualization of Boehm and McConnell's Cone of Uncertainty.Team Availability MatrixFind the best meeting time across distributed team members' timezones - enter local working hours, see the UTC overlap heatmap instantly.Random Order GeneratorShuffle a list of names into a random order - free tool for standup order, retro round-robins, or demo presentation order.Sprint Name GeneratorGenerate a fun sprint name - space, mythology, or animal themed - free, instant, no sign-up.Kanban vs Scrum ChooserAnswer 4 questions about how your work arrives and your team structure to get a Scrum, Kanban, or Scrumban recommendation.Agile GlossaryA searchable, accurate glossary of Scrum, Kanban, and estimation terms - roles, events, artifacts, and the vocabulary that actually comes up.