With scrum, is an improvement to the product a bug or a story?

Question

When creating a scrum project in JIRA, the default issue types don't include an 'improvement' issue type. So for example, we want to improve the copy on our pricing page to encourage customers to signup for annual subscription.

We could create a story 'As a copywriter, I want the copy to be enhanced to convert more customers to annual subscription'.

Or we could create a bug 'Copy on pricing page does not encourage customers to signup for annual'.

Or we could create a task 'Write copy to encourage customers to signup for annual'.

I know we could add the 'improvement' issue type to the project but since JIRA doesn't create it for scrum project I'm wondering what other people do for improvment type issues?

Thomas Schlegel · Answer

I would prefer the latter and wouldn't take this "As a ... " - convention too seriously. But this depends on your company standards.

unknown · Answer

Thanks Thomas, but after re-reading my story example it doesn't make sense. The end user is not the copywriter so it would have to be written like 'As a user I want to be better persuaded to signup for an annual subscription' which obviously doesn't seem right. Or do you mean you would just use the 'story' issue type and write it as 'Improve copy to persude customers to signup for annual'?

Thomas Schlegel · Answer

Hi Lars,

I would treat your example as a story. Not encouraged customers might be unpleasant, but it's no error in your application.

As you already said, it is an improvement, not an existing error.