The Three Amigos Practice

A practice where three perspectives collaborate to explore and define features.

The Three Perspectives

1. Business Perspective (Product Owner/BA)

• What problem are we solving?
• What value does it provide?
• What are the business rules?

2. Development Perspective (Developer)

• How might we build this?
• What are the technical constraints?
• What are the edge cases?

3. Testing Perspective (Tester/QA)

• What could go wrong?
• What are we missing?
• How will we verify this works?

Example Three Amigos Session

Feature: Password Reset

Business: "Users who forget their password need a way to reset it via email."

Developer: "We'll need to generate secure tokens with expiration. How long should tokens be valid?"

Tester: "What happens if they request multiple reset emails? Can old tokens still be used?"

Business: "Tokens should be valid for 1 hour. Multiple requests should invalidate old tokens."

Developer: "Should we rate-limit reset requests to prevent abuse?"

Tester: "What if the email address doesn't exist in our system?"

Business: "For security, show the same success message whether or not the email exists."

Outcome: Concrete Scenarios

Scenario: Request password reset with valid email
  Given a user account exists for "user@example.com"
  When I request a password reset for "user@example.com"
  Then I should receive a reset email
  And the reset link should be valid for 1 hour

Scenario: Request password reset with non-existent email
  When I request a password reset for "nonexistent@example.com"
  Then I should see a success message
  But no email should be sent

Scenario: Multiple password reset requests
  Given I have requested a password reset
  When I request another password reset
  Then the previous reset link should be invalidated
  And I should receive a new reset email

Session Structure

1. Product Owner presents the user story
2. Developer asks clarifying questions
3. Tester identifies potential edge cases
4. Team writes scenarios together
5. Everyone agrees on acceptance criteria

Best Practices

• Schedule regular Three Amigos sessions
• Time-box to 30-60 minutes
• Focus on one story at a time
• Write scenarios during the session
• Capture questions for later follow-up