Don't get hung up on scrum dogma. Scrum exists to make you more agile. Anything that gets in the way of that can be ignored.

It is true you shouldn't do work that doesn't give business value, but value comes in many forms. Do you derive value from having an ethernet driver? I suspect you do, because without it you can't deliver certain features. "As a developer, I need an ethernet driver so that I can implement the features that require internet connectivity".

So, don't look at value only as user-visible features. Value is anything that makes your product better, even if it is invisible to the end user.

Some will say that's not a valid story, and stories should only have user visible features. I think that's ok to, right up to the point where it causes you problems like this. Again, the goal of scrum is to help you, and to improve focus and communication. Don't let what you think you're supposed to do get in the way of you getting things done. Be pragmatic, and be honest. If you think you need to develop a certain thing, answer the question "why", and "who is this for?". The answer doesn't always have to be the same person.

Don't get hung up on scrum dogma. Scrum exists to make you more agile. Anything that gets in the way of that can be ignored.

It is true you shouldn't do work that doesn't give business value, but value comes in many forms. Do you derive value from having an ethernet driver? I suspect you do, because without it you can't deliver certain features. "As a developer, I need an ethernet driver so that I can implement the features that require internet connectivity".

So, don't look at value only as user-visible features. Value is anything that makes your product better, even if it is invisible to the end user.

Some will say that's not a valid story, and stories should only have user visible features. I think that's ok too, right up to the point where it causes you problems like this. Again, the goal of scrum is to help you, and to improve focus and communication. Don't let what you think you're supposed to do get in the way of you getting things done. Be pragmatic, and be honest. If you think you need to develop a certain thing, answer the question "why", and "who is this for?". The answer doesn't always have to be the same person.

Don't get hung up on scrum dogma. Scrum exists to make you more agile. Anything that gets in the way of that can be ignored.

It is true you shouldn't do work that doesn't give business value, but value comes in many forms. Do you derive value from having an ethernet driver? I suspect you do, because without it you can't deliver certain features. "As a developer, I need an ethernet driver so that I can implement the features that require internet connectivity".

So, don't look at value only as user-visible features. Value is anything that makes your product better, even if it is invisible to the end user.

Don't get hung up on scrum dogma. Scrum exists to make you more agile. Anything that gets in the way of that can be ignored.

It is true you shouldn't do work that doesn't give business value, but value comes in many forms. Do you derive value from having an ethernet driver? I suspect you do, because without it you can't deliver certain features. "As a developer, I need an ethernet driver so that I can implement the features that require internet connectivity".

So, don't look at value only as user-visible features. Value is anything that makes your product better, even if it is invisible to the end user.

Some will say that's not a valid story, and stories should only have user visible features. I think that's ok to, right up to the point where it causes you problems like this. Again, the goal of scrum is to help you, and to improve focus and communication. Don't let what you think you're supposed to do get in the way of you getting things done. Be pragmatic, and be honest. If you think you need to develop a certain thing, answer the question "why", and "who is this for?". The answer doesn't always have to be the same person.