User Stories: What They Are and Why and How to Use Them
Agile 101
What Is a User Story?
User Stories: An overview
Soooo. User stories. You know stories. You’ve grown up with them. Like we all have. Stories and storytelling have a looong track record in human history.
But user stories? What’s that all about?
Well, let’s have a closer look at them. What they are, and why and how you use them in Agile development.
What Is a User Story?
As the smallest unit of work in an Agile setting, user stories are a key tool in incremental development.
Why Use User Stories? What Are Their Benefits?
With user stories you put users at the center of the conversation around what to add to or change in a software product. They are the embodiment of the first principle behind the Agile Manifesto (emphasis mine):
There’s no need to add details such as requirements until you decide now’s the time to implement them. Apart perhaps from what Mike Cohn calls conditions of satisfaction with which a user can expand and explain concepts. You add other details as you get closer to implementing the story. For example, during the exploration phase in Behavior Driven Development (BDD).
How Not to Benefit From User Stories – Common Mistakes?
What Is a Good User Story?
Writing User Stories Is Not the Point
How to Write a User Story in 4 Simple Steps
With the user and the end goal clearly in mind, you work out the steps a user would need to take to achieve their goal.
Trying to figure out the first step forward to reach a goal is difficult. You simply have too many options to pick from and no way to choose one over the other.
The way out is to work backward from the goal.
Let’s say your goal is to enjoy a strawberry smoothie. So you start there: a finished strawberry smoothie, ready for you to enjoy.
What do you need for that? Well obviously a glass, a straw, a smoothie, and putting the things together.
- get a glass
- get a thick straw
- make the smoothie
- pour the smoothie into the glass
- stick the straw into the smoothie
- You have a suitable glass, but lack thick straws, so
- take out the blender
- follow a recipe
- find a recipe
- buy the ingredients specified in the recipe
User Story Examples
- As a product manager with a remote team, I want to put user stories on a digital board, so that we can all see the one we’re discussing in an online meeting.
- As a product manager with a remote team, I want to invite members of my team and up to 10 others to an online meeting, so that we can collaborate to detail user stories that will be implemented soon.
- As a product manager with a remote team, I want to create and edit a list with the members of my team, so that I add all of them to an invitation without having to add them individually.
How to Develop Software Starting From User Stories
User stories are high-level narratives lacking the details needed by developers and testers.
So, when a user story is coming up for implementation soon, you need to add the details that’ll keep everyone on track and prevent unnecessary (re)work.
Ron Jeffries came up with the 3Cs, 3 critical aspects, of working with and developing software starting with user stories
What Are the 3 C’s in User Stories
User Story FAQ
Q: What’s the difference between user stories and features?
Q: What’s the difference between user stories and requirements?
Q: Who creates user stories in Agile?
Become a Storyteller and Wow Your Customers
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