User Stories

What it is

A user story is a tool used in agile software development to capture a description of a software feature from an end-user perspective.

A user story describes the type of user, what they want, and why.

What It describes a feature (or component of a feature) and is short and simple.

Who It’s from the perspective of the person who will use the feature.

Why It incorporates the “value” of the feature so the team knows what is driving this request.

When User stories are prioritized in terms of when they’ll be completed.

Good Questions to Ask

• Do the user stories address who needs the product, what they need, and why they need it?
• Do my user stories logically roll up into epics and again into product features?
• Do my user stories include acceptance criteria to validate that we delivered the required value?

Create User Stories

You and your team will create and capture user stories in a specific format.

“As a… I want… so that…”.

As a… This describes who the user is. You might design a feature differently if you know that the end user is tech-savvy versus one who is not.

I want… This expresses what the user is trying to accomplish. Understanding the feature request is critical to delivering the right thing.

So that… This is perhaps the most critical part of the user story format. Why the user wants to accomplish something can be very enlightening to the goal just described.

Here’s what a good user story looks like:

As a gardener, I want to control greenhouse conditions from my phone, so that my plants will stay happy while I’m away.