In computer programming a user story is one or more sentences in the everyday or business language of the end user that captures what the user wants to achieve. User stories are used with Agile software development methodologies for the basis of what features that can be implemented. Each user story is limited, and should fit on a small paper note/card to ensure that it does not grow too large. The user stories should be written by or for the customers of a software project and are their main instrument to influence the development of the software. User stories could also be written by developers to express non-functional requirements (security, performance, quality, etc.). [1]
User stories are a quick way of handling customer requirements without having to create formalized requirement documents and without performing administrative tasks related to maintaining them. The intention of the user story is to be able to respond faster and with less overhead to rapidly changing real-world requirements.
A user story is an informal statement of the requirement as long as the correspondence of acceptance testing procedures is lacking. Before a user story is to be implemented, an appropriate acceptance procedure must be written by the customer to ensure by testing or otherwise determine whether the goals of the user story have been fulfilled. Some formalization finally happens when the developer accepts the user story and the acceptance procedure as a work specific order.
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When the time has come for creating user stories, one of the developers (or the product owner in Scrum) gets together with a customer representative. The customer is responsible for formulating the user stories. The developer may use a series of questions to get the customer going, such as asking if some particular functionality is desired, but must be careful not to dominate the idea creation process.
As the customer conceives the user stories, they are written down on a note card (e.g. 3x5 inches or 8x13 cm) with a name and a description which the customer has formulated. If the developer and customer find that the user story is lacking in some way (too large, complicated, imprecise), it is rewritten until it is satisfactory often using the INVEST guidelines from the Scrum project management framework. However, it is stressed in Extreme Programming (XP) that user stories are not to be definite once they have been written down. Requirements tend to change during the development period, which is handled by not carving them in stone.
User stories generally follow the following template:
"As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit>"
but the shorter version is commonly used as well:
"As a <role>, I want <goal/desire>"
As a user, I want to search for my customers by their first and last names.
As a non-administrative user, I want to modify my own schedules but not the schedules of other users.
As a mobile application tester, I want to test my test cases and report results to my management.
Starting Application The application begins by bringing up the last document the user was working with.
As a user closing the application, I want to be prompted to save if I have made any change in my data since the last save.
Closing Application Upon closing the application, the user is prompted to save (when ANYTHING has changed in data since the last save!).
alternatively...
As a user closing the application, I want to be prompted to save anything that has changed since the last save so that I can preserve useful work and discard erroneous work.
The consultant will enter expenses on an expense form. The consultant will enter items on the form like expense type, description, amount, and any comments regarding the expense. At any time the consultant can do any of the following options. (1) Once this is completed the consultant will “Submit”. If the expense is under fifty (<50), the expense will go directly to the system for processes. (2) In the event the consultant has not finished entering the expense, the consultant may want to “Save for later”. This instance should then be displayed on a list (queue) for consultant with the status of “Incomplete”. (3) In the event the consultant decides to clear the data and close the form the consultant will “Cancel and exit”. This instance will not be saved anywhere.
As a central part of many agile development methodologies, such as in XP's planning game, user stories define what is to be built in the software project. User stories are prioritized by the customer to indicate which are most important for the system and will be broken down in tasks and estimated by the developers.
When user stories are about to be implemented the developers should have the possibility to talk to the customer about it. The short stories may be difficult to interpret, may require some background knowledge or the requirements may have changed since the story was written.
Every user story must at some point have one or more acceptance tests attached, allowing the developer to test when the user story is done and also allowing the customer to validate it. Without a precise formulation of the requirements, prolonged nonconstructive arguments may arise when the product is to be delivered.
XP and other agile methodologies favour face-to-face communication over comprehensive documentation and quick adaptation to change instead of fixation on the problem. User stories achieve this by:
Some of the limitations of user stories in agile methodologies:
While both user stories and use cases serve the purpose to capture specific user requirements in terms of interactions between the user and the system, there are major differences between them.
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