Writing User Stories
- A user story is an informal, general explanation of a software feature written from the perspective of the end user. Its purpose is to articulate how a software feature will provide value to the customer.
- A key component of agile software development is putting people first and user stories put the end user at the center of the conversation
- It is an end goal, not a feature, expressed from the software user's perspective
- The team gets to understand:
- Why they are building
- What they are building
- What value it creates
Why user stories
- Stories keep the focus on the user
- Unlike to-do lists that focus on tasks and their completion, user stories keep the team focused on solving problems for real users
- Stories enable collaboration
- With the end goal, the team can work together to decide how to best serve the user and meet that goal
- Stories drive creative solutions
- Encourages the team to think critically and creatively about how to best solve the end goal
- Stories create momentum
- Stories are small enough to complete in one sprint, giving the development small wins for each story they complete
How to write user stories
- Definition of done
- Define when a user can complete the outlined task
- Outline subtasks or tasks
- Specify steps to complete and who is responsible for each
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User personas
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Ordered Steps
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Listen to feedback
- Time
- Stories should be completable in one sprint
- Break a story down if it takes weeks or months. You can also make it an epic
Template of a user story
"As a [persona], I [want to], [so that]"
- As a [persona]
- Who you are building for
- Give him/her a name like Jack
- Interview people like Jack to understand how they work, how they think and what they feel
- [Want to]
- Describe the intent of the persona and what they are trying to achieve
- This is not a feature or an implementation, it is the end goal for the user
- [So that]
- What's the overall benefit of what they are trying to achieve
- What is the big problem that needs to be solved?