User stories represent small pieces of business value that a team can deliver in an iteration. They have three key aspects: a written description used for planning, conversations to flesh out details, and tests to determine completion. Well-formed user stories follow the INVEST criteria - they are Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable. This allows teams to develop functionality iteratively and avoid prematurely locking into solutions.

1. User Stories
Agile requirement gathering
By Shukla, Aditya PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSPO, SPC, SCPM, SA
As a <user type>, I want to <function> so that <benefit>

2. UserStoriesExplained
 The tests that confirm the story's satisfactory completion
What is a user story?
 The conversations that happen during backlog grooming
and iteration planning to solidify the details
 The brief description of the need
A user story represents a small piece of business value that a team
can deliver in an iteration. While traditional requirements (like
use cases) try to be as detailed as possible, a user story is defined
incrementally, in three stages:

3. UserStoriesExplained
SO……
User stories are not just small snippets of text. Each user story is
composed of three aspects:
 Written description of the story, used for planning
and as a reminder
 Conversations about the story that serve to flesh
out the details of the story
 Tests that convey and document details that can
be used to determine when a story is complete

4. UserStoriesExplained
Why use user stories?
 Keep yourself expressing business value
 Avoid introducing detail too early that would
prevent design options and inappropriately lock
developers into one solution
 Avoid the appearance of false completeness and
clarity
 Get to small enough chunks that invite negotiation
and movement in the backlog
 Leave the technical functions to the architect,
developers, testers, and …

5. UserStoriesExplained
As a <user type>, I want to <function> so that
<benefit>
Ex: As a consumer, I want shopping cart functionality
to easily purchase items online.
How to write user stories

6. UserStoriesExplained
ID#
Name:
As a <user type>, I want to <function> so that
<benefit>
Description :……………………………………………………………..
Acceptance Criterion : ……………………………………………..
User story template
Without acceptance criterion story is incomplete and should be
not be accepted by team.

7. UserStoriesExplained

8. UserStoriesExplained
Well-formed stories will meet the criteria of
Bill Wake's INVEST acronym
I N V E S T

9. UserStoriesExplained
Users or customers get some value from the story.
INVEST
We want to be able to develop in any sequence
Avoid too much detail; keep them flexible so the team can adjust
how much of the story to implement.
Large stories are harder to estimate and plan. By the time of iteration
planning, the story should be able to be designed, coded, and tested
within the iteration.
Document acceptance criteria, or the definition of
done for the story, which lead to test cases
The team must be able to use them for planning.

10. UserStoriesExplained
 Too formal or too much detail
 Technical tasks masquerading as stories
 Skipping the conversation
 No acceptance criterion
AVOID

11. UserStoriesExplained
Example
Too broad
A team member can view iteration status.
Too detailed
•A team member can view a table of stories with rank, name, size,
package, owner, and status.
•A team member can click a red button to expand the table to include
detail, which lists all the tasks, with rank, name, estimate, owner,
status.

12. UserStoriesExplained
Example
Just right
As a team member I can view the iteration stories and their status so
that I know iteration progress.
Details:……
Acceptance
Criterion:

13. UserStoriesExplained
Consumption / Usage
Final thoughts
Creation
Maintenance
User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn
Not Use-Cases (more..)

14. UserStoriesExplained