A User Story is also a ‘requirement’, but it stands out because it is expressed in detail. In fact, this format has become the most commonly used method for expressing requirements in the Agile environment. It wouldn’t be wrong to claim that when it comes to user stories versus use cases, User Story has become the new ‘requirement’ document.
User stories are short and simple description of features. The description is created by the client or user who requires the new feature or functionality.
Immediate Advantages
Contents
Some of the key reasons for its growing popularity in the Agile environment are as follows:
- Focus on the viewpoint of a role who is going to use or gets affected by the solution
- The requirement is defined in a language that makes sense for that role
- It defines high level requirements without the need to address low level details in the early stages
- It can clarify the actual reason for the requirement
It helps in identifying user goals and takes into account the business value of each requirement. There are 3 elements of User Stories – Card, Conversation, and Confirmation.
Importance of User Stories to Agile
User Story helps add a human element to the development process. It is not a mechanical document that lists only what the client needs. The document has a few sentences that describe the launching point, followed by conversations regarding the desired functionality.
The conversations create a launching point for the development team to create solutions. These solutions are not just limited to the tools and processes. The focus is on adaptation because it is known to everyone that the requirements are likely to change in the future. The emphasis is on talking about requirements and not just handing them over. This helps create a more responsive application design.
Eliminating Issues
Misunderstandings are among the most common causes of issues in software engineering. User Stories help in eliminating these issues and many others.
User Stories are created with the goal of building shared understanding. They are not just about requirements specification. In Agile development, Stories aren’t about what is written down but how they need to be used.
When a User Story is created, everyone involved, should have an understanding of how a user is going to achieve a goal using the application. User Stories are so simple that they allow everyone involved to participate in the elaboration of requirements. The result is improving the communication between all the stakeholders, helping avoid and misunderstandings. It also helps in preventing situations where key requirements get forgotten.
Representing Realization Tasks
Another advantage of using User Stories in the Agile environment is that it helps organize development processes. Agile development usually involves building one story followed by another. In other words, each User Story can represent a task that needs to be realized by the development team.
Additional Benefits
There are many more ways in which User Story is adding value in Agile development.
- It helps create balance between the two sides – technical team and user.
- It helps in the efficient distribution of resources.
- It is adaptable to obscure software schedule due to regular user inputs.
And most importantly, User Story helps address the key issue of effective communication between the user and the developers. It helps in resolving this key issue as well. It also contributes to speeding up the development process.
Thus, User Story is the new requirements document in Agile development. It offers many advantages compared to traditional approach to requirement documentation. Adding the human factor has certainly made a huge difference in the Agile environment.