In the Agile software development process, customers are the most important factor. Their preferences are the most essential things in the product development process. In this way, a user story puts the end user at the center of the product development process. This gives the development team context and helps them estimate the time to achieve the stories. The developers working on the product will read the user story to know why they are working on it, what they will work on, and what people expect from them.
In Agile, user stories play an important role and help to develop a user-centric framework for sprints. It enables collaboration, creativity, and better product delivery. In the CSM Certification, you will get an idea about a user story. Read this article to learn more about the user story and to relate the process in a better way.
What are agile user stories?
User stories are the smallest unit of work in an Agile framework. Consider it as an end goal of the development process. In addition, it can be an informal explanation of software features written from the users’ or customers’ perspective. Simply put, user stories are uncomplicated explanations that outline the desired outcomes. They are not technical or detailed; they are just a straightforward explanation of expectations. The direct objective of a user story is to explain how the work will deliver a specific value to the customer. However, the end users don’t need to be the external end users. It can be the internal end-users within your organization, and their perspective is also considered.
In the Scrum framework, user stories are added to sprints and dragged down throughout the sprint. In Kanban, the team pulls the user stories from the backlog and runs them in their workflow. User stories allow the Scrum team to estimate tasks, help in sprint planning, and accurately forecast agility. In Kanban, they help manage work-in-progress and refine the workflow. Thus, user stories are also the building blocks of bigger agile models like initiatives and epics. Epics are big pieces of work that are broken up into a collection of stories. A project is made up of several epics.
Why create user stories?
User stories give the team important background information and bring value to the job.
The benefits of using user stories are:
- It basically focuses on the customers and keeps the team focused on the tasks necessary to satisfy them. It keeps the team focused and skilled at solving problems.
- User stories help the team work together and align with the organization’s goal. It motivates the team to find the best way to help and reach the desired outcome.
- It insists that developers think deeply and critically about how to solve the problem and reach the goal.
- The development team implements the small challenge and gradually develops the exact product based on the user stories.
Components of an Agile User Story
Here we mention a few steps, while you write a user story:
Always Must Have a User
A user story must identify who is asking for the value delivered. In addition, who is the person who wants a feature or a bug to be fixed? Developers should not work until they know who will use it. This could be a real user who has come to the team with a request, a customer from outside the company, or a group of users represented by the product owner. It is essential to mention the user’s name, which helps the developers understand the users’ mindset and deliver a valuable product.
Example: As an iPhone user.
Capture User Demands
The user story needs to clearly define what the user wants. When product owners write the user story, they often provide solutions that should not be in it. Developers are often the best people to come up with answers, so this might not be the best way to give a solution.
Example: An iPhone user: I can share picture messages with my friends.
Qualifying Value Statement
A user story must have values. Users and businesses want value, and the team and product owner must understand the value of the demand. Without the value statement, it is harder for the product owner to decide what work needs to be done first and how much effort is required. You should not take a story unless you show that it helps the business or a user.
Example: As an iPhone user, I can share picture messages with my friends to see the messages together simultaneously.
Must have Acceptance Criteria
It is a checklist of requirements that describes the user’s needs in more detail or adds some criteria that provide specific measures for the output. User stories must have a mixture of acceptance criteria, functional information, and measurable criteria. It helps the development team consider the technical aspect before the final delivery of the product.
Examples:
As an iPhone user, I can share picture messages with my friends to see the messages together simultaneously. I can share photos that I already have in my gallery. I can share multiple photos at a time, and sharing photos takes less than 1 second per photo.
Short and Simple
The user stories should be broken down into small tasks to ensure they are achievable within a given sprint. The small functions make the work more accessible and transparent for development. In some instances, split an 8-point story into multiple stories. At first glance, this may seem more work, but if you keep cutting back, you will have a better chance of providing higher priority value. By breaking up bigger stories into smaller ones, we often find a part of the general requirement that is not important. This part can be moved further down the backlog or removed entirely, saving time and effort.
Conclusion
The user story is essential for product development and is developed by the product owner. CSPO Training helps you create compelling user stories. Therefore, the user stories describe the persona, need, purpose, and understanding of the reason behind the product delivery. Break the large use stories into smaller user stories, then work with the development team to improve them. The product owner can help team members understand the user stories for the next sprint.