User Stories are an Agile term for what traditionally have been called “software requirements“. They are a brief statements of the intent or need that the system must do for a particular users.
Here is the basic formula of writing a user story:
As a <role> I want <feature> so that <benefit>.
They became a good method express requirements regardless of what methodology you are using. They are good for scrum teams or for the team which uses lean methodology.
With user stories you don’t need to deal with large specifications. The intention is to response faster without overhead changing real world requirements.
User stories examples:
As a traveler, I want to reserve a hotel room.
As a vacation planner, I want to see pictures of the hotels.
As a user with a reservation, I want to cancel my reservation.
etc…
Of course for business analyst is important to ask more questions to each user story and divide it to smaller sub-stories. For example:
As a user with a reservation, I want to cancel my reservation.
– Does the user get full or partial refund?
– How far ahead must the reservation be cancelled?
– How confirmation is provided to the user?
As a result you will get such sub-stories:
– As a premium member, I want to cancel at the last minute with no penalty so that I get a full refund.
– As a non-premium member, I want cancel up to 24 hours so that I get a 50% refund.
– As a site member, I want an email confirmation of my cancelled reservation so that I can have a record of the transaction.
After user stories are done, they should be transmitted to story points.