Agile User Stories

User Stories adhere to a specific, predefined structure and are a simple way of documenting requirements and desired end-user functionalities. A User Story tells you three things about the requirement: Who, What, and Why. The requirements expressed in User Stories are short, simple and easy-to-understand statements. The predefined standard format results in enhanced communication among the stakeholders and better estimations by the team.

The Product owners create User Stories which are designed to ensure that the customer’s requirements are clearly depicted and can be fully understood by all stakeholders. The Product Owner, based on his or her interaction with the stakeholders, business knowledge and expertise, and inputs from the team, develops User Stories that will form the initial Prioritized Product Backlog for the project. At times, the Product Owner may recruit a Business Analyst to assist with writing User Stories.

How User Stories are created?

User Story Workshops  User Story Workshops are useful in understanding user expectations for the deliverables and are excellent for team building. They also facilitate preparation for the planning of the next Sprint. A User Story Workshop is a good platform to discuss and clarify every element of a product and often delve into the smallest details to ensure clarity. These workshops help the Product Owner to prioritize requirements and enable the Scrum Core Team to have a shared perspective of the Acceptance Criteria. They ensure that the Epics and User Stories describe the functionality from the users’ point of view, are easy to understand, and can be reliably estimated.

User Group Meetings

User Group Meetings involve relevant stakeholders (primarily users or customers of the product). They provide the Scrum Core Team with firsthand information about user expectations. This helps in formulating the Acceptance Criteria for the product and provides valuable insights for developing Epics. User Group Meetings are vital in the prevention of expensive rework that may result from a lack of clarity regarding expectations and requirements. These meetings also promote buy-in for the project and create a common understanding among the Scrum Core Team and relevant Stakeholder(s).

Focus Group Meetings

Focus Group Meetings are a qualitative technique to gauge and understand user needs and expectations about a proposed product. A small group of users are selected to form the focus group. This group may be selected randomly from a large pool of users or can be selected specifically to represent all the major Personas being targeted. Focus Group Meetings normally adhere to a certain format in which the group is asked questions that they then discuss among themselves. Each Focus Group Meeting can have its own rules of discussion as decided by the organizers. These meetings are usually held in the presence of a moderator and recorder.

User or Customer Interviews

Engaging stakeholders, including the sponsor, users, and customers of the product, is important to gain the necessary context and insight required to develop Epics. Quality time spent interviewing users and customers will result in ensuring that the requirements in Epics align with the overall Project Vision, thereby delivering greater value.

Questionnaires

A cost effective way to gain quantitative and qualitative statistical insight from a large number of users or customers is to use surveys or questionnaires. A Questionnaire is a research instrument that contains questions to be asked to a respondent in order to collect information about a specific issue or topic. Questionnaires can be self-administered or administered by an interviewer. In conclusion, user stories are the best way to document the requirements from the end uses perspective. The Use Stories can be written in several ways but the basic aim of creating these User Stories is to understand the requirements of the end user and implementing them accordingly.

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