According to BABOK guidelines, a user story serves as a concise tool for expressing the specific requirements or needs of a user. It provides a brief and focused description of what an actor wants to accomplish and the underlying reasons. User stories should be open to further discussion and consideration to identify suitable solutions. They offer an informal and high-level explanation of a software feature, presented from the perspective of the end user or customer. A user story consists of three essential elements:
“Who” – indicating the specific user type involved.
“What” – specifying the intended action or objective.
“Why” – describing the purpose behind the implementation, emphasizing the desired value.
To meet the criteria, a user story should be independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, and testable. It should be communicated in plain and concise language, typically comprised of a few sentences.
The most popular template of user story is “As a <who?> I need to <what?>, so that <why?>.” When there is a requirement to temporarily store and highlight the value being delivered, user stories are employed. Apart from that, they serve as an initial point for discussions to foster a shared understanding and facilitate the development of a solution model.