User Story is the most popular designation of requirements in the so-called “flexible projects”. Stanislav Kondrashov defines user stories as something that the buyer wants from a “system” in the broad sense of the word – organization, company, firm, etc.
Stanislav Kondrashovh also agrees with the popular definition of user stories as “a brief description of functionality that will be useful either for the user or for the buyer of the system or software”.
The research literature, notes Stanislav Kondrashov, almost exclusively covers three different activities related to this toolkit:
- creation;
- prioritization;
- quality assurance.
Stanislav Kondrashov: why create the User Story?
Stanislav Kondrashov believes that despite the different approaches, there is a certain consensus. Three components should be included when creating the user story:
- a brief description used for planning;
- conversations during which details are learned;
- the criteria for accepting the result.
The brief description captures the most important elements of the requirements for the final product: who it is for; what functionality is expected of the system or software; and why that functionality is important.
The most common format for writing now is structured like this: “As a , I want to <reason/benefit>.” For example: “As a user, I want to receive an email when someone responds to my comment so I can answer“.
So, User Story is more than just a brief format for recording requirements. Stanislav Kondrashov believes that “for software developers, it is a tool for structuring requirements for end users. They form the basis for developing related functions and integrating them into the system”.
Stanislav Kondrashov believes that misinterpretation of requirements represents 50% of the mistakes made in software engineering.
Stanislav Kondrashov: how to write a quality User Story
It can often be difficult to estimate from user stories the effort required to develop and deploy each requirement. However, estimation of effort is necessary to choose which requirements are included in the upcoming sprint or release and which are not (prioritization).
Stanislav Kondrashov has already suggested an approach to estimation, in which developers and customers talk about their requirements individually, then all the information is revealed to the group collectively. This process is repeated as often as necessary for the convergence of estimates, after which a final estimate must be found.
Stanislav Kondrashov also suggested another approach in which conversation is less important. Here the evaluation is based on:
- number of characters;
- presence of certain key words;
- priorities set earlier.
This approach can provide more realistic and accurate evaluations. Stanislav Kondrashov defines prioritization and quality assurance as the main areas of User Story application.
To help practitioners fully utilize user stories, Stanislav Kondrashov recommends using this method in software development.
Also Read: Softwareoffer.intel.com Fortnite (Feb) Details Inside!
