User Story

In the world of Agile, user stories are the guiding stars for product development. A user story (US) is a simple description of a system feature or functionality from the user's perspective. In other words, it represents a specific goal that a user wants to achieve when using the software.

1. How are User Stories Created?

User stories are commonly used in Agile projects. Although they are based on user desires, they are usually written by the Product Owner (PO).

The PO starts by understanding the needs and desires of users, as well as the pain points they encounter. From this, the PO creates user personas. Each persona represents a group of users with similar characteristics, goals, and needs. It helps the development team better understand the target audience for the product.

Using these user personas and user research data, the PO can visualize the user's journey through the product using a User Journey Map (CJM). The CJM provides a comprehensive view of how users interact with the product or service, from their initial exploration to achieving their goals. It helps visualize how users interact with the product and identify key touchpoints.

Based on the information from user personas and CJMs, the product development team can then define user stories.

2. Structure of a User Story

As mentioned in the first post, a user story follows this structure: "As a [role], I want [feature], so that [goal]."

• Role: The role of the user, usually a role defined in the personas.

• Feature: This describes the specific goal or requirement that the user wants to achieve from the product or service. It focuses on accurately describing the purpose users want to achieve when using the product.

• Goal: This explains the reason or value users gain when their goal is met. It helps convey the importance of the user story and why it should be implemented.

Example: As a user, I want to be able to search for products so that I can quickly find what I'm looking for.

3. Describing a User Story

When implementing a project, a user story needs to be described clearly and in detail to ensure the development team fully understands the user's needs. To describe a user story in detail, you can use the following structure:

• ID: Each user story should have a unique ID for easy management.

• User Story: The full user story following the "As a..." structure.

• Description: A brief summary of the user story, including the user's goals and needs.

• Acceptance Criteria: The conditions or criteria for determining when the user story is complete and meets the user's requirements.

4. Example:

1. ID: US001

2. User Story: As a user, I want to be able to search for products so that I can quickly find what I'm looking for.

3. Description: As a user, I want to be able to search for songs by title or artist so I can easily find and listen to my favorite music. When searching, I want the results to show songs related to the corresponding title or artist.

4. Acceptance Criteria:

   1. I can enter search keywords in the search bar on the application.

   2. When I search, I get a list of songs related to the search keywords.

   3. The search results display the title and artist of each song.

   4. When I click on a song from the search results, I can listen to that song.

User stories are a useful tool for gathering and managing user requirements, especially in Agile projects. By writing user stories that are clear, detailed, and adhere to the INVEST principle (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable), you can help the development team understand user needs and build a product that meets expectations.