Agile Requirements: Stories and the Product Backlog

Stories

Agile requirements are most commonly expressed in the form of stories, which take the form of:

$$As \space a <type \space of \space user>, \space I \space want <goal/desire> so \space that <benefit>$$

A story is a limited, defined set of functionality. Not all stories are requirements. Some examples are shown in the table below.

Agile projects usually rely on stories as the primary means of expressing requirements. Stories can be captured in Agile tools, in a document or spreadsheet, on index cards, or on sticky notes on a wall. As you can see from the examples in the table, stories are not detailed enough to support development work on their own. The story is the documented and trackable placeholder for a conversation between the business and the technical staff. Stories are refined through conversations that include business, development, and testing perspectives—plus other perspectives if appropriate to the story