What are User Stories and Why They're Important

In an agile approach to software projects, user stories are the way we understand requirements. They help shift the focus from writing about the requirements to talking about it. Without user stories it is hard to determine what functionality a user might need on a day to day basis. They put your feet in the users’ shoes to allow a window to how the project will be used. This allows developers to understand how the software can better serve the customers.

User stories are brief descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the user. They follow a format that is simply: (designmodo.com)

For example, in making an application for grading purposes, a user story might resemble something like: “As a student, I want to submit my file and view what my grade is”. You can also do this for the professor: “As a professor I want to be able to create assignments for courses”. Also these stories can be split into many more stories for specificity.

The product owner is responsible to make sure a backlog of user stories exist. They are written towards the beginning of a project but also throughout the entire cycle of the project. A user story is incomplete until the team has discussed the story. All of these stories will relate directly to the product, it is used as a guide to determine what steps are needed for the real requirement.