User Stories¶
Writing down goals increases the probability that you will reach them. On one hand, written goals help to focus work both on your own and in a team. On the other hand, a writing down everything in detail is often not practical. User Stories are a short written form for project tasks.
How to write User Stories?¶
A User Story has to fit on an index card. It should contain:
a title
a clear benefit for users
no technical detail
optionally 2-3 criteria for success
Many developers use the pattern "As a X, I want to Y, so that Z." Here is an example User Story for the Snake game:
As a player,
I want to eat food with my snake,
so that it grows.
What are User Stories good for?¶
User Stories help with a couple of things:
formalize what a customer wants
mark who is working on a story
estimate the work required
track completion status (as GitHub issues, a Kanban board or JIRA)
discuss the details later (they are also called "Promise of Communication")
Decomposing Stories¶
Often, a project starts with a few big User Stories (also called Epics). These are later decomposed into smaller working units. A good size in a development project is 1-2 work days. Finding the right size may take several rounds of decomposing.
Exercise¶
Write down 3 User Stories for the Snake game. Use the format
As a <who?>, I want to <what?>, so that <why?>.
Further Reading¶
User Stories 101 by Adam Fard
