An Introduction to User Stories & Epics

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” – Robert McKee

I’ve previously covered in some depth the subject of requirements: the different types; the scenarios; why, where and how they could be identified and elicited; the owners and how to manage them. We looked at how important they are to the successful delivery of products, processes and projects (who doesn’t love a little alliteration?) and the differences in project delivery methodologies which impact the way requirements are gathered and managed.

When using an Agile approach towards project delivery, especially for developing or adding new features to software, traditional requirements may not be the best tool for the business analyst to employ. The technique often has a criticism leveled against it that traditional requirements are somewhat monolithic in nature, given their at times rigid approach and fixed nature. Agile development requires an iterative approach, needing a flexibility which is not always inherent within a detailed traditional requirements approach. To aid this, business analysts can use the technique of creating user stories.

User stories are a way of capturing a need, a feature or a scenario through a more abstracted approach towards producing and defining a narrative for requirements. Essentially, user stories ensure that descriptions of features are written in a way that is simple, more natural and easier for customers to understand by crafting them into succinct and structured…