
User Stories – Part 1
Creating User Stories
User Stories are an integral part of the agile development process. They are an important agile technique that is used to frame requirements needed for product functionality. User stories don’t have to be complex to be effective. In fact, they should be simple, short definitions that contain just enough information for the development team to provide value back to the end-user. They should be easy to understand and represent the collaborative nature of agile. They should be used as more of a collaborative tool than as an actual documentation of the requirement.
What does that mean? Essentially user stories are important pieces of agile development because they provide a way for development teams, scrum masters, and product owners to embody agile values, not because of some complex requirement documentation.
So Who Writes a User Story?
Since user stories should be used as an agile tool in a collaborative manner, the whole team should know how to write and update them. User Stories are not all written at the onset of a project but instead are written through the product-development cycle. This fluid nature makes it important that all team members are up to date on how to write a good user story.
Initially, product owners should write the user story and make sure the requirements needed to deliver value back to the customer is detailed. Since product owners bridge the gap between the customer and the development team, it is important they are involved to make sure important business requirements are included. Once the product owner drafts out the user stories, the rest of the team should get involved to flesh out the rest of the requirements and come up with a plan to implement the user stories. Scrum Masters can play an important role in creating the user stories.
59 Seconds Training Video
Master of Agile – Scrum Product Owner With 59 Seconds Agile (Video Training Course)
Introductory Offer: Free Course
What is this course?
This ‘Master of Agile – Scrum Product Owner With 59 Seconds Agile (Video Training Course)’ provides an in-depth understanding of the Scrum Product Owner roles and responsibilities
You will explore the Agile Scrum project life-cycle, including how an Agile User Story is created, to how we know when it is ‘done’
This course is aimed at those with or without prior knowledge and experience of the Agile values and principles
During this course you will learn the tools needed to succeed as a Scrum Product Owner
What will you learn?
You will gain an in-depth understanding of the Scrum Product Owner roles and responsibilities, and you will be able to
- Fully understand the role of the Scrum Product Owner
- Understand the roles involved in an Agile project
- Create an effective Product Backlog
- Effectively participate in Scrum Meetings such as the Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review and Retrospective
- Identify the roles involves in the Scrum Team

What topics are covered within this course?
You will cover the following topics during this course:
- An Introduction to Agile Project Management (Product Owner)
- The 12 Agile Principles (Product Owner)
- The Declaration of Interdependence (Product Owner)
- Introduction to Scrum (Product Owner)
- Scrum Project Roles (Product Owner)
- The Agile Project Life-cycle (Product Owner)
- Acceptance Criteria and the Prioritised Product Backlog (Product Owner)
- Epics and Personas (Product Owner)
- Sprint Planning (Product Owner)
- User Stories (Product Owner)
- The Daily Scrum (Product Owner)
- The Product Backlog (Product Owner)
- Scrum Charts (Product Owner)
- Review and Retrospective (Product Owner)
- Validating a Sprint (Product Owner)
- Releasing the Product (Product Owner)
Our Book Recommendations
We found these books great for finding out more information on Agile Scrum: