Written by Cassie, 2021 Cohort
When it comes to the Agile methodology, many people contend that it is a powerful approach to help teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches. However, some people think that this method enjoys undeserved fame since it is just old wine in a new bottle. This semester we were introduced to the agile methodology terminology for process management of the final project. After doing research and hands-on using it in the group project, I gradually grasped the mystery and value of Scrum. In this article, I will share my understanding of the application of user stories in the backlog.
User stories, as the name suggests, describe the functionality that users desire from the user’s perspective. And what is the relationship between the backlog and user stories? The following backlog process in the agile team may give you the answer:
- Users share ideas: Users can describe ideas in the abstract or in detail as they like before the team start the project. After the preliminary user research, the team turn verbal communication into tangible features known as “user stories.”
- Collect user feedback: If the product needs to be improved after user testing, they will add the feedback to the product backlog.
- Continuously maintain the product backlog: Prioritize user stories in the product backlog, and add or remove user stories at any time.
From this rough process, it can be seen that a well-written user story is the foundation of agile development because the process of writing user stories is about understanding the requirements and refining user needs step by step.
Specifically, the advantages of user stories compared to traditional requirements use cases are discussed in the article Advantages of User Stories For Requirements, including:
- “Precise”: When users share their opinions, they express them verbally. And the writing specification of the User story can remove ambiguity so that customers and developers can explicate the requirements.
- “Useful for planning”: The developer can estimate the time required for completion according to the description in the user story and specify the priority of the user story.
- “Spare me the details”: At the beginning of a long-term project, the team only needs to build a goal-level user story before starting the development process. When needed, the team can reconsider the details of the user story and split it into multiple finer sub-user stories.
Looking at the agile methodology through a small part of the user story, we can see that the agile projects are open to changing requirements over time and encourage constant feedback from the end-users. This makes it easier for project teams to adapt to changing priorities, respond to problems that arise, and cut down on costs, time, and inefficiencies.
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