Stories Tell What, Why, and for Whom

A story is a one-sentence statement that describes

  • what it is…
  • why it’s there…
  • and who it’s for.

Let’s say we’re tasked with creating software for online movie ticket sales. One story might read:

As a moviegoer, I’d like to purchase tickets online so that I don’t have to wait in line at the theater.

That one sentence tells me who it’s for (moviegoers/consumers), what they want (to buy movie tickets online), and why they want it (to avoid long lines at the box office). That’s a great start, but it’s just a start; there’s not enough information here to start coding. So stories alone don’t replace specifications, but they focus on the context: the what rather than the how.

There’s a lot more to writing a good ...

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