Stories vs. user stories: a terminological clarification

Abstract

User stories are the main vehicle to describe user needs in Agile projects and Agile project developments. But being this concept universally agreed, we may find that not all work increments have a clear user-centric view. In this paper, we focus on the distinction between user-centric “user stories” and other type of simple narratives, which may be simply called “stories”, which can be at the same level of abstraction. We propose a conceptual model in the form of UML diagram, and associated definitions, to clarify this distinction. The model also makes clearer the distinction among (user) story and (user) story template, which is not always kept clear.

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (published version)