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Does Anyone Know What a User Story Is?

So, we all know what a user story is, right? I mean, we all use them because that’s the ‘agile’ thing to do (although neither the agile manifesto nor the scrum guide mentions anything about user stories). So, we should at least all agree on what a user story is. Let’s have a look at what’s the definition of a user story: 

• "User stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature" https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/user-stories
• "A user story is the smallest unit of work in an agile framework. It’s an end goal, not a feature, expressed from the software user’s perspective."  https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/user-stories
• "User stories are very slim and high-level requirements artifacts." http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/userStory.htm
• "..a way of representing bits of functionality required by the stakeholders in such a way as to generate the maximum amount of discussion among team members," https://manifesto.co.uk/agile-concepts-user-stories/
• "User stories are short and simple descriptions of capabilities" https://www.leadingagile.com/2012/07/user-story/

It seems that user stories can be a feature, a unit of work, high-level requirements, a bit of functionality, and a capability, depending on whom you ask! Also, bear in mind that the above various definitions are from agile influencers and blogs with thousands of followers. It seems no-one can agree on what a user story is. I often get different definitions of user stories by people within the same team!   

Source: DZone