Learn About User Stories

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Define how a user story is used.
• Identify the parts of a user story.

What Is a User Story?

As a Salesforce business analyst, user stories are your best friend. Much like a real-life best friend, a user story helps translate technical requirements into easy-to-understand ideas. (Wait, your best friend doesn’t do that?!) Get ready for the most obvious definition ever: User stories are stories about users. Oh, you want a better definition? User stories are simple descriptions of a feature told from the user’s point of view. 

User stories are used within the Agile methodology. As it relates to a Salesforce business analyst, user stories explain the roles of users in a Salesforce system, their desired activities, and what they intend to accomplish. User stories don’t outline the entire requirement, but instead offer a synopsis of it. The benefits of employing user stories are numerous. 

Utilizing user stories helps you:

• Save time when prioritizing the development/implementation of requirements and functionality.
• Focus on how a project can deliver value back to the customer/end-user.
• Avoid restrictions that occur when specification details are defined too early on.
• Increase collaboration and transparency within the project team.
• Deliver features/products that users actually need.
• Assist in testing solutions.

The Parts

The user story format is intended to be very simple and easy to use. There are three components of every user story.

1. Who: From whose perspective (aka user persona) within Salesforce will this user story be written?
2. What: What goal will be accomplished or implemented within the Salesforce org as the result of the user story?
3. Why: Why does the user need the Salesforce functionality or feature outlined in the user story?

The who, what, and why are arranged in a sentence like this:

As a < who >, I want < what > so that < why >.

User Story Example: As a customer care representative, I want to take ownership of new cases and communicate with customers so that I can provide high-touch customer experiences.

In the example, the customer care representative is the who, take ownership of new cases and communicate with customers is the what, and provide high-touch customer experiences is the why. Seems simple, but writing successful user stories is a skill that takes honing. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. Each part of the user story is equally important and none should be overlooked. Flawed user stories can set the project up for failure as the project progresses.

So far, you’ve learned the purpose, benefits, and the parts of a user story. But wait, there’s more! The next unit is all about ensuring your newly written user stories are successful.