User scenarios, user stories, use cases — what’s the difference?
User scenarios, user stories, use cases — what’s the difference?
User Story are from the perspective of the end user, and very simple in structure:
- As a (user type) I want to (action/feature) so that (reason)
- As a (user type) I want to (action/feature) because (reason)
Example: As a runner I want to track the miles I run each day so that I can have a good understanding of how much I have exercised.
They also contain details that indicate what should happen, driven by context and other situations:
- If (context) and (additional context) when (event) then (outcome)
Example: If I stop running and I stop for more than ten minutes, then the record of my run needs to be saved as a new run record.
User Story are used in the Agile Development process to scope features.
User Scenarios are much more detailed and include details such as user’s motivation and environment.
User Scenarios paint a picture that is more complete, but they are often viewed as superfluous on projects that have an aggressive schedule. When to use scenarios depends on the project and the needs of the project.
Use Case are structured documents that contain requirements and details of what functionality should exist. Use cases are (usually) extremely entailed and detail both user behavior and system response.