What is a story?¶
A Story — in the context of a Use Case in the Use Case Tree — defines a business requirement. It captures what someone needs to accomplish, expressed in their own language.
"User Stories" start out as plain English sentences that, as the name suggests, come from the user. In other words, "the Business" or "the Customer" — the end user of a system or application — is responsible for explaining to the people who need to deliver that system what the system is supposed to do.
Makes sense, right? Unfortunately, it's usually not that simple. All kinds of other factors come into play that have nothing to do with specifying what the user really wants, such as design, architecture, existing systems, budgets, time, regulations, policies, and technical capabilities.
The challenge¶
However, it is a good thing to at least capture the "real" wishes of the user without having to consider all of those other aspects. The challenge is to ask the user to step out of their normal day-to-day practices and comfort zone and to think ahead in a way that is not restricted by all the daily hurdles and practicalities.