Agile Requirements: User Stories and Epics

Writing functionality with user value perspective

To document the required technical specifications, this methodology completely abandons lengthy manuals in favor of concise functional descriptions focused purely on the customer's end value.

These descriptions, structured from the perspective of who will use the service, rigorously detail the role of the requester, the action they need to perform and the corporate benefit they will derive from it.

In everyday practice, practitioners often simplify this rigid academic structure by writing straightforward sentences that begin with a very clear action verb.

To have verifiable operational validity, each functionality must incorporate acceptance criteria that dictate exactly when it is considered completed, in addition to meeting feasibility metrics and having a numerical estimate of its level of difficulty.

For example, instead of writing a dense document on security protocols, the requirement will be written in a streamlined form such as "Implement facial recognition for users to access quickly without memorizing complex passwords", making it much easier to understand the real purpose of the construction.

Fragmentation of large requirements (Epics) into manageable stories.

Often, business requirements are of a colossal magnitude that make it impossible to resolve them in their entirety within the narrow chronological confines of a single work cycle.

When managers detect these gigantic requirements, they catalog them under a special nomenclature that denotes their immense structural complexity and operational magnitude.

The methodological procedure requires the technical squad to deeply analyze these large initiatives in order to strategically break them down into much smaller, digestible and easy-to-manage operational units.

This meticulous breakdown ensures that the resulting portions can be scheduled and executed comfortably within the established time window without suffocating staff.

For example, building an entire e-commerce ecosystem represents a titanic effort that is unmanageable in two weeks.

Therefore, managers will break this monumental requirement into smaller, more specific tasks, such as developing the shopping cart, programming the international payment gateway, and integrating the separate photo product catalog.

Summary

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