user-story-templates

# User Story Templates

Comprehensive templates and frameworks for writing effective user stories with clear acceptance criteria, enabling agile development teams to deliver value incrementally.

## What is a User Story?

A user story is a concise description of a feature from the end-user's perspective. It follows the format: "As a [user], I want [goal], so that [benefit]."

**Purpose**:
- Communicate requirements from user perspective
- Enable incremental delivery
- Facilitate conversation and collaboration
- Support estimation and planning
- Guide testing and acceptance

## When to Use This Skill

**Auto-loaded by agents**:
- `requirements-engineer` - For user story formats, epic breakdown, and spike stories

**Use when you need**:
- Breaking down features into user stories
- Writing acceptance criteria
- Planning sprints and iterations
- Communicating requirements to development teams
- Refining product backlogs
- Splitting large stories
- Validating story quality with INVEST criteria
- Estimating and prioritizing work

---

## User Story Format

### Basic Template

```
As a [user type/persona]
I want to [action/goal]
So that [benefit/value]
```

**Example**:
```
As a small business owner
I want to export my invoices as PDF
So that I can send professional-looking invoices to clients
```

### Three Key Components

**1. User Type/Persona** (Who)
- Specific user segment or role
- Good: "free trial user", "team administrator", "mobile app user"
- Bad: "user" (too vague), "the system" (not a user)

**2. Action/Goal** (What)
- What the user wants to accomplish
- Good: "filter search results by date range", "receive email notifications"
- Bad: "have a button" (describes UI), "use the API" (describes implementation)

**3. Benefit/Value** (Why)
- Why the user wants this, what value it provides
- Good: "so that I can quickly find relevant information"
- Bad: "so that it works" (not a benefit), omitting "so that" entirely

For detailed guidance on each component, see `asse