A user story is a tool used in agile software development and product management to represent the smallest unit of work in the framework. It is an informal, natural language description of a feature of the software or product from the end-user perspective. User stories are written from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer of the software. They are not requirements documents, nor are they design documents. Instead, they are a short, simple description of a feature that tells a story about someone using the product. User stories are composed of three aspects: card, conversation, and confirmation. The card is a written description of the story, used for planning and as a reminder. The conversation is a discussion about the story that serves to flesh out the details of the story. The confirmation is tests that convey and document details that can be used to determine when a story is complete.

In Scrum, user stories are added to sprints and “burned down” over the duration of the sprint. They are one of the core components of an agile program and help provide a user-focused framework for daily work, which drives collaboration, creativity, and a better product overall. User stories are written throughout the agile project, and usually, a story-writing workshop is held near the start of the agile project. Everyone on the team participates with the goal of creating a product backlog that fully describes the functionality to be added over the course of the project or a three- to six-month release cycle within it.

To write a good user story in Scrum, one must understand the basic user story template, focus on the user or customer, and have a clear picture of the desired functionality. The user story template follows a standard format: "As a . The user story must be self-contained to ensure it can be released without relying on another, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, and testable.