User Stories made simple

User Stories are part of agile approach to shift the focus from writing requirements to talking about them.  
User Stories mainly include one or two written sentences, followed by a series of conversations  about the desired functionality.

User Stories are similar to use cases but they are not the same, they replace the large requirement documents used in software development.

User Stories are not even narratives, they are much simpler than that. User Stories are the most of the time misunderstood for requirements and use cases in XP teams.

User Stories are one or two line description that convey what the team has to work on.

The main objective of user stories is to trigger conversations and discussions about the requirements within the team.

Although the User Stories are very short, they still have two important characteristics:

1. Customer Value - The stories should be written in customer’s terminology. It should focus on the end result the the customer values, not the implementation details.
2. Completion Criteria- Each story should clearly define a completion criteria. The customer can describe an objective test that would allow the programmers to tell when the story is successfully implemented.