What are User Stories?

From the Wikipedia entry on User story: "A user story is a software system requirement formulated as one or two sentences in the everyday language of the user."

How to Write User Stories

Try starting with these templates:

• As a
  Unknown macro: {Role}
  I want
  Unknown macro: {Bugfix/Feature/Functionality}
  so that
  Unknown macro: {Business value}
  .
• Benefit:
  Unknown macro: {What are the benefits of doing this?}
• Detriment:
  Unknown macro: {What if I don't do this?}

For example:

• As a developer I want to create a logging framework so that I can have a central point to configure logging.
• Benefit: Decreases maintenance cycles and allows for easier debugging saving around 50-70% dev time per issue.
• Detriment: Logging will have to be ad hoc and will not be as full featured increasing remedy time on production issues.

More Info

• inspiration for templates
• Dan North on Behavior Driven Development (search for "story template" for relevant info)