---
title: "Writing A Story"
chapter: false
weight: 42
---

As mentioned previously, an epic is a large requirement that needs to be broken down into stories.  An epic could take many weeks or months to implement, but you want your team to work on stories that can be implemented in a week or less.  (This will become clearer when we talk about sprints in a subsequent module in this workshop.)

When decomposing an epic into stories, there are some considerations to keep in mind when defining the stories:  

- A user story defines some value that is delivered to a customer or end-user.  The story should be clear about who is receiving the value and what that value is.  If the story is delivering multiple benefits to different people, then you might consider separate stories.

- A good user story needs to be well defined.  How will someone know if the story is fully and properly implemented?  This is what is referred to as the “definition of done” for the story.

- A user story should be able to be completed within a sprint (typically two weeks).  We will discuss estimation in a subsequent module.  If a story is too large, then it should be further decomposed into multiple stories.

A good way to express a user story is to write it as a single sentence that combines the three parts of persona, requirement, and benefit.  A common format is **“As a [persona], I want [requirement], so that [benefit]”**.  You can also think of it is as answering who, what, and why for the story.

### Decomposing Your First Epic into Stories

At Mythical Misfits, you have gathered your team together to engage in decomposing the epics into stories.  As you discuss the first epic with the office manager, your team comes to understand that the garden refresh involves multiple aspects that affect different people.  After discussion, the team comes up with the following four user stories:

- As a garden caretaker, I want our gnome Slevenbirt to be placed in the garden, so that our mythical creatures feel safe in the garden.

- As a mythical creature feeder, I want the garden to contain an apple tree, so that our unicorns can enjoy a treat.

- As a courtyard viewer, I want the garden to have mythical flowers, so that the garden reflects the magical nature of our organization.

- As a garden caretaker, I want the plants to be properly watered, so that the plants will grow healthy.

Let’s create a story issue in Jira for the first user story.