The terms ‘user stories’ and ‘use cases’ are being used in every business process. But many people raise their doubts to choose a suitable one out of the two for the agile development of any business. To begin with, we must tell you that both ‘user stories’ and ‘use cases’ are two different things that are being used in business process development. Although the two terms are completely different, they lead to the same outcomes by following different ways.
So, without further ado, we will dive into this subject to share the basic details about these two terms and we will throw light on their necessity in the world of agile development. By the time you end up reading this post, you will get to know which out of the two you should use on the basis of comparison we have made below. Here is the detailed comparison between ‘user stories’ and ‘use cases’:
User Stories
Before you focus on the pros and cons of a ‘user story’, you should know about a basic description of it. Basically, a User Story is a short description that every user gives on visiting a business website or using any software. It describes the way to use the system and it carries a goal that shows the perspective of a user. Here are the pros and cons of a ‘User Story’ in the world of agile development:
Pros:
- It begins with a simple sentence that involves an informal process.
- With the help of this sentence, the ‘User Story’ becomes the beginning phase to derive ‘Use Cases’ in a simple manner.
- User Stories are really helpful for ensuring the agility of adding value fast and in smaller increments.
- The real benefit of a User Story is that it helps in ensuring more productive planning sessions and it introduces a unique as well as versatile way to include last-minute functions to any project.
Cons:
- As stated by many business experts, using User Stories one may leave out plenty of details from any project.
- Secondly, it is time-consuming because the documentation is not complete.
Use Cases
Use Cases are more detailed in nature and these are set of interactions between a system and other systems/people or both. All the possible scenarios are covered under this and the flow of a process in generating a report as well as its outcomes are included in it. It gives a complete description of behavior and the ways of achieving that behavior.
Pros:
- It helps to include the identification of actors and it allows the breaking of the problem into its subdomains. Moreover, the research work use for Use Cases turns out to be beneficial for the project.
Cons:
- As Use Cases provide a formalized blueprint of a given project, it becomes difficult to negotiate or include more projects. Sometimes, it takes a complicated form which makes it difficult for end users or business people to comprehend.
Conclusion:
To conclude on this subject user stories vs use case, we can say that both ‘use cases’ and ‘user studies’ are applicable in varying degrees depending on a project. For long-duration projects, it is advised to focus on Use Cases to fulfill the need for stringent document requirements. And for small projects, one should employ User Stories to meet the purpose.