The “story” in agile development’s “user story” is not a narrative in the traditional sense of the word. Many are short on verbs, which is a big hint that something non-narrative is going on. “User story” is shorthand for a set of concepts and principles. The danger with taking a simple word like “story” and assigning it a new meaning is that novices, and occasionally even experts, confuse the jargon with the traditional definition.

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