Scrum
Software development methodology.
User story
Agile modeling
http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/userStory.htm
User stories are very slim and high-level requirements artifacts.
As a (role) I want (something) so that (benefit).
- Students can purchase monthly parking passes online.
- Parking passes can be paid via credit cards.
Parking passes can be paid via PayPal.
Extreme programming
Deliver the software you need as you need it.
Extreme Programmers constantly communicate with their customers and fellow programmers.
http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules.html
http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/userstories.html
User stories should only provide enough detail to make a reasonably low risk estimate of how long the story will take to implement.
When the time comes to implement the story developers will go to the customer and receive a detailed description of the requirements face to face.
You should try to keep stories focused on user needs and benefits.