[IxDA Discuss] User stories vs. user personas

[V V]

 I would say that user stories are created tounderstand how much time it takes to develop the stories or the tasks. They arecreated by clients or the development team and contain a short description ofwhat the system or the product should do. The list of user stories collectedwill be used for development planning purposes like what stories/features inter-dependentand what stories should be developed first, what would be the ideal developmenttime and whether it is a low/medium or high priority feature.
 
On the other hand while personas are also used for documenting the end-userneeds, they are used as a motivating tool for the designer and to communicatethe end-user needs to clients and the development team who are involved in theproject and help them understand the emotions and goals of the users. Personasare created by user researchers or designers and it details the goals of theusers, their work environment and the tasks that they do to achieve the goal. 
 
So, personas are appropriate to use at the end of the research phase tocommunicate end user goals and user stories should be used during developmentplanning to understand how many iterations it would take and what storiesshould be developed in each iteration.
 
- Suba Periyasami





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