User Stories and Tasks

A user story is a description of the feature that needs to be developed, including the type of user for which the feature is to be designed and how/why the feature will be used. The format of a user story is often in the format:

As a type of user, I want this functionality, so that I can do this.

Larger user stories (known as epics) are too large to be delivered within a sprint. During the lifecycle of the project, these epics are broken down into story units that can be completed during a sprint. The process of breaking down user stories and making sure that the user stories are prioritized correctly is referred to as backlog grooming or backlog refinement.

User stories are often broken down into smaller units known as tasks. A task is generally handled by a single individual on the team, but that individual is not necessarily responsible for all of the tasks for a particular user story.