{"id":1899,"date":"2014-06-26T09:31:07","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T16:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookforwardconsulting.com\/?p=1899"},"modified":"2025-06-26T16:42:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:42:31","slug":"why-use-cases-are-still-important-even-if-you-have-user-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2014\/06\/26\/why-use-cases-are-still-important-even-if-you-have-user-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Use Cases Are Still Important…Even if you Have User Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gazelle\"<\/a>A while back, I made the claim in one of the Agile\u00a0LinkedIn groups that writing use cases was one aspect\u00a0of being a professional software developer. \u00a0That naturally received a bunch of push back from people who felt use cases were too heavyweight. \u00a0Many people claimed user stories are more than sufficient for most software teams. \u00a0While I agree with most of the sentiments expressed about why user stories are superior, I still believe\u00a0use cases are the mark of professional software engineering and their absence is a sign that a software project is in trouble.<\/p>\n

Imagine my surprise when I\u00a0stumbled\u00a0across this old\u00a0rant<\/a> from Alistair Cockburn<\/a>, the author of one of the best books on use cases, about people confusing use cases with user stories. \u00a0In his\u00a0rant, Alistair defines quite succinctly the difference between use case and user story.<\/p>\n

A user story<\/em><\/span> is synonymous with\u00a0\u201cfeature\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0as used in the 1990s, a marker for what is to be built, fine-grained enough to fit into modern iteration\/sprint periods. \u00a0A use case<\/em><\/span> provides\u00a0a contextual view of what is to be built,<\/strong>\u00a0serving to bind the organization together, among other things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really like this description since it identifies how the two tools are quite separate and how each provides\u00a0value each. \u00a0If you are interested in spending a little more time with the topic of use cases, Alistair explains why he continues to work with use cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A while back, I made the claim in one of the Agile\u00a0LinkedIn groups that writing use cases was one aspect\u00a0of being a professional software developer. \u00a0That naturally received a bunch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[208,7,32,205,171,22,25,19,10,77,34,206,221,29,214,210,44,17,92,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced-practitioners","category-agile-scrum","category-agile-transformation","category-beginners","category-best-of-the-best","category-coaching","category-communication","category-design-excellence","category-developers","category-distributed-teams","category-documentation","category-practitioners","category-product-management","category-product-owner","category-scrum-artifacts","category-scrum-framework","category-scrum-master","category-testing","category-use-cases","category-user-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nUser Story vs. Use Case<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Knowing the difference between user story vs. use case. 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