A User Story is not a Task

No matter the tool we are using to manage our requirements on our Scrum team, this tool must have the capacity to differentiate between tasks and user stories.

A User Story is a functional requirement. This requirement doesn’t have to be written with much technicality. This is the reason why is a “User Story” because is written such as the User/Client would explain it.

Example: As Purchasing Manager I want to receive weekly updates related to unsuccessful delivery of purchase orders, so that I can keep track on those issues with my team.

In the other hand, a task is the technical work required to develop or create the desired result.

Example, for the previous user story, the Development Team identified the following tasks:

• Create the data base stored procedure to generate the data (purchase orders).
• Create a data base job to trigger the weekly alert and send it to the Purchasing Manager.
• Program the frequency and test it.

Usually, tasks are created by the Development Team according to what they need in order to complete the expected work. Scrum Masters and Product Owners usually don’t interfere in the way the team self-organize to develop the functionality.

In some organizations the developers are asked to register the duration of their tasks… 

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