Agile software development and user stories

When I write software for myself, I usually think of my software application from the perspective of a business analyst, and write down short user stories, as shown in the image of the index card. First I write the stories, and then I cross them off when I finish them.

I find this approach of writing down user stories and then crossing them off to be a very effective practice. It helps keep me focused on the task at hand. This approach is also the same as what we attempt to do when developing software in an “agile” manner; write down the stories, prioritize them, and then implement them in the desired order. In my case I often only have a few hours to work on my own projects, so prioritizing them is a really big deal.

If you’re familiar with the process of fixing software bugs, you’ll notice that this is exactly the same process. Some developers think of software as being in a constant state of bug fixes, or perhaps more accurately, always in a state of change.