Why Do We Need User Stories?

A user story is the modern way that agile development teams are accustomed to receiving requirements. The beauty of a user story is that it maintains focus on the user. It can promote collaboration among the key people on the team. They help you avoid what I'll call surprises. If you can avoid a surprise later on by smoothing out the development process, if you could identify things that you realize now, we're going to have to think about this more.