User stories as boundary objects in agile requirements engineering: A theoretical literature review

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dc.contributor.authorSporsem, Tor Thorsrud
dc.contributor.authorDingsøyr, Torgeir
dc.contributor.authorStol, Klaas Jan
dc.contributor.funderNorwegian Research Councilen
dc.contributor.funderResearch Irelanden
dc.contributor.funderEuropean Regional Development Funden
dc.date.accessioned2026-01-07T09:25:56Z
dc.date.available2026-01-07T09:25:56Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractUser stories have become the predominant method for managing requirements in software development, used by approximately half of all software developers. Despite this widespread adoption, there is limited theoretical understanding of how user stories are used in practice. Through a theoretical literature review of 14 industry studies, we develop five theoretical propositions: 1) user stories facilitate shared understanding between developers and users; 2) small user stories help developers cope with change; 3) clarifying the ‘why’ in user stories reinforces focus on user needs but adds complexity to the development process; 4) conversations triggered by user stories can hamper the sense of productivity; and 5) user stories as recorded in writing degrade over time. Using boundary object theory as an analytical lens, we explain how user stories facilitate knowledge transfer across syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic boundaries between developers and users. This theoretical lens offers new insights into why some user stories succeed while others fail to bridge boundaries between users and developers. The review highlights the sharp contrast between the widespread use of user stories among practitioners and the limited academic research on their practical application. We end with identifying opportunities for future research, particularly on how user stories can be used in the era of generative AI. en
dc.description.sponsorshipNorwegian Research Council (346563); Research Ireland (13/RC/2094-P2)en
dc.description.statusPeer-revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid112693
dc.identifier.citationSporsem, T., Dingsøyr, T. and Stol, K. J. (2025) 'User stories as boundary objects in agile requirements engineering: A theoretical literature review', Journal of Systems and Software, 233, 112693 (21pp). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2025.112693en
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jss.2025.112693
dc.identifier.endpage21
dc.identifier.issn1641212
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of Systems and Softwareen
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18378
dc.identifier.volume233
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherElsevier Inc.en
dc.rights© 2025, The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.statusPeer revieweden
dc.subjectAgile requirements engineeringen
dc.subjectBoundary objects theoryen
dc.subjectKnowledge boundariesen
dc.subjectSoftware development,en
dc.subjectTheoretical literature reviewen
dc.subjectUser storiesen
dc.titleUser stories as boundary objects in agile requirements engineering: A theoretical literature reviewen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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