Using Job Stories and Jobs-to-be-Done in software requirements engineering

Abstract

In the field of requirements engineering (RE) for software products, lightweight approaches such as User Stories have gained substantial adoption. While critics highlight the limitations of User Stories, Job Stories are emerging as an alternative that emphasizes situations, motivations and expected outcomes. Building on the broader theory of Jobs-to-be-Done, this new approach has not been studied in research yet. Scientific foundations are lacking for the Job Story artifact and there are no actionable methods for effectively applying Job Stories. Thus, practitioners end up creating their own variant of Job Stories that fail to deliver the promised value of the Jobs-to-be-Done theory. We integrate theories from multiple Job Story authors to create a conceptual model of Job Stories and to construct a generic method for Jobs-to-be-Done Oriented RE. Applying our Job Story Method to an industry case study, we highlight benefits and limitations. Our method aims to bring Job Stories from craft to discipline, and provide systematic means for applying Jobs-to-be-Done Oriented RE in practice and for assessing its effectiveness.