Quality Verification in User Stories: A Systematic Mapping

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47187/perspectivas.8.1.251

Keywords:

Quality Criteria, User Stories, Software Engineering, Systematic Mapping

Abstract

Agile development has established user stories as a fundamental practice for requirements elicitation, leading to increasing academic interest in assessing their quality. This paper presents a systematic mapping study aimed at identifying the quality criteria applied in user story verification, examining their temporal evolution, geographical distribution, and underlying conceptual frameworks. Established methodological guidelines for systematic mapping studies and systematic literature reviews were followed during the study selection process. A total of 58 primary studies published between 2004 and 2024 were analyzed. The INVEST and QUS frameworks emerged as the most frequently referenced, with unambiguity identified as the most commonly cited quality criterion, although it is not the sole aspect that should be considered. Furthermore, the results reveal a concentration of research efforts in technologically advanced countries and a significant increase in publications in 2024. These findings confirm a sustained growth in scholarly interest in the verification of user story quality.

References

[1] "IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology" IEEE Std 610.12-1990, pp. 1-84, 1990.

[2] R. S. Pressman, "Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach", Seventh Edition, McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2010.

[3] S. Ashmore and K. Runyan, "Introduction to Agile Methods", Addison-Wesley, Pearson Education, Inc., 2015.

[4] K. Beck, M. Beedle, A. van Bennekum, A. Cockburn, W. Cunningham, M. Fowler, J. Grenning, J. Highsmith, A. Hunt, R. Jeffries, J. Kern, B. Marick, R. C. Martin, S. Mellor, K. Schwaber and J. Sutherland, "Manifesto for Agile Software Development," 2001. [Online]. Available: http://agilemanifesto.org/.

[5] J. Shore, "The Art of Agile Development", 2nd Edition, O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2021.

[6] M. Cohn, "User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development", Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., 2004.

[7] X. Wang, L. Zhao, Y. Wang and J. Sun, "The Role of Requirements Engineering Practices in Agile Development: An Empirical Study", Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2014.

[8] N. Godbole, "Software Quality Assurance Principles And Practice", Alpha Science, 2004.

[9] G. Lucassen, F. Dalpiaz, J. M. Van der Werf and S. B. Brinkkemper, "Improving agile requirements: the Quality User Story framework and tool," Requirements Engineering, 2016.

[10] L. Montgomery, D. Fucci, A. Bouraffa, L. Scholz and W. Maalej , "Empirical research on requirements quality: a systematic mapping study", Requirements Engineering, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 183-209, 2022.

[11] A. R. Amna and G. Poels, "Systematic Literature Mapping of User Story Research", IEEE Access, 2022.

[12] A. R. Amna and G. Poels, "Ambiguity in user stories: A systematic literature review", Information and Software Technology, 2022.

[13] A. Hendriana, T. Raharjo and A. Nurfitriani, "Approaches in Determining User Story Quality through Requirement Elicitation: A Systematic Literature Review", Indonesian Journal of Computer Science, 2023.

[14] K. Petersen, R. Feldt, S. Mujtaba and M. Mattsson, "Systematic Mapping Studies in Software Engineering", Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, vol. 17, 2008.

[15] K. Petersen, S. Vakkalanka and L. Kuzniarz, "Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update", Information and Software Technology, vol. 64, pp. 1-18, 2015.

[16] B. A. Kitchenham, D. Budgen and P. Brereton, "Evidence-Based Software Engineering and Systematic Reviews", Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

[17] O. I. Lindland, G. Sindre and A. Sølvberg, "Understanding quality in conceptual modeling", IEEE Software, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 42-49, 1994.

[18] K. Schwaber and J. Sutherland, "Scrum Guide", 2020. [Online]. Available: https://scrumguides.org/revisions.html.

[19] G. Lucassen, F. Dalpiaz, J. M. Van der Werf and S. B. Brinkkemper, "The Use and Effectiveness of User Stories in Practice," in Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality, 2016.

Published

2026-01-28

Issue

Section

Artículos arbitrados

How to Cite

[1]
“Quality Verification in User Stories: A Systematic Mapping”, Perspectivas, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 33–43, Jan. 2026, doi: 10.47187/perspectivas.8.1.251.

Most read articles by the same author(s)