With one of my most recent projects I brought a small list of some of the more obvious stories to an elicitation session. I used it to describe to the interviewee what I was looking for in terms of user requirements, and it seemed to work well enough. We were able to identify several more scenarios or stories using that format.

That said, after I finished the elicitation session I just took those stories and transferred them to use case format anyway.

My takeaway after the trial run is this - If I don’t continue to use the story format, I know that I’ll at least continue to emphasize the statement of value with each requirement more than I have in the past. Requiring the statement of value seemed to keep my subject thinking in terms of the value-add instead of just rattling off neat-to-have features.

Now, we have a somewhat iterative approach to development in my shop, but not agile by even by the loosest of definitions. That said, I suppose these stories hold up well enough as an elicitation tool in any methodology - even if not used in alignment with the intent of the agile purist.

Like you said, bottom line is it’s just another tool in my toolbox.

Mike Harmon