What does “story” mean in the context of SAFe Agile?

A scaled agile framework refers to a set of organizational practices that can help businesses to adopt an agile framework within their normal workflow. It provides directions to organizations for adopting an agile framework and scaling them according to business needs. Dedicated SAFe agilist certification enables individuals to understand the functioning of the SAFe framework and how it can be applied within a particular organization for the adoption of agile principles. Certified SAFe individuals can, therefore, apply their knowledge and successfully implement scalable agile principles within an organization for delivery of a project on time and with efficiency.

Acting as a broad concept involving the adoption of various practices, SAFe helps in empowering individuals within an organization for the development and delivery of a ready product on time. Clients or users provide the necessary information concerning a product which is then delivered to agile team members for production. Stories act as an important aspect of a SAFe framework which involves delivering information about a product to the agile team members. User’s needs are communicated to team members responsible for the development and delivery of a ready product. These act as information that is supplied in small bits and in an understandable manner for the agile team members.

Stories within a SAFe framework are very important as they help communicate information and needs of a user who can be a customer or team member. Necessary information with respect to the functionality of a particular product is delivered through user stories. The ways of achieving the same and details are discussed at a later stage. These are generally communicated through physical means like notes which can help in providing a tangible direction for achieving a particular objective.

Stories are also divided into two types:

User stories:
Writing with the perspective of a user, User stories act as the best way of communicating necessary information about a product to the agile team members. Agile team members are able to understand what a user requires, its demands, and how it can help in improving overall business values with efficiency. Moreover, some user stories are written not from the perspective of a final user but a device that is being developed for final usage. Their availability in a physical format even helps team members to track their completion.

Enabler stories:
These stories are not concerned with User needs or from their perspective but based on infrastructure or capabilities which the team members want to incorporate into a particular product. Including a particular feature or improving the overall functionality of a product is the main concern of enabler stories.