A2.02 · Decomposition
The Connextra form
A user story is one sentence that carries a whole way of working. The sentence is the form; the way of working is the three Cs.
The Connextra form — “As a role, I want a capability, so that a benefit” — states who gains, what they can do, and why it matters. The three Cs — Card, Conversation, Confirmation — make a story a promise of value with a conversation attached, not a contract frozen up front. Three dives: the template slot by slot, the three Cs, and writing real Portal stories in the form.
One sentence, three slots
A user story is written in the Connextra form: “As a role, I want a capability, so that a benefit.” Three slots, three questions — for whom, what they can do, why it matters. The form is short on purpose: it states the promise of value and nothing more, so the story stays small and testable.
Around that sentence sit the three Cs. The Card is the written placeholder — the form plus a note or two. The Conversation is where the detail lives, deferred to the moment of building. The Confirmation is the acceptance check that says when the story is done. A story is a promise plus a conversation, not a contract written before the work. Select a Portal story below to read its three slots.
The three slots · switch the Portal story
Carry a requirement as a short promise of value — who gains, what they can do, why — plus a conversation, not a long contract written before the work.
The Portal backlog is a stack of Connextra cards — browse, enrol, open a lesson, track progress — each a one-line promise whose detail is settled in conversation and pinned by a confirmation.
A story is one sentence and three Cs: the form states the promise of value; the Cs make it a conversation, not a contract frozen up front.
The three dives
Each dive takes one part of the story, in the arc form → the three Cs → practice: the template slot by slot, the Card–Conversation–Confirmation cycle, and writing real Portal stories in the form. Read them in order — A2.02.1 starts.
Role, want, reason
The template slot by slot — each slot's job, and the three anti-patterns: the system as the role, a solution smuggled into the want, a missing reason.
Card, Conversation, Confirmation
A written placeholder, a conversation that holds the detail deferred on purpose, and an acceptance check — a story as a promise plus a conversation, not a frozen contract.
Portal cards
Write real Portal stories in the form — from a one-line vision to a card, and how the Confirmation foreshadows the Given/When/Then of A2.04.
A2.02 sits between A2.01 · Value, not tasks and A2.03 · INVEST: value names what a story is for, the Connextra form gives it a sentence, and INVEST tests whether that sentence is a good story. Return to the A2 module navigation to continue.
References
The user-story tradition this form draws on, and where it connects in the course.
Sources
- Agile Alliance — User Story Template — the Connextra “As a…, I want…, so that…” form.
- Cohn, M. — User Stories Applied — stories as value, the three Cs, and the role in the card.
- Beck, K. — Extreme Programming Explained — stories and the customer's definition of done.
Related in this course
- A2.02.1 · Role, want, reason
- A2.02.2 · Card, Conversation, Confirmation
- A2.02.3 · Portal cards
- A1.04.2 · The spec layer — the story as the spec's negotiable face.
- A2 · Decomposition — the chapter.