One of the key benefits of agile requirements engineering is the focus on benefits, on the “why” rather than the “what”.

This starts with the goals: In PAM, the A stands for Advantage and is at least as important as the P (for Purpose).

And in the story format that can and should be used for Epics, Features, and Stories, the third part of the phrase () is especially important. Knowing the rationale allows the PO team and developers to make alternative suggestions for functionality that might actually be better at achieving those benefits than what users have in mind.

But be careful: it is possible to overdo it with the justifications in the documentation. Often it is enough to discuss the justifications verbally and save the writing effort for that.

Gojko Adcic gives the example of the story: As a trader I want to trade so that I can trade.

This makes no sense.