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Following the formal user story style:

As <user>, I want <goal> so that <benefit>.

How can stories be written when there isn't an obvious user-interaction taking place, as in the case of automated processes like nightly invoicing?

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2 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

What's wrong with e.g.:

As a sales assistant, I want the system to generate my invoices raised during the day, that night without my interaction so that time is saved.

Think of who will use the results of the process.

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Also "As an accountant, I want to review the invoices generated nightly to confirm the dollar volume and count" and "As a sales associate I want to review the invoices generated nightly to confirm that all my sales are invoiced correctly" or "As a customer service rep I want to see the automatically generated invoices so that I can review them with a customer." There are an unlimited number of stories based on an internal, automated process. The details of the automated process are an appendix to the story. – S.Lott Feb 1 '12 at 10:49
Hmm, do we even need to specify overnight? i.e. As a user I want the system to generate my invoices automatically – Murph Feb 1 '12 at 12:47
@Murph, depends on what Programming Hero's users need. – StuperUser Feb 1 '12 at 13:24
@Murph: Excellent observation. They have to be generated just before the person wants to look at them. Whether that's overnight or "just in time" is a separate set of decisions. – S.Lott Feb 1 '12 at 15:22
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@StuperUser hmm, there may be constraints that suggest that things need to be done overnight - that I have no issue with... its more that one needs to avoid making any assumptions – Murph Feb 1 '12 at 21:27
up vote 2 down vote

Just give the thing a name as "AutomaticInvoicer". See it as a robot that acts as a person. No big difference there. Maybe use "it" instead of "I" to make the distinction clear.

As <AutomaticInvoicer>, it wants to search for open invoices so that
it can initiate booking.
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I bet if they looked for what started Skynet, they'd find a story that sounded like this :) – DXM Feb 1 '12 at 18:42

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