In which stage of the Application Lifecycle are user stories created?

User stories are an essential component of the agile development process and play a critical role in the design phase of the application lifecycle. In this stage, user stories are created to define the functionality that the end-users require from the application. They serve as informal, concise descriptions of a software feature from the perspective of the user, aligning development efforts with user needs.

By focusing on who the user is, what they want to achieve, and why it's important, user stories help to clarify requirements and ensure that the development team understands the desired outcomes. The design phase is primarily about conceptualizing and planning how the application will function, making it the ideal time to gather and articulate user stories. This sets the foundation for the subsequent stages of development and testing, where actual coding and quality assurance activities take place based on the defined requirements.

In contrast, the other stages like development, testing, and deployment involve more implementation and later validation of the application rather than the initial gathering and structuring of user requirements, which is why they are not the correct answer for the context of where user stories are created.