Rina,
Good day my name is Perry McLeod.
When you write 'story specs' are you asking about use case scenarios? Swimlanes were invented by IBM back in the day - they are a standard now-a-days in flowcharts for showing cross-functional processes. UML can not call them swimlanes but you also see them in activity diagrams.
This is what they typically look like.
...can't seem to attach or insert and image. send me an email to pmcleod@perrymcleod.com and I will pass you an example.
Back to the 'stories'. I will typically ask users for their stories, which I translate into needs and eventually into use case scenarios and specifications. I wrote about this as part of a stakeholder analysis this morning and posted it in the requirements form.
Is this what you are asking about?