User Story Writing Made Easy

What Is A User Story?

Represent A Small Piece Of Business Value

Use Cases Are As Detailed As Possible

User Stories Are Defined Incrementally

INVEST by Bill Wake*

• Independent• We want to be able to develop in any sequence

• Negotiable• Avoid too much detail; keep them flexible so the team can adjust how much of the story to

implement

• Valuable• Users or customers get some value out of the story

• Estimable• The team must be able to use them for planning

• Small• The story should be able to be designed, coded, and tested within the iteration

• Testable• Document acceptance criteria or the definition of done

Independent

Independent

As a user, I want to pay for my order with VISA

As a user, I want to pay for my order with MasterCard

As a user, I want to pay for my order with an additional type

of credit card

As a user, I want to pay for my order with one type of credit

card

Negotiable

Negotiable

As a user, I want to pay for my order with my credit card

Note: Accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Consider Discover

As a user, I want to pay for my order with my credit card

Note: Accept, Visa, MasterCard, and American express. Consider Discover. On purchase over

$100, ask for card ID number from back of card. The can tell what type of card it is from the 1st two

A B

Estimable

Sized

Testable

Testable

A user must find the software easy to use

A user must never have to wait for any screen to appear

As a user, I want every screen to appear within 1 second

As a user, I want to achieve my goal within 4 clicks

Why User Stories?

Keeps Tech Focused on Business Value

Avoids Introducing Detail Too Early

Encourages Bite Sized Pieces Of Functionality

Leaves Technical Functions To The Dev Team

Best Practices

Start Big

Stick To A Solid Format

Highlight A User Class

Common Mistakes

Missing The Detail Target

Too Detailed

Too Broad

Just Right

Technical Tasks Masquerading As Stories

Skipping The Conversation

Quiz Time!