Invest in Good User Stories

User Stories are certainly an easy concept. But what makes a Good User Story?

That's a bit of an open question. I'm sure everyone has a different opinion of what good looks like.

But there are certainly some common characteristics of a Good User Story.

Bill Wake, author of 'eXtreme Programming Explored', suggests this 'INVEST' acronym as a simple way to remember and assess whether or not a User Story is well formed.

Good User Stories should be:
* Independent
* Negotiable
* Valuable
* Estimatable
* Small
* Testable

Personally I'm not really a big fan of management acronyms - they can be a bit cheesy. But I do like this one. I think it's very helpful for people new to writing User Stories to remember and assess what makes a Good User Story, particular as User Stories are such an open format.

Kelly.