althris logo light
  • Home
  • In-Class Training
    • PRINCE2® Training
    • Agile Training Courses
    • Project Management
    • Change Management
    • Team Management
    • ITIL® Service Management
    • Programme Management
    • Course Enquiry
  • Online Training
    • ITIL4® – Foundation and Exam Online
  • Events
  • About
    • News
    • About Us
    • Consulting
    • Shop
    • Contact Us

    Shopping Cart

    No products in the basket.

    Sign in
    althris orange

    Shopping Cart

    No products in the basket.

    althris orange
    • Log In
    • Register
    • Home
    • In-Class
      • PRINCE2® Training
      • Agile Training Courses
      • Project Management
      • Change Management
      • Team Management
      • ITIL® Service Management
      • Programme Management
      • Course Enquiry
    • Online
    • Events
    • About
      • News
      • About Us
      • Consulting
      • Shop
      • Contact Us
    agile back to basis blog scaled e1588715453596

    User Stories – Invest

    The Six Attributes of a User Story and Why They All Count The current best practice in Agile Software Development to clearly and briefly describe…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    agile back to basis blog scaled e1588715453596

    Agile – Back to Basis

    Back to Basics: When was the last time you looked at the Agile Manifesto? The Agile Software Development method was officially introduced in 2001 (http://agilemanifesto.org/).…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    scrum training 638x321 1

    Scrum Master Is Not A Project Manager

    The Specific Reasons Why a Scrum Master is Not a Project Manager Companies new to Agile often fall into the crucial trap of mistaking the…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    is estimating a waste of time scaled e1588713638520

    Is Estimating A Waste Of Time

    Is Estimating A Waste Of Time? Our world is built up of plans and estimate, business judge the CEO’s and senior manager by the estimates…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    company learning development resource solutions

    Project Sponsorship

    The 7 Key Roles of the Executive Sponsor in Modern Project Management Perhaps the most crucial roles in any project is the Executive Sponsor role.…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    agile estimation approaches

    Project Schedules The Management Model On Agile Methodology

    Agile Development: Project Schedules on an Agile Methodology If you come from a traditional project management background, or if you have a Project Management Office…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    teacher points boy 500 500x321 1

    Agile Development: Making Sprint Retrospective Meetings More Productive

    Sprint Retrospective is the opportunity for the entire Agile Team (Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team) to inspect and create an action plan for…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    prince2 foundation training and exam

    7 Steps to Passing the PSM 1 Exam

    Facing into an exam is never easy, particularly if your company is paying for it, or if you are doing it with a group of…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    effective user stories using lego

    Agile Development: How To Write Effective User Stories

    A user story is a short and simple description of the customer’s need. It is usually told from the perspective of those who are requesting…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    prince2 introduction course

    PMBOK 6 Tailoring

    PM Tailoring The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) presents the guidelines for best practices that can be applied to projects. It also presents a…

    Althris Admin 5 May 2020
    Load More

    FOLLOW ALTHRIS

    CATEGORIES

    • Agile Training
    • Business
    • Exams
    • Scrum
    • Technology
    • Training
    • Uncategorised

    RECENT POSTS

    • learning zone img

      How You Can Benefit from Change…

    • 5 Reasons Why MSP Is Good…

    • How To Become A Project Manager?

    • MSP

      MSP Foundation: A comprehensive guide

    • Leadership Mindset Skill Graph

      What is Agile Leadership? (And What…

    See all
    althris orange

    Althris provide learning and development project support, expert contractor services and training for agile and project management.

    Twitter Facebook-f Linkedin-in

    Popular Courses

    • PRINCE2® Training
    • Agile Training
    • Project Management
    • Change Management
    • Team Management
    • Programme Management
    Menu
    • PRINCE2® Training
    • Agile Training
    • Project Management
    • Change Management
    • Team Management
    • Programme Management

    London Office

    5 Luke Street, London, England EC2A 4PX

    e: [email protected]

    t: 020 3740 7946

    Dublin Office

    Suite 17, The Cubes Offices, Beacon South Quarter, Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18, Ireland

    e: [email protected]

    t: 01 254 8600

    Copyright © 2022 Althris. All Rights Reserved.

    Trademarks

    Privacy Policy

    Terms & Conditions

    Forum Description

    The Six Attributes of a User Story and Why They All Count

    The current best practice in Agile Software Development to clearly and briefly describe the functionality from the end-user’s perspective is the User Story. High quality User Stories will become part of the product backlog iteration. Weak User Stories are a waste of time and should be avoided at all cost.

    This article will teach you the six attributes every effective user story must possess to pass the backlog quality check and ensure you spend your time right.

    The INVEST Mnemonic To Writing High Quality User Stories

    This simple, yet profoundly powerful mnemonic is a creation of Bill Wake the co-inventor of Extreme Programming.

    I = Independent
    A great User Story has the potential to stand for itself. By following this criterion the story can be scheduled and implemented in any desired order. This makes the story usable in different contexts and for multiple concepts.

    N = Negotiable… and Negotiated
    Outstanding User Stories are co-created by the programmer and the user. Only the main essence is captured, while the details are steadily added and influence the whole backlog in an iterative manner.

    V = Valuable
    All great stories add specific value to their target audience, in this case: the user. Especially when splitting stories, each individual piece should address one very specific area in which value is created, while telling the overall conceptual story.

    E = Estimable
    Every User Story must be estimable in order to be considered for a ranking by the customer. The degree of ratability is directly linked to the story being negotiable. Only stories that are understood by all stakeholders are estimable in scope and budget.

    S = Small
    A Story should not be overwritten and only focus on one key value adding idea. Keeping it within the range of a few person-days and at most a few person-weeks ensures that the story will be estimable.

    T = Testable
    Stories must be testable in order to be considered for the product backlog. If a story is not testable due to a lack of information it probably is not estimable and does not provide specific value to the customer.
    All of the six attributes have to be considered in order for the User Story to be implementable. They affect each other in an iterative manner. Shortcomings in one area may lead to an information deficit in another and towards an unusable story.

    Take the time to check your User Stories for all of these attributes. Time has shown that a Feedback Circle of Proposing – Estimating – Implementing is the most effective way to produce a great User Story, implementable in many different contexts.

    Where to go with the user story when completed

    A user story is typically functionality that will be visible to users, by users this includes end users, administrator’s manager. To create a user story will require a number of tasks to be completed. These tasks are often shared out among a range of people such as analysis’s, designers, programmers and testers so each has their own task. When put together the tasks complete the user story.

    User stories appear on the Product Backlog and tasks appear on the sprint backlog.

    Include INVEST workshops as part of good Scrum Master training and coaching.