Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

by Jeff Sutherland

There is a mnemonic I always use to tell whether a story is ready. It was created by Bill Wake, who’s a deep thinker on software design. Bill says that for any story to be ready it needs to meet the INVEST criteria: Independent. The story must be actionable and “completable” on its own. It shouldn’t be inherently dependent on another story. Negotiable. Until it’s actually being done, it needs to be able to be rewritten. Allowance for change is built in. Valuable. It actually delivers value to a customer or user or stakeholder. Estimable. You have to be able to size it. Small. The story needs to be small enough to be able to estimate and plan for easily. If it is too big, rewrite it or break it down into smaller stories. Testable. The story must have a test it is supposed to pass in order to be complete. Write the test before you do the story.