One of the crucial aspects in defining User Stories is the way they are sliced or broken down.

Now, a lot of us(mostly, BAs but anyone who is involved in story splitting) have heard about the INVEST principle of story slicing. Let’s understand what this acronym stands for:

• Independent, a story should be independent of other stories i.e. no other stories should have dependency with each other.

Hah! Sounds good, doesn’t work(I’m sure you’ve heard this somewhere 😈 )

• Negotiable, as the requirements and priorities of the project may change over time, a user story should be negotiable(not the scope of the story, but it should be a flexible piece in the plan).
• Valuable, this is one of the important aspect of a user story i.e. it should generate value to the end user.

Now, INVEST principles in themselves are dependent on each other, how ironic. For e.g. for a story to add V alue, it should be S mall so that it is delivered quickly, T estable, so that it should not be labeled as “no testing required story”(QA is also an end user of the developed story)

• Estimable, you are able to estimate the size and complexity of any story.

For e.g. just changing a logo is a vague requirement for a story as one cannot determine the estimates based on the given information. What if the logo provided is a large file and needs to be resized.

• Small, a story should be small for you to finish it in a designated time.

You are able to deliver what you have committed for in terms of value(ignore unavoidable circumstances like external dependency not met etc.).

• Testable, each user story should have clear acceptance criteria, so that it can be tested to determine whether it has been implemented correctly.

*My personal favourite are VET.

Few FAQs regarding INVEST:

I am not able to INVEST :(

That’s OK, INVEST principles are not written in golden lines, you don’t have to abide by them. They are guiding principles which one needs to consider.

My client is INVESTed into this idea, how do I make sure I keep aligning with these principles?

At a first glance, things may look overwhelming that you can curate the best batch of user stories. But, this may not happen every time. If a client is bought into the idea, make sure everyone understands the nuances of each attribute, not theoretically but practically too.

What do you mean by not theoretically but practically too?

When you work on the real problem, things may look scary and you would not know how to apply INVEST and that’s OK. As long as you are able to align 60–70%, you are good to go. There is no such thing as an ideal user story.

Happy INVESTing!