User Story Template

Owned by Samir Sheikh (Unlicensed)
Apr 06, 2021
2 min read

This is a generic user story template. Please follow INVEST criteria when creating user story. Team will work on the user stories that will be saved in Azure DevOps.

Title:

 

Business Priority: <Low, Med, High>

Estimate:

 

Description:

As a <type of user>

I want to <perform some task>

So that I can <achieve some goal>

 

Acceptance criteria 

Given <some context>

When <some action is carried out>

Then <a set of observable outcomes should occur>

 

Include:

UX diagrams: <Link for reference>

Architecture Diagram: <Link for reference>

Any other information that will help development team (Dev, Test) to successfully complete this story.

 

Follow INVEST criteria when writing user story

Independent

  • Immediately Actionable

Independent stories can be freely re-ordered in the product backlog. Sometimes you can’t get rid of an order dependency but it should be an exception.

 Negotiable / Negotiated

  • Open for Discussion

A user story is the reminder to have a conversation. In that conversation the team negotiates the concrete solution, the “I want to” part. The story may be enhanced or rewritten.

 Valuable / Vertical

  • To the Customer

Each story adds something useful for the end user / customer - the “so that” part. This leads to vertical increments: e.g., a working slice of front end, scripts & DB, instead of a finished DB without front end.

 Estimable

  • Able to Estimate

You need a rough effort estimate to guestimate ROI and order the backlog. If you can’t estimate, you need to a) break the story into pieces or b) better understand what value it’s meant to add or c) explore unknown tech in a time-boxed research spike.

 Small

  • Enough to Plan/Task/Prioritize Within Level of Accuracy

Small stories are easier to estimate and test and hide fewer misunderstandings. “Small” can be 1 day in a web shop or 3 person-weeks for a medical product. At the very least, the team must be able to finish a story (“done done”) in 1 iteration.

 Testable

  • Necessary Information to make Test Possible

It must be possible to write a test (at least in theory) for each story. Otherwise, how will you confirm that the story is done? Sometimes test cases are given as acceptance criteria. If you can’t think of a test, the story is probably too fuzzy.