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Product Ownership

INVEST in Good Stories and SMART Tasks

Acronyms to help us create and remind us of the good characteristics of stories and project tasks.

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Bill Wake
Aug 17, 2003 • 7 min read
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Summary

Bill Wake notes that good user stories act like a pidgin language by simplifying a system for the customers to collaborate with the developers and work together towards the ultimate software goal. However, which characteristics define a good user story and the effectiveness of the tasks within the user story? The author explains the characteristics of the acronym INVEST and SMART in detail here citing how XP teams should use them to create a good software user story with effective tasks.

Takeaways

  • Good user stories allow customers/users and programmers to work effectively together on a system even though users don't view the system as programmers do.
  • The acronyms INVEST and SMART define the good characteristics of User stories and user stories' tasks.
  • User stories in XP have three components: Cards (their physical medium), Conversation (the discussion surrounding them), and Confirmation (tests that verify them).

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