INVEST

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INVEST is an acronym for Independence, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable, which helps you to remember the criteria for the story. In order to have a good story, INVEST must be present because it is a criterion for a good agile story.

History of INVEST

The birth of INVEST is made possible by the article of Bill Wake in 2003. It serves as a requirement for the evaluator in checking a story. He based it in the SMART acronym, which is exclusively for building a good agile story. In the year of 2004, Mike Cohn’s “User Stories Applied” recommend INVEST as one of the techniques for an agile story.

What is INVEST

INVEST stands for criteria that serve as a requirement to have a good agile story. For a story to stand out, you should have the following:

  • I for independent: It says that your Product Backlog Item (PBI) made by you and not a copy or basses for the other PBI. You have to make your story that does not depend from the other stories to stand alone. A good agile can stand on its own.
  • N for Negotiable story is not a contract; it is a way to have a conversation with others and attain the best result. In making your agile story, there must be a presence of collaboration and discussion between the clients and the customers.
  • V for valuable: Think of the value why you want to do the story. The purpose of the story is to emphasize the role of the user among others. If it’s a business, then you have to emphasize the value of the business in your story.
  • E for estimable: Make an agile story that meets the guidelines of the appropriate size. Remember that user gets interested to the right length of the story and do not pay much attention to short or long stories.
  • S for small: Making the story done in many working days, the period that the expert suggests having a good agile story is 3 to 4 week. Just make it simple then stop.
  • T for testable: Provide all information of the PBI and other contents of the story to have fast testing and make more collaboration. With proper negotiation, you can test the effectivity of your story.

When to use it INVEST

INVEST is a requirement or criteria to meet the best agile story that you can make. It serves as a basis to have a good story that will get the interest of any. The product owner must have an idea about INVEST to meet the need of the team.

INVEST helps to overcome the hard part in making effective and good agile story. You can see an effective story with the products of the company posted on their website.

In the present, many changes and upgrade apply to have the best story. One of it is the INVEST, it is just one of the best in the present. There can be something out there as good as INVEST for criteria in making stories.

— Slimane Zouggari