Essentials of good User story

A user story is a tool used in Agile software development to describe a specific feature or functionality from the perspective of an end user. A good user story should have the following essential elements:

User: A user story is always written from a user's perspective therefore should clearly identify the end user who will be interacting with the feature or functionality.

Goal: The story should clearly describe the goal or objective of the user. It should explain what the user wants to accomplish and why they want to do it or  how does it help the user. User story should not include any technical details of how the feature or functionality will be implemented.

Acceptance criteria: The story should include a set of acceptance criteria that define what needs to be done in order for the story to be considered complete. These criteria should be testable and verifiable.

The INVEST criteria is a set of guidelines for creating good user stories. The acronym stands for:

Independent: A user story should be self-contained and independent, so that it can be developed and tested in isolation from other stories.

Negotiable: The story should be negotiable and open for discussion, meaning that the requirements might change during development process, based on feedback from the stakeholders

Valuable: The story should provide value to the end user, and should be aligned with the overall goals and objectives of the project.

Estimable : The story should be small enough that it can be estimated in terms of effort and complexity, but not so small that it lacks value.

Small: A good user story should be small enough that it can be completed within a single iteration of the development process.

Testable: The story should include acceptance criteria that define what needs to be done in order for the story to be considered complete. These criteria should be testable and verifiable.

The INVEST criteria help to ensure that user stories are well-defined and easy to understand, and that they can be developed and tested efficiently. They are not a strict rule but a general guide to follow when creating user stories and trying to evaluate their quality