“Invest” is a commonly used acronym in agile methodologies, which stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable. It is a set of criteria used to evaluate and define user stories or product backlog items in an agile project.
Each letter in “Invest” represents a characteristic of a well-formed user story:
- Independent: The user story should be self-contained and not dependent on other stories.
- Negotiable: The details of the story can be negotiated and refined during the development process.
- Valuable: The story must provide value to the end user or customer.
- Estimable: The story must be clear enough for the team to estimate the effort required to implement it.
- Small: The story should be small enough to be completed in a single sprint or iteration.
- Testable: The story should have clear acceptance criteria that can be used to verify when it is done.
By following the “Invest” criteria, agile teams can create user stories that are focused, clear, and actionable, and that can be efficiently planned, developed, and tested.