I – Independent

N – Negotiable

V – Valuable

E – Estimable

S – Small

T – Testable

Independent

Stories are easiest to work with if they are independent. That is, we’d like them to not overlap in concept, and we’d like to be able to schedule and implement them in any order.

Negotiable

A good story is negotiable. It is not an explicit contract for features; rather, details will be co-created by the customer and programmer during development. A good story captures the essence, not the details.

Valuable

A story needs to be valuable. We don’t care about value to just anybody; it needs to be valuable to the customer. Developers may have (legitimate) concerns, but these framed in a way that makes the customer perceive them as important.

Estimable

A good story can be estimated. We don’t need an exact estimate, but just enough to help the customer rank and schedule the story’s implementation.

Small

Good stories tend to be small. Stories typically represent at most a few person-weeks worth of work. (Some teams restrict them to a few person-days of work.) Above this size, and it seems to be too hard to know what’s in the story’s scope.

Testable

A good story is testable. Writing a story card carries an implicit promise: “I understand what I want well enough that I could write a test for it.” Several teams have reported that by requiring customer tests before implementing a story, the team is more productive.