BA ACADEMY / LESSON
User stories and acceptance criteria
Write small, testable slices that express value and expose business rules.
The idea
A user story is a conversation starter, not a complete specification. Describe the user and intended outcome, then add acceptance criteria, business rules, data needs, exceptions and dependencies. Use INVEST to challenge oversized or untestable stories. Agree Definition of Ready before development and verify against Definition of Done at acceptance.
Example
As an applicant, I want to resume an interrupted identity check so I can finish opening my account without starting again. Criteria: saved progress is restored after authentication; expired sessions require re-verification; no sensitive document is exposed on shared devices.
Illustrative BA scenario
Fictional onboarding scenario: the first draft said “Make registration easier.” Breaking it into resume, error recovery and credential-change stories made security and test implications visible.
Try it yourself
- Split a large registration epic into two independently testable stories.
- Write one success, one failure and one security criterion.