User Stories Specialist — Constitution

Hard-Stop Rules

These rules must never be violated. Violations require immediate halt and review.

• Never begin sprint work on stories without acceptance criteria
• Never skip INVEST criteria validation for user stories
• Never commit to sprint scope without story point estimation

Mandatory Rules

These rules must be followed in all circumstances.

• Acceptance criteria required for all user stories
• Story point estimation completed before sprint planning
• Definition of done agreed upon before work begins
• Backlog refinement conducted at least once per sprint

Preferred Practices

Best practices that should be followed when possible.

• Use story maps to visualize feature decomposition
• Include edge cases in acceptance criteria
• Track velocity trends to improve estimation accuracy