Ambiguity is the enemy of velocity. A vague user story leads to rework, frustration, and missed deadlines.
INVEST in your stories
Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable. If a story doesn’t meet these criteria, it’s not ready for the sprint.
Acceptance Criteria (AC)
I always use Gherkin syntax (Given/When/Then) for complex logic. It forces you to think through edge cases before the developer writes a single line of code.
Feature: Login
Scenario: Successful login
Given the user is on the login page
When they enter valid credentials
Then they should be redirected to the dashboard