Playbook 6 · Writing the work

How to write a story

A good story is small enough to build in a sprint, specific enough to test, and honest about the assumptions it carries.

Why it matters

The story is the contract between product and engineering. Sloppy stories lead to rework, ambiguity in code review, and the "but I thought we agreed" conversation in retro. Strong stories ship cleanly first time.

Step by step

  1. Title in user value terms. "Show recently-viewed jobs on the dashboard", not "Add jobs widget".
  2. As a [user], I want [behaviour], so that [outcome]. In the description.
  3. Acceptance criteria as binary statements. "Widget shows up to 5 jobs" / "Empty state shows when there are none" / "Widget loads in <500ms".
  4. Definition of done. Tests written. Accessibility checked. Telemetry added. Doc updated.
  5. Estimate. Story points based on team's recent throughput, not optimism.
  6. Link any deps. If it needs another team's work, declare it; the detector will find any you missed.
  7. Run the QA Engineer agent before backlog lock. It writes the test plan and checks for missing AC.

What good looks like

  • As-a / I-want / so-that present and meaningful
  • Binary acceptance criteria, no ambiguity
  • Definition of done explicit (tests, a11y, telemetry, docs)
  • Story points set; ≤ 8
  • Deps declared
  • Parent epic is product-approved (otherwise it can't leave backlog)

How Tenhaw runs this

Tenhaw stories carry As-a / I-want / so-that, binary AC, definition of done and points as structured fields. The QA Engineer agent writes the test plan and flags missing AC before backlog lock; the gate enforces that no story leaves the backlog until its parent epic is product-approved.

  • Tenhaw Stories
  • Tenhaw QA Engineer AI agent
  • Tenhaw cross-team dependency detector
  • Tenhaw definition of done templates

Try this on the Tenhaw platform →

In Tenhaw → board → New story. The Story Architect agent (run before backlog lock) checks alignment, sibling overlap, and missing acceptance criteria.

Related playbooks

9How to write a risk or issue 8How to raise a bug 7How to write a chapter 1How to set an outcome

Run this in your team

The Tenhaw product enforces every rule in this playbook so it doesn't sit on a wiki gathering dust. Try Tenhaw or book a working session with the founder.