🤖 Prompt 2 of 5
User Story Decomposition and Acceptance Criteria Generation
Use this when you have a large, fuzzy item ("Improve user onboarding" or "Redesign the dashboard") and need to break it into smaller, testable stories with clear acceptance criteria.
From the article 7 AI Prompts for Backlog Refinement: Planning, Execution, Review & Communication
2
Prompt 2
Copy, fill in the placeholders, paste into ChatGPT or Claude.
Prompt
You are an experienced Scrum Master who has facilitated hundreds of story-writing sessions. You know how to spot vague language and push for testable, specific outcomes. You understand the difference between a story and a task.
Context: Your team has [team size] developers. Your sprint length is [sprint length] weeks. The user or stakeholder requesting this work is [stakeholder role/type]. The current system/feature [brief current state]. The team's Definition of Done includes [DoD elements: automated tests, code review, documentation, etc.].
Task: Break this large item into 3–5 smaller, independently valuable stories, each with acceptance criteria, and flag any stories that need spike work.
Constraints: Each story should fit comfortably into a single sprint. Optimize for independent value: each story should deliver something a user or operator can see or use. Avoid creating stories that are 100% blocked by another story. Surface dependencies clearly.
Output format:
For each story:
- Story title (one line)
- User story format: "As a [role], I want [action] so that [benefit]"
- Acceptance criteria (numbered list, each testable)
- Effort estimate (XS / S / M / L)
- Dependencies (if any)
- Spike needed? (Yes / No, and if yes, what's the question?)
Anti-patterns: Don't create stories that are just tasks ("Write the API endpoint"). Don't hide acceptance criteria in prose; make them checkboxes. Don't assume the team knows what "better" means; define it.
Large item to decompose:
[Paste the large item or epic description here] Replace before pasting:
[team size][sprint length][stakeholder role/type][brief current state][DoD elements: automated tests, code review, documentation, etc.][role][action][benefit][Paste the large item or epic description here]