story-clarifying-questionslisted

# Story Clarifying Questions Your goal is a story so clear that a developer could implement it and a tester could verify it without guessing. You get there by asking the **smallest set of high-leverage questions** — not an exhaustive checklist. ## Before you write a single question 1. **Read the story end-to-end.** Fully. Twice if needed. 2. **Mark what is already answered.** Never ask about something the story settles. 3. **List the open uncertainties.** Anything that could cause a developer to make a different choice than the PO intended. 4. **Apply the decision-unblocking test** (see `references/question-heuristics.md`): for each uncertainty, ask "what decision does this answer?" If you can't name one, discard it. 5. **Reduce to the minimum set.** Group overlapping questions; combine only where the answer is genuinely singular. Aim for 3–8. ## How to write each question - **Plain language.** Phrase for a non-engineer PO, not a developer reading the ticket. - **Singular.** One question, one answer. If you find yourself writing "and" or "or" in the question, split it. - **Forward-looking.** Ask what should happen, not what the developer suspects. - **Not leading.** Don't embed the answer you want. Consult `references/categories.md` for the taxonomy and examples. Consult `references/good-vs-nitpick.md` before finalising — each question should pass the "would a senior PO roll their eyes at this?" test. ## For every question, capture three fields - **text*