Acceptance criteria are a set of specific, clearly defined, and testable conditions that must be met for a user story or a feature to be considered complete and accepted by the product owner or stakeholders.
Acceptance criteria help ensure that the development team understands the desired outcome, and they provide a basis for evaluating whether the implemented solution meets the user’s needs and requirements.
Acceptance criteria should be:
- Clear and concise: The criteria should be easy to understand and communicate, avoiding ambiguity and complexity. This helps prevent misunderstandings between the development team, product owner, and stakeholders.
- Specific: Each criterion should focus on a specific aspect of the user story or feature, addressing individual requirements or functionalities that need to be fulfilled.
- Measurable and testable: The criteria should be objective, allowing for clear and straightforward evaluation. This enables the development team and quality assurance (QA) to verify that the implementation meets the specified requirements.
- Relevant: The criteria should directly relate to the user story or feature, ensuring that they accurately represent the user’s needs and expectations.
- Comprehensive: The acceptance criteria should collectively cover all the significant aspects of the user story or feature, providing a thorough representation of the desired outcome.
By defining clear and detailed acceptance criteria, the development team can better understand the expectations and requirements of the user story or feature, ensuring that the final implementation aligns with the needs of the users and stakeholders.