Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance Criteria are specific, measurable conditions that a user story or feature must satisfy to be considered complete and accepted by the product owner or stakeholders. They serve as a shared understanding between development teams, product managers, and stakeholders about what done looks like. These criteria define the boundaries of a user story, outline expected behavior, and provide a clear checklist for testing. Well-written acceptance criteria follow the INVEST principle and are typically written in a Given-When-Then format or as a simple checklist. Key benefits include eliminating ambiguity about feature requirements, enabling effective testing and quality assurance, reducing rework and miscommunication, facilitating sprint planning and estimation, and creating accountability for deliverables. Effective acceptance criteria are written from the user's perspective, focus on outcomes rather than implementation details, and are defined before development begins. They act as the contract between product and engineering teams, ensuring everyone understands the definition of success before work commences. Strong acceptance criteria transform vague requirements into actionable, testable conditions that guide development and validate completion.