Acceptance criteria are the conditions that a product, service, or system must meet to be accepted by a user, customer, or other stakeholders. These criteria are used to define when a specific feature or user story is complete and meets the requirements set by the business or technical teams.
Key Aspects of Acceptance Criteria:
Clear and Specific: They should clearly state the requirements, leaving no room for ambiguity.
Testable: Each criterion should be something that can be tested to confirm whether the requirement has been met.
Measurable: They should define measurable outcomes to ensure that the feature behaves as expected.
Agreed Upon: Acceptance criteria are usually agreed upon by the product owner, development team, and other stakeholders to ensure alignment.
Purpose of Acceptance Criteria:
Define Scope: They help define the scope of the work required for a user story or feature.
Guide Development: Provide developers with a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved.
Ensure Quality: Help QA teams verify that the product works as intended.
Facilitate Communication: Foster better communication between developers, testers, and stakeholders by setting clear expectations.
Example:
For a login feature, acceptance criteria might include:
The user must be able to log in with a valid username and password.
An error message must be displayed if the login fails.
The login form should be accessible on both desktop and mobile devices.
Fox Consulting partners with organizations to define acceptance criteria to ensure that everyone involved has a shared understanding of what "done" means for a given task or feature.
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