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Glossary
Agile & Scrum

What is Acceptance Criteria?

Acceptance criteria are a set of predefined requirements that must be satisfied for a user story or feature to be considered complete. They provide a clear 'pass/fail' checklist that ensures both developers and stakeholders have a shared understanding of the intended outcome.

When to use it

Teams should use acceptance criteria during the planning phase to remove ambiguity from user stories and establish boundaries for testing. Defining these criteria upfront prevents scope creep, reduces rework, and provides developers with a concrete target for implementation.

Example

A SaaS team is adding a 'Password Reset' feature to their platform. The acceptance criteria specify that the user must receive a reset link via email within 60 seconds, the link must expire after 24 hours, and the new password must require at least one special character. These specific constraints allow the QA team to verify the feature's success against objective benchmarks before the sprint ends.

How Planet Roadmap helps with Acceptance Criteria

Planet Roadmap has a task checklist feature within its Kanban and Sprint views that lets you define and track acceptance criteria directly on each work item.

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FAQ

How is Acceptance Criteria different from the Definition of Done?
Acceptance criteria are unique to each specific user story, such as defining how a particular button should behave. In contrast, the Definition of Done is a global checklist applied to every story, covering general standards like code reviews, unit testing, and documentation.
Should acceptance criteria include technical implementation details?
No, acceptance criteria should focus on the 'what' and 'why' rather than the 'how.' They should describe the functional and non-functional outcomes from the user's perspective, leaving the specific technical architecture and implementation details to the engineering team.

Related terms

User StoryDefinition of DoneDefinition of ReadySprintProduct BacklogEpicMilestoneProduct Requirements Document (PRD)

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