Acceptance Criteria

An Acceptance Criteria is a requirement that must meet to be accepted.

Context:
- It can (often) be a required item in an Agile User Story.
- It can be a Specific Acceptance Criteria.
- It can be a Measureable Acceptance Criteria.
- It can be a Testable Acceptance Criteria.
- It can be a Independent Acceptance Criteria.
- It can be a Relevant Acceptance Criteria.
- It can be a Time-Bound Acceptance Criteria.
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Example(s):
- “The login page must include fields for username and password."
- “The shopping cart feature must allow users to add and remove items, adjust the quantity, and calculate the total cost accurately."
- “The website's search functionality must display relevant results within 3 seconds of the user entering a query, and must include filters for price, category, and availability. The search results page must display product images, descriptions, prices, and reviews, and allow users to sort the results by relevance, popularity, or price. The search feature must be able to handle spelling errors and provide suggested corrections, and it must be able to handle a high volume of search queries without experiencing performance issues."
- …
See: Production Defect.

References

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- Acceptance criteria refer to a set of conditions or requirements that a product, service, or project must meet to be accepted by the stakeholders. They are often established at the beginning of a project to ensure that everyone involved understands the expectations for the end product or service.
  Acceptance criteria typically outline the features, functions, or performance requirements that must be met in order for a product or service to be considered complete and satisfactory. They can be specific and measurable, such as "the website must load in under 3 seconds," or more subjective, such as "the user interface should be intuitive and easy to use.”
  Acceptance criteria are often used in agile software development as part of the definition of done, which outlines the requirements for a specific task or user story to be considered complete. By clearly defining the acceptance criteria upfront, it helps to avoid confusion and misunderstandings later in the project and ensures that the end product or service meets the expectations of the stakeholders.

Agile User Story Acceptance Criteria
Characteristics	Description	Good Examples	Bad Examples
Specificity	Clearly defined and unambiguous requirements.	Given a registered user, when they enter valid login details, they should be redirected to the dashboard.	User should be able to log in.
Measurable	Criteria can be quantified, allowing for easy assessment.	Page load time should not exceed 3 seconds.	Page should load quickly.
Testable	Criteria can be verified through testing.	When a user adds a new item to the shopping cart, the cart should display the correct total price and number of items.	Shopping cart should work correctly.
Independent	Criteria should be focused on a single functionality or feature.	As a user, I want to search for products by category so that I can find products I am interested in.	As a user, I want to search for products by category and add them to the cart.
Relevant	Criteria should be directly related to the user story and its purpose.	When an admin deletes a user, that user's posts should also be deleted.	When an admin deletes a user, they should receive a confirmation email.
Time-bound	Criteria should have a specific time frame for completion.	The application should handle 10,000 concurrent users within 6 months of launch.	The application should handle 10,000 concurrent users at some point in the future.