What are the best practices for defining acceptance criteria in Scrum?

1 Use the SMART framework

One of the most common and useful frameworks for writing acceptance criteria is the SMART acronym, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Testable. These criteria help to ensure that your acceptance criteria are clear, realistic, aligned with the user story and the business value, and verifiable by testing. For example, instead of writing "The system should be fast", you can write "The system should respond to user requests within 2 seconds, as measured by the performance testing tool".

2 Write from the user's perspective

Another important practice for defining acceptance criteria is to write them from the user's perspective, using the language and terminology that they understand and expect. This helps to avoid ambiguity, confusion, and misinterpretation, and to focus on the user's needs and goals. For example, instead of writing "The system should encrypt the data using AES-256", you can write "The system should protect the user's privacy and security by encrypting the data".

3 Use the Given-When-Then format

A popular and effective format for writing acceptance criteria is the Given-When-Then format, which is also used in behavior-driven development (BDD) and test automation tools. This format helps to structure your acceptance criteria as scenarios, describing the preconditions, the actions, and the expected outcomes. For example, instead of writing "The system should allow the user to reset their password", you can write "Given that the user has forgotten their password, When they click on the 'Forgot password' link, Then they should receive an email with a reset link".

4 Collaborate with the team and stakeholders

One of the key benefits of Scrum is that it fosters collaboration and communication among the team members and the stakeholders, such as the product owner, the customer, the developers, and the testers. This also applies to defining acceptance criteria, which should not be done in isolation or by one person only. Instead, you should involve the relevant parties in creating, reviewing, and refining the acceptance criteria, using techniques such as brainstorming, user feedback, prototyping, and peer review. This way, you can ensure that your acceptance criteria are consistent, accurate, and agreed upon by everyone.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?