Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance criteria in product management are the specific conditions that a product or feature must meet to be considered complete and acceptable by stakeholders. They serve as a clear set of guidelines for development and quality assurance teams to understand what needs to be achieved. Here are key points about acceptance criteria in a product management context:

1. Clarity: Acceptance criteria should be clear and unambiguous to avoid any misunderstandings about the requirements.
   
   

2. Measurability: They should be measurable, allowing for objective assessment of whether the criteria have been met.
   
   

3. Testable: Criteria should be testable, meaning they can be verified through specific tests or demonstrations.
   
   

4. Relevant: They must be relevant to the specific user story or feature being developed, ensuring that the focus remains on the user needs and business goals.
   
   

5. Comprehensive: Acceptance criteria should cover all aspects of functionality, including edge cases, to ensure that the feature works under various conditions.
   
   

6. Consensus: They should be agreed upon by all stakeholders, including product managers, developers, testers, and business analysts, to ensure alignment.
   
   

7. Actionable: Acceptance criteria should be actionable, providing a clear path for development and testing teams to follow.

Conclusion

In short, it gives clarity to the doers in the team on what is the exit criteria for each story card or feature. Acceptance criteria often follow formats such as Given-When-Then or simple checklists to maintain consistency and clarity. They are crucial in defining the scope of work, setting expectations, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality products. It is recommended that acceptance criteria a discussed as a triad between PO, Dev/TL and QA while specifying a user story and during kick-off.

Here is a quick example

User Story

As a user, I want to set a due date for my tasks
so that I can manage my deadlines effectively.

Acceptance Criteria

1. Due Date Field

• Given a user is on the task creation form,

• When the user clicks on the due date field,

• Then a calendar popup should appear allowing the user to select a date.

2. Validation for Past Date
   
   

• Given a user is selecting a due date for a task,

• When the user tries to select a date in the past,

• Then an error message should appear stating, "Due date cannot be in the past.”