Acceptance criteria are one of the Agile practices to effectively write the requirements that must be met before completion, in short, it is the user story to define requirements and functionalities.
Since requirements definition is the most difficult and time-consuming process in software development, Agile created a way to write requirements effectively and efficiently. Acceptance criteria are used not only for requirements but also for acceptance testing, so the development team does not have to write both separately.
While there are several formats for writing acceptance criteria, Gherkin Syntax, created by Aslak Hellesøy, the founder of Cucumber, may be one of the ideal options as it is one of the most comprehensive. Gherkin Syntax consists of four simple elements: scenario, given, when, and then, which describe how the software should behave. The insurance leads for seniors framework comprehensively covers all necessary aspects of software behavior, making it suitable for defining detailed requirements. You can see the explanation and example of each element below.
Context of user story scope management
A User Story should be small enough to be completed within a Sprint in order to make for consistent and iterative delivery. Therefore, managing the scope of the User Story is critical because scope has a huge impact on estimation. According to the Cone of Uncertainty, the study relationship between development stage and estimation accuracy, it concluded that clear requirements and scope improve estimation accuracy the most. It is also demonstrated by the “scope creep” phenomenon (also called requirements creep or kitchen sink syndrome) that scope expands as development progresses if a development team does not clarify the requirements and scope before coding.
Construx: Cone of Uncertainty
Another consideration is the project management triangle, which describes three constraints (scope, cost, and time) that affect the decision-making process. Since project resources are always limited, we must make smart decisions.