Acceptance criteria are the conditions a user story must meet for the team to consider it done. They are the contract between the Product Owner and the development team — written before work starts so everyone agrees on what "done" looks like.
Why acceptance criteria matter
Without acceptance criteria, "done" is subjective. The developer thinks it is done when the code is written. The Product Owner thinks it is done when the feature matches their mental model. The tester thinks it is done when no test breaks. These are not the same thing.
Acceptance criteria make the target explicit before work starts, which reduces rework, prevents scope creep, and gives QA a clear test basis.
What good acceptance criteria look like
Good acceptance criteria are specific, testable, and written from the user's perspective. They describe behavior, not implementation.
Bad: The login page should work correctly.
Good: Given a registered user, when they submit valid credentials, then they are redirected to the dashboard and their session is created.
Common formats
Given/When/Then (Gherkin): structured format used in BDD. Excellent for testability and automation. Best for complex behavior with clear preconditions.
Checklist: a bulleted list of conditions. Simpler to write, easier to read, but less precise for complex scenarios.
Rules-based: a set of business rules the feature must satisfy. Good for data validation or complex logic.
How many criteria per story?
Aim for three to eight. Fewer than three often means the story is unclear. More than eight often means the story should be split.
Who writes acceptance criteria?
The Product Owner writes the initial draft, then refines it with the team in sprint planning or backlog refinement. Developers and testers often catch missing edge cases the PO did not consider.
Acceptance criteria vs definition of done
Acceptance criteria are story-specific — they describe what this particular story must achieve. The definition of done is team-wide — it describes standards that every story must meet (code reviewed, tests passing, deployed to staging).
Use our free acceptance criteria generator to draft criteria for your user stories in seconds.
Related reading: Gherkin format guide · Login page example · AC vs definition of done.