What is Acceptance Criteria? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Acceptance criteria are the specific conditions that a user story or feature must satisfy to be considered "done" and accepted by the Product Owner. Good acceptance criteria are: testable (you can verify pass/fail), specific (not vague), complete (covering happy path, edge cases, and error states), and written in business language (not technical implementation details). Common format: Given [context], When [action], Then [expected outcome].
Acceptance-criteria in the UK
Acceptance criteria are the foundation of ClickMasters' fixed-price agile delivery model. They define exactly what "done" means for each feature — preventing scope disputes and ensuring the client gets what they expected. For UK regulated software: UK GDPR acceptance criteria are included for every story processing personal data (e.g., "When a user deletes their account, Then all personal data is deleted within 30 seconds"), WCAG 2.1 acceptance criteria for UI stories, and security acceptance criteria for authentication/authorisation features. Including compliance criteria in acceptance criteria ensures they are tested, not just documented.
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