Acceptance Criteria

Distinctions

Is

Identity	Explanation
Conditions of satisfaction	The concrete conditions a story, change, or deliverable must satisfy to be accepted
A shared definition of expected outcome	A way for stakeholders and delivery teams to agree what correct, useful, and complete means for this unit of work
A test of understanding	Clear acceptance criteria reveal whether the team and stakeholder are imagining the same result
A boundary for task work	Tasks execute against acceptance criteria; changing acceptance criteria changes the story-level commitment

Is Not

Other	Why It’s Different
Definition of Done	Definition of Done is a broader quality bar that usually applies across work items; acceptance criteria are specific to a story or request. See Definition of Done vs Acceptance Criteria
Implementation tasks	Tasks describe how the team will produce the result; acceptance criteria describe what result will be accepted
A full requirements document	Acceptance criteria should be enough to guide delivery and validation without pretending every implementation detail is known upfront
A substitute for conversation	Acceptance criteria capture alignment, but they are produced through discussion, examples, and clarification

Boundary

Acceptance Criteria are the story-specific conditions that must be true for the work to be accepted.

If a change alters what would count as accepted, correct, or useful, it is a change to acceptance criteria, not merely a new task.

Systems

Relationships

Relationship	Concept	Rationale
Mitigates	The Single-Story Illusion	Makes visible when the story’s scope has changed under a stable business objective
Complements	Definition of Done	Acceptance criteria define story-specific success; Definition of Done defines broader quality expectations
Distinguished by	Definition of Done vs Acceptance Criteria	Prevents story-specific conditions from being confused with the team’s general quality standard
Supported by	Definition of Ready	Work is easier to start responsibly when acceptance criteria are understood well enough to guide delivery

Perspectives

Stance	Who (Point)	What They See (View)	Optimize For	Insight	Blind Spots
The Lightweight Requester	Stakeholder or requester	Acceptance criteria are details inside the story	Keeping the request lightweight and avoiding unnecessary process	Not every detail needs a formal requirements document	May miss that changing acceptance criteria changes what the story means in practice
The Contract Keeper	IC or delivery team	Acceptance criteria define what accepted, correct, and useful means for this unit of work	Building and validating against shared expectations	Clear criteria reveal whether the team and stakeholder are imagining the same result	Can over-formalize early discovery if criteria are demanded before the problem is understood
The Translation Partner	Shared operating model	Acceptance criteria are the contract for what the story means in practice	Preserving flexibility while making delivery commitments explicit	When acceptance criteria change, the story may still have the same intent, but the delivery commitment has changed	Requires discipline to update criteria when conversations shift the acceptance conditions