Acceptance Criteria Examples: Clear Guidelines for Agile Development

For a development cycle to be successful, there are many things that need to go right. One of the most important of them is being able to set clear, measurable outcomes that make sure a feature truly meets its intended objectives. 

This is what acceptance criteria are meant to do. 

When you implement it the right way, acceptance criteria can improve your workflows and deliver much more predictable results. 

Stay with us as we explore what acceptance criteria mean, the different types of acceptance criteria, how to structure them, and some examples to show how you can apply them within different workflows. 

What is Acceptance Criteria?

Acceptance criteria are the pre-set conditions that a product feature should meet to be considered ready for release. They can be one of the most effective ways to ensure everyone, including developers, product owners, and stakeholders, are on the same page when defining what “done” means for a feature.

If you don’t have well-defined acceptance criteria, projects can easily miss marks, leading to rework, missed deadlines, and increased costs.  

Acceptance Criteria Vs. User Stories

Both user stories and acceptance criteria are basic elements of any agile development, but they have completely opposite and complementary purposes. 

Let us explain this in detail. 

User stories are descriptions of a feature from the viewpoint of the end user. So, they focus on what the user wants to accomplish. 

A typical user story follows this structure:

“As a [type of user], I want [some goal], so that [some benefit].”

For example:

“As a customer, I want to filter my product list by price so that I can find items that are within my budget.”

This user story gives you a broad objective from the point of view of the end-user or customer. But, it doesn’t go into the specifics of how your development team should build the solution.

Acceptance criteria, on the other hand, simplify the user story for the team by breaking it down into smaller, actionable components that lead the feature to work as expected and deliver the desired outcome.

If we consider the same user story example from above, the acceptance criteria should look something like this:

• The system allows users to set a minimum and maximum price for product filtering.
• Search results update dynamically when filters are applied.
• An error message is displayed if no products match the selected criteria.

Types of Acceptance Criteria

While the purpose of acceptance criteria remains the same across all types, the way they are structured can differ depending on the desired outcome. 

Here are some of the most commonly used formats in Agile development:

1. Scenario-Oriented (Given/When/Then)​

The Scenario-Oriented format is the most popular way of writing acceptance criteria. In this format, we frame the criteria in a given/when/then structure.

What this does is provide the team with a clear, step-by-step description of how the system should behave in response to specific user actions or inputs.

The format follows this structure:

• Given: Specifies the initial state.
• When: Describes the action taken by the user.
• Then: Defines the expected outcome.

Example:

• Given: The user is on the product page.
• When: They add an item to their shopping cart.
• Then: The cart reflects the new item, and the total price is adjusted accordingly.

2. Rule-Oriented​

The Rule-Oriented format is a more structured and focused method of meeting specific conditions or rules. We mostly follow this format for features that involve strict business logic, validation requirements, or system constraints that don’t easily fit into a scenario-based description. 

Example: 

For a password reset feature:

• The password must be at least 8 characters long.
• The password must contain at least one uppercase letter, one number, and one special character.
• The user must confirm their new password before it is saved.

3. Custom Formats (Checklist-Oriented)

The Checklist-Oriented format, or custom format, is less formal but highly effective for simple features or tasks. 

In this approach, acceptance criteria are written as a checklist of conditions or actions that must be met. 

Example: 

For a shopping cart feature:

• Users can add items to their cart.
• Users can remove items from their cart.
• The system updates the total price automatically.
• Users can proceed to checkout once they have at least one item in their cart.

Real-World Acceptance Criteria Examples

Below are examples of how they can be applied to common user stories across different contexts.

Example 1

User story: As a user, I want to update my profile information so I can keep my account details current.

For this, the acceptance criteria should be:

• The user can edit their profile information, such as name, email, and contact number.
• Changes must be saved only after the user confirms by clicking “Save.”
• The system displays a confirmation message once the updates are successfully saved.
• If mandatory fields are left blank, an error message should prompt the user to complete them.

Example 2

User story: As a user, I want to set up two-factor authentication to enhance my account security.

For this, the acceptance criteria should be:

• The user must enter a valid phone number or email to receive a verification code.
• The system sends a one-time code to the provided contact method.
• The code expires after 5 minutes if not used.
• Upon verification, the two-factor authentication setup should be confirmed, and the user should be redirected to their account settings.

Example 3

User story: As a traveler, I want to book a hotel room so I can confirm my accommodation in advance.

For this, the acceptance criteria should be:

• The user can select check-in and check-out dates from an interactive calendar.
• The system should display available rooms and prices based on the chosen dates.
• If no rooms are available, the system should notify the user.
• After selecting a room, the user can proceed to checkout and make a payment to confirm the booking.

Tools to Automate Acceptance Criteria

The primary advantage of automating acceptance criteria is consistency. Each sprint or iteration introduces new changes, and without a reliable system to continuously validate these criteria, it’s easy for small issues to escalate into larger problems. 

Automated tools ensure that acceptance criteria are checked every time a build is made, reducing the risk of features going live with unaddressed issues.

PaceAI’s Tools are designed with agile teams in mind to automate the creation and validation of acceptance criteria. It converts plain language descriptions into testable scripts, which in turn reduces the manual effort you need to put into writing test cases. 

FAQs

Conclusion

If you don’t have properly defined acceptance criteria, your team could quickly encounter miscommunication and scope creep and end up delivering features that miss the mark. 

But defining those criteria is only half the battle, making sure that they’re applied consistently across development cycles brings its own set of challenges.

To overcome this, many teams are turning to automation tools, and you could too. These tools help by converting acceptance criteria into automated test cases, which are run throughout the development process. 

You end up saving a chunk of your time while maintaining high standards and, at the same time, ensuring criteria are met continuously, even as the product evolves.