Definition of Ready in Agile Teams - Complete Guide with Examples

Your sprint planning meetings drag on for hours. Your team starts working on user stories only to discover missing requirements halfway through the sprint. Developers ask the same questions repeatedly because acceptance criteria aren’t clear. Sound familiar?

These problems often stem from one root cause: user stories that aren’t ready for development. The Definition of Ready (DoR) provides a solution by establishing clear criteria that user stories must meet before they can be pulled into a sprint. When implemented correctly, it transforms chaotic sprint planning into smooth, predictable sessions where teams can focus on delivery rather than clarification.

But the Definition of Ready is more than just a checklist—it’s a communication tool that aligns product owners, developers, and stakeholders around what constitutes actionable work. It prevents wasted effort, reduces context switching, and helps teams maintain their flow throughout the sprint.

What is the Definition of Ready

The Definition of Ready is a set of criteria that a user story or product backlog item must meet before it can be considered for inclusion in a sprint. It serves as a quality gate that ensures work is sufficiently detailed, understood, and actionable before development begins.

Unlike the Definition of Done, which is part of the official Scrum framework, the Definition of Ready is an optional practice that teams can adopt to improve their planning and delivery processes. It acts as a contract between the product owner and the development team, establishing shared expectations about what constitutes “ready” work.

The Definition of Ready typically includes criteria related to clarity, completeness, testability, and feasibility. Common elements include clear acceptance criteria, estimated effort, identified dependencies, and available designs or mockups. The specific criteria vary based on team context, product complexity, and organizational needs.

The Purpose Behind Definition of Ready

The primary purpose of a Definition of Ready is to prevent teams from starting work on poorly defined requirements. When teams begin development without clear understanding of what they’re building, they waste time on rework, create technical debt, and often deliver solutions that don’t meet user needs.

A well-crafted Definition of Ready also improves sprint planning efficiency. Instead of spending planning time clarifying requirements and discussing missing details, teams can focus on understanding the work and planning their approach. This leads to more accurate estimates and better sprint commitments.

The Definition of Ready also serves as a communication tool between product owners and development teams. It makes explicit the information that developers need to do their work effectively, helping product owners prepare stories more thoroughly and reducing the back-and-forth during development.

Key Components of an Effective Definition of Ready

While the specific criteria in a Definition of Ready vary by team and context, several components appear consistently in effective implementations. These components address different aspects of story readiness and work together to ensure comprehensive preparation.

Clear User Story and Acceptance Criteria

The foundation of any ready story is a clear description of what needs to be built and why. The user story should follow a consistent format that includes the user, their goal, and the benefit they’ll receive. This provides context that helps developers understand not just what to build, but why it matters.

Acceptance criteria define the specific conditions that must be met for the story to be considered complete. These criteria should be testable, unambiguous, and comprehensive enough to guide both development and testing activities. Well-written acceptance criteria serve as the basis for test cases and help prevent scope creep during development.

The acceptance criteria should also address edge cases, error conditions, and integration points with other systems. Teams often discover these details during development, leading to scope expansion and timeline delays. Addressing them upfront through thorough acceptance criteria prevents these surprises.

Effort Estimation

Ready stories should be estimated by the development team using whatever estimation technique the team prefers—story points, t-shirt sizes, or other approaches. The estimation process itself often reveals gaps in understanding or missing requirements, making it a valuable part of story preparation.

Estimation also helps with sprint planning by allowing teams to understand how much work they can commit to. Stories that haven’t been estimated can’t be properly planned, leading to overcommitment or undercommitment in sprints.

The estimation should reflect the team’s current understanding of the work, including any technical complexity, integration requirements, or dependencies. If the team can’t provide a reasonable estimate, it usually indicates that the story needs more refinement before it’s ready for development.

Dependencies and Prerequisites

Ready stories should have all dependencies identified and resolved, or at least have clear plans for resolution. Dependencies might include other stories, external systems, third-party integrations, or infrastructure changes. Unresolved dependencies can block progress and disrupt sprint goals.

Prerequisites might include design assets, API specifications, database schema changes, or approval from stakeholders. These should be available before the story enters a sprint, or the team should have clear commitments about when they’ll be available.

Teams should also consider technical prerequisites like development environment setup, test data availability, or access to required systems. Missing technical prerequisites can delay story completion even when the requirements are clear.

Definition of Ready vs Definition of Done

Teams often confuse the Definition of Ready with the Definition of Done, but these serve different purposes in the development process. Understanding the distinction helps teams implement both practices effectively.

The Definition of Done defines the criteria that must be met for work to be considered complete and potentially shippable. It typically includes technical criteria like code review, testing, documentation, and deployment. The Definition of Done is applied at the end of development to determine if work is finished.

The Definition of Ready, by contrast, defines the criteria that must be met for work to be considered ready to start. It focuses on preparation, clarity, and planning rather than completion. The Definition of Ready is applied before development begins to determine if work should enter a sprint.

Both practices work together to improve quality and predictability. The Definition of Ready ensures teams start with clear, well-prepared work, while the Definition of Done ensures they finish with high-quality, complete deliverables. Teams that use both practices typically see improvements in velocity, quality, and predictability.

Timing and Ownership

The Definition of Ready is primarily the responsibility of the product owner, though the development team should collaborate on defining the criteria. Product owners use the Definition of Ready to prepare stories before sprint planning, ensuring they bring only ready work to the team.

The Definition of Done is primarily the responsibility of the development team, though product owners and other stakeholders may have input. Developers use the Definition of Done throughout development to ensure their work meets quality standards.

The timing is also different. Definition of Ready criteria are checked before sprint planning, during backlog refinement sessions. Definition of Done criteria are checked continuously during development and formally verified before work is marked complete.

Common Definition of Ready Examples

Effective Definition of Ready criteria vary significantly based on team context, product type, and organizational needs. However, examining common examples can help teams develop their own criteria and understand how different organizations approach story readiness.

Software Development Teams

Software development teams often include technical criteria in their Definition of Ready. Stories might need to include API specifications, database schema requirements, or integration details. User interface stories might require wireframes or design mockups.

Security and performance requirements are often included for teams working on enterprise software. Stories might need to specify security considerations, performance expectations, or compliance requirements. These details help developers build solutions that meet non-functional requirements from the start.

Testing criteria are also common, including requirements for test data, test environments, or specific testing scenarios. Teams practicing test-driven development might require that acceptance criteria be written in a format that can be directly converted to automated tests.

Product Teams

Product teams often focus more on user experience and business value criteria. Stories might need to include user research findings, competitive analysis, or business metrics that will be used to measure success.

Design criteria are typically more detailed for product teams, including user flows, interaction specifications, and accessibility requirements. Stories might need to include prototypes or user testing results to validate the proposed solution.

Analytics and measurement criteria are also common, specifying how the team will track user behavior and measure the impact of new features. This helps ensure that teams can learn from their work and make data-driven decisions about future development.

Enterprise Teams

Enterprise teams often include governance and compliance criteria in their Definition of Ready. Stories might need approval from architecture review boards, security teams, or compliance officers before development can begin.

Integration requirements are typically more complex for enterprise teams, requiring detailed specifications for how new features will interact with existing systems. Stories might need to include data migration plans, rollback procedures, or impact assessments.

Documentation requirements are often more extensive, including requirements for user documentation, technical documentation, or training materials. These requirements help ensure that new features can be properly supported and maintained.

The Dangers of Definition of Ready

While the Definition of Ready can be a powerful tool for improving team effectiveness, it can also create problems when implemented incorrectly. Understanding these potential dangers helps teams avoid common pitfalls and implement the practice more effectively.

Creating Bureaucratic Overhead

The most common danger is creating excessive bureaucracy that slows down delivery without adding value. Teams might develop overly detailed criteria that require extensive documentation and approval processes. This can turn the Definition of Ready into a gate that prevents work from starting rather than a tool that improves work quality.

The solution is to focus on criteria that genuinely improve development effectiveness rather than criteria that simply create more work. Each criterion should have a clear purpose and should address a real problem that the team has experienced. If a criterion doesn’t help developers do their work better, it probably shouldn’t be included.

Teams should also regularly review and refine their Definition of Ready criteria, removing items that aren’t adding value and adjusting criteria based on what they learn. The Definition of Ready should evolve as the team matures and their context changes.

Preventing Agile Responsiveness

Another danger is creating criteria that prevent teams from responding quickly to changing requirements or urgent needs. If the Definition of Ready requires extensive preparation time, teams might not be able to pivot quickly when priorities change.

This is particularly problematic for teams working in rapidly changing environments or dealing with urgent customer issues. The Definition of Ready should support agility rather than hinder it, allowing teams to respond appropriately to different types of work.

Teams can address this by creating different criteria for different types of work. Urgent bug fixes might have simpler criteria than new feature development. Experimental work might have different criteria than production features. The key is to match the preparation requirements to the nature and risk of the work.

Shifting Responsibility Inappropriately

Some teams use the Definition of Ready to shift responsibility for unclear requirements from the development team back to the product owner. While product owners should prepare stories thoroughly, developers also have a responsibility to ask questions and seek clarification when needed.

The Definition of Ready should facilitate collaboration rather than create barriers between roles. It should help product owners understand what information developers need while also encouraging developers to engage actively in story refinement and clarification.

Effective scrum master training can help teams navigate these dynamics and implement the Definition of Ready as a collaborative tool rather than a source of conflict between roles.

Implementing Definition of Ready in Your Team

Successful implementation of a Definition of Ready requires careful planning, team collaboration, and ongoing refinement. Teams should approach implementation as an experiment, starting simple and evolving their criteria based on experience.

Starting with Team Collaboration

The first step is bringing the entire team together to discuss what information they need to do their work effectively. This includes developers, testers, product owners, and any other roles involved in story delivery. Each role brings different perspectives on what makes work ready.

Teams should start by identifying the most common problems they face with unclear or incomplete stories. What questions do developers ask repeatedly? What information is missing that causes delays or rework? What assumptions turn out to be wrong? These problems become the basis for Definition of Ready criteria.

The initial Definition of Ready should be simple and focused on the most critical criteria. Teams can add more criteria over time as they gain experience and identify additional needs. Starting simple makes it easier to adopt the practice and reduces the risk of creating bureaucratic overhead.

Integrating with Existing Processes

The Definition of Ready should integrate smoothly with existing team processes rather than creating additional overhead. Most teams implement it as part of their backlog refinement activities, using the criteria to guide story preparation and discussion.

Product owners can use the Definition of Ready as a checklist when preparing stories for refinement sessions. Development teams can use it to provide structured feedback about story readiness. The criteria become a shared language for discussing story quality and completeness. Sprint planning becomes more efficient when stories meet Definition of Ready criteria. Teams can focus on planning their approach and making commitments rather than clarifying requirements and filling in missing details.

Measuring and Improving

Teams should track how well their Definition of Ready is working and adjust it based on results. Metrics might include the percentage of stories that meet criteria before sprint planning, the amount of time spent on clarification during sprints, or the frequency of scope changes during development.

Regular retrospectives should include discussion of Definition of Ready effectiveness. Are the criteria helping or hindering? Are there new criteria that should be added? Are existing criteria still relevant? This ongoing refinement ensures that the Definition of Ready continues to serve the team’s needs.

Teams should also consider how their Definition of Ready criteria change as they mature and their context evolves. New team members might need different information than experienced team members. New product areas might require different criteria than familiar domains.

Definition of Ready for Different Types of Work

Not all work requires the same level of preparation, and effective teams often develop different Definition of Ready criteria for different types of stories. This flexibility allows teams to match their preparation efforts to the complexity and risk of the work.

New Feature Development

New feature development typically requires the most comprehensive Definition of Ready criteria. These stories often involve significant complexity, multiple integration points, and substantial user experience considerations. The criteria might include user research, design mockups, technical architecture decisions, and detailed acceptance criteria.

New features also often require more extensive testing criteria, including performance requirements, security considerations, and accessibility standards. The Definition of Ready might specify that test scenarios are defined and test data is available.

Business criteria are also important for new features, including success metrics, rollout plans, and stakeholder approval. These ensure that the team understands not just what to build, but why it’s important and how success will be measured.

Bug Fixes and Technical Debt

Bug fixes and technical debt stories often require different criteria focused on problem identification and solution validation. The Definition of Ready might include reproduction steps, root cause analysis, and impact assessment.

Technical debt stories might require architectural review, impact analysis on existing functionality, and migration plans for affected systems. The criteria should ensure that the team understands both the problem and the proposed solution.

Testing criteria for bug fixes often focus on regression testing and validation that the fix doesn’t introduce new problems. The Definition of Ready might specify that test cases are updated and regression test plans are defined.

Experimental and Research Work

Experimental work and research stories require criteria focused on learning objectives and success criteria rather than detailed requirements. The Definition of Ready might include hypotheses to test, success metrics, and time limits for the experiment.

These stories often have different completion criteria as well, focusing on learning and decision-making rather than feature delivery. The Definition of Ready should align with these different objectives and ensure that the team understands what they’re trying to learn. Research stories might also require different stakeholder involvement, including access to users for interviews or testing. The Definition of Ready should ensure that necessary resources and permissions are available before work begins.

Building Team Capability Around Definition of Ready

Implementing Definition of Ready effectively requires developing team capabilities in story writing, requirements analysis, and collaborative planning. Teams need skills in breaking down complex requirements, writing clear acceptance criteria, and facilitating productive refinement discussions.

Product owners particularly benefit from training in user story writing, requirements gathering, and stakeholder communication. They need to understand how to prepare stories that meet development team needs while also serving business objectives. Certified Scrum Product Owner training provides essential skills for writing effective user stories and managing product backlogs.

Development teams need skills in estimation, technical analysis, and asking good questions about requirements. They should understand how to identify dependencies, assess technical complexity, and provide meaningful feedback about story readiness.

Scrum masters play a crucial role in facilitating Definition of Ready implementation and helping teams navigate the challenges that arise. They need skills in facilitation, conflict resolution, and process improvement to help teams develop and refine their Definition of Ready practices.

Organizations looking to implement Definition of Ready practices across multiple teams can benefit from agile consulting services that provide guidance on developing consistent practices while allowing for team-specific customization. Professional agile coaching can also help teams develop the collaborative skills needed to make Definition of Ready practices successful.

Ready to transform your sprint planning and improve your team’s delivery predictability? Start by bringing your team together to identify the most common problems with story clarity and completeness. Use these problems as the foundation for your Definition of Ready criteria, and remember to start simple and evolve based on experience.