Description
A definition of ready (DOR) enables a team to specify certain preconditions that must be met before a user story can be accepted into a sprint. The goal of the DOR is to identify defects in the story before work has commenced, thereby reducing defects early, when they are the least costly to address. User stories that are "ready" are clear, concise, sized appropriately for a sprint, and most importantly, actionable.
Typical Roles
- 1.
Agile Team
- 2.
Product Owner
- 3.
Scrum Master
Desired Behaviors
- 1.
Develop a checklist to outline the criteria for the agile team’s definition of ready.
- 2.
Apply the INVEST (or other) criteria to ensure that a user story is Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized appropriately, and Testable.
- 3.
Avoid rules that require full compliance to DOR at all times, allowing for exceptions based on specific attributes of the user story.
- 4.
Post the definition of ready in the location visible to all team members.
- 5.
Use the definition of ready during the sprint planning meeting to determine if user stories can be accepted into the sprint backlog.
- 6.
Discuss the effectiveness of the team’s definition of ready at the sprint retrospective. Adjust as the team becomes more aware of what makes up a good, actionable user story.