Agile Business Analysis Acceptance Criteria and Definition of Done 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary purpose of acceptance criteria in Agile Business Analysis?
- To define the technical architecture of the solution
- To specify the conditions a user story must meet to be accepted as complete (Correct answer)
- To document the project timeline and milestones
- To identify the stakeholders responsible for testing
Correct answer: To specify the conditions a user story must meet to be accepted as complete
Acceptance criteria define the specific conditions that a user story must satisfy for it to be considered done and accepted by the product owner.
Question 2: Which format is most commonly used to write acceptance criteria in Agile?
- Use case narratives
- Given-When-Then (Gherkin syntax) (Correct answer)
- State transition diagrams
- Entity-relationship diagrams
Correct answer: Given-When-Then (Gherkin syntax)
The Given-When-Then format (Gherkin syntax) is widely used for acceptance criteria because it clearly defines context, action, and expected outcome in plain language.
Question 3: Who is primarily responsible for defining acceptance criteria for user stories?
- The development team
- The Scrum Master
- The product owner in collaboration with stakeholders (Correct answer)
- The project manager
Correct answer: The product owner in collaboration with stakeholders
Acceptance criteria are primarily defined by the product owner in collaboration with stakeholders and the development team to ensure shared understanding of requirements.
Question 4: When should acceptance criteria be written for a user story?
- After the user story has been developed
- During sprint review
- Before the sprint begins, ideally during backlog refinement (Correct answer)
- After the product is released to production
Correct answer: Before the sprint begins, ideally during backlog refinement
Acceptance criteria should be written before development begins, typically during backlog refinement, to provide clear guidance to the development team before they start work.
Question 5: Which of the following is a characteristic of well-written acceptance criteria?
- They are written in technical implementation terms
- They are testable, specific, and focused on user outcomes (Correct answer)
- They describe how the feature should be technically built
- They list all edge cases exhaustively before any are tested
Correct answer: They are testable, specific, and focused on user outcomes
Well-written acceptance criteria are testable, specific, and focused on what the user needs to accomplish, not on how the system implements the solution.
Question 6: What is the relationship between acceptance criteria and the Definition of Done in Agile?
- They are identical and can be used interchangeably
- The Definition of Done replaces acceptance criteria for all stories
- Acceptance criteria are story-specific while the Definition of Done applies to all stories team-wide (Correct answer)
- The Definition of Done is only relevant for sprints, not individual stories
Correct answer: Acceptance criteria are story-specific while the Definition of Done applies to all stories team-wide
Acceptance criteria are unique to each user story defining specific conditions for that story, while the Definition of Done is a team-wide quality standard applied consistently to every story.
Question 7: A business analyst notices that a user story entering sprint planning has no acceptance criteria. What is the BEST course of action?
- Proceed with development based on the story description alone
- Postpone the story until acceptance criteria are added during backlog refinement (Correct answer)
- Have the development team create acceptance criteria during the sprint
- Remove the story from the backlog permanently
Correct answer: Postpone the story until acceptance criteria are added during backlog refinement
Stories without acceptance criteria should be refined before entering a sprint, as criteria are essential for the team to understand what 'done' means and to verify the story properly.
Agile Business Analysis Acceptance Criteria and Definition of Done 1
What is the primary purpose of acceptance criteria in Agile Business Analysis?