Definition of ready
Definition of Ready is the team's explicit checklist that a story must pass before it can enter a sprint. Companion to Definition of Done, but at the entry side. Typical entries: acceptance criteria are clear, dependencies are known, the story is estimated, mock-ups exist for UI work, and the team can articulate the value. Strict DoR enforcement reduces mid-sprint scope-creep.
DoR is sometimes critiqued as gatekeeping or analysis paralysis — and it can be when the checklist gets too long. The healthy version is 3-5 items the team has learned the hard way (e.g., 'we shipped X without API contracts twice and got burned; AC must include the API contract'). The list should evolve through retrospectives, growing or shrinking based on what's actually causing problems.
Long-form posts that explore definition of ready in depth — when to use it, common failure modes, how AI helps.
Related terms
- Definition of Done
Definition of Done (DoD) is a team-wide checklist that every story must satisfy before being marked complete — typical entries include: code reviewed, tests passing, documentation updated, deployed to staging, AC verified.
- Backlog refinement
Backlog refinement (sometimes called grooming) is the recurring practice of clarifying, splitting, estimating, and prioritising stories before they enter a sprint.
- Acceptance criteria
Acceptance criteria are the conditions a story must satisfy to be considered complete — testable, bounded statements describing what the system does.