Specific conditions that a software feature or user story must meet to be considered complete and acceptable to the customer. They define the boundaries of the feature and provide clear testing guidelines.
Combines 'acceptance' from Latin 'acceptare' (to take willingly) and 'criteria' from Greek 'kriterion' (means of judging). The paired term emerged in software development in the 1990s as teams needed clearer definitions of 'done.'
Acceptance criteria are like a contract between developers and stakeholders—but here's the twist: they're often more valuable for what they exclude than what they include! Good criteria prevent scope creep by explicitly stating what the feature will NOT do.
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