Definition of Ready

What is Definition of Ready?

Definition of Ready is the properties required for a task to be started. It has to be clear, open and transparent.

What are the perspectives that have to be covered?

  • User Story / Task
  • Sprint
  • Test

User Story / Task Perspective

User story has to cover all necessary items which are based on INVEST principles.

Invest principles items;

  • Independent(of all others)
  • Negotiable(not a contract for specific feature)
  • Valuable(a vertical slice - feature ownership)
  • Estimable(to decent approximation)
  • Small(enough to fit in a single iteration)
  • Testable(even if the tests don’t exist yet)

Accept an user story is ready, below items have to covered by the user story;

  • The conditions of satisfaction have been fully identified for the story.
  • The story details have to be understandable by the all scrum team.
  • The story has been estimated and is under a certain size which is defined by the scrum team.
  • The team’s user interface designer or Product Owner has mocked up, or even fully designed, any screens affected by the story.
  • All external dependencies have been resolved, whether the dependency was on another team or on an outside vendor.
  • Test environment or devices which is related the story, have to be ready.

Sprint Perspective

  • Prioritized sprint backlog
  • Defects, user stories and other work the team has committed to are contained in the sprint backlog
  • No hidden work, all backlog items have to be detailed enough for next sprint.
  • All team members have calculated their individual capacity for the sprint
  • All users stories meet the definition of Ready.

Test Perspective

  • Implementation or Work Item;

    • Has to be delivered as an increment.
    • Has to cover all definition of done rules.

    Test environment have to be ready for related item.

How the Definition of Ready should be?

Definition of Ready may not be covered all items which ared listed above. Project members have to select necessary items for their and customer needs. The items can be extended and teams can add their own custom rules to team’s definition of ready list. The most important rule is, each team member has to be beware of the definition of ready and follow the rules.

Definition of Ready Example

  • The conditions of satisfaction have been fully identified for the story.
  • The story details have to be understandable by the all scrum team.
  • The story has been estimated and is under a certain size which is defined by the scrum team.
  • Prioritized sprint backlog
  • Defects, user stories and other work the team has committed to are contained in the sprint backlog
  • Product backlog items have to be approved by the product owner.