Agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, deliver products iteratively by embracing change and maintaining flexibility. These approaches rely on breaking down complex projects into smaller, manageable chunks of work completed in short timeboxes called sprints or iterations. To maintain a consistent pace and deliver value predictably, the work items a development team selects must be clearly understood and prepared before development begins. This need for upfront clarity is formally addressed by establishing a Definition of Ready.
Defining the Definition of Ready (DoR)
The Definition of Ready (DoR) is an agreed-upon checklist used by a development team to determine if a product backlog item (PBI), such as a user story or task, is clear enough to be pulled into a sprint. It serves as a quality gate, ensuring the work item has reached a minimum threshold of refinement before the team commits to building it. Unlike the Definition of Done, the DoR is an optional, self-imposed practice many teams adopt to improve planning.
The primary purpose of the DoR is to ensure work is actionable, meaning the team has all the necessary information to start and complete the item without significant delays or ambiguity. This shared understanding acts as a contract between the Product Owner, responsible for the content, and the Development Team, responsible for the execution. Applying the DoR helps teams avoid wasting valuable sprint time clarifying requirements that should have been resolved during earlier refinement activities.
The Role of DoR in Agile Success
Applying a Definition of Ready enhances a team’s predictability and efficiency by minimizing waste from mid-sprint interruptions. Unclear or incomplete requirements force developers to stop coding to seek clarification or resolve unexpected blockers, leading to context switching that fragments focus and reduces output. The DoR proactively addresses these issues by ensuring necessary discussions and documentation happen before the sprint begins.
This pre-emptive clarification improves team morale and commitment by reducing frustration during the development cycle. Teams can confidently commit to work during planning because they know each item meets their readiness standard. This leads to more accurate forecasting, as fewer items are abandoned or carried over due to unaddressed questions. The DoR facilitates a smoother workflow, allowing the team to maintain a sustainable pace and deliver working increments of software consistently.
Common Criteria for a Ready State
Clearly Defined Value and Acceptance Criteria
A foundational component of the Definition of Ready is a clear statement of the value the work item will deliver, typically expressed in a user story format. The team needs to understand the “why” behind the feature to make informed implementation decisions. Paired with this are the acceptance criteria, which define the specific conditions that must be met for the user story to be considered complete. These criteria must be unambiguous and testable, allowing the team and stakeholders to verify that the desired functionality has been achieved.
Estimated and Sized Appropriately
The work item must have an estimate of the effort required, often expressed in story points, provided collaboratively by the development team. This estimation confirms the team has a shared technical understanding of the work involved. An item is deemed ready only if it is small enough to be completed entirely within a single sprint iteration. If too large, it must be broken down into smaller stories that meet the size constraint, ensuring a steady flow of finished work.
Dependencies Identified and Resolved
An item cannot be considered ready if external factors are likely to block its progress once the sprint begins. The DoR requires that any dependencies on other teams, external systems, or technical prerequisites are identified and either resolved or mitigated before the work is started. This includes obtaining necessary credentials, integrating with specific APIs, or securing commitments from other stakeholders for required input. Proactively addressing these external blockers prevents them from derailing the team’s planned work during the sprint.
Necessary Resources Available
Readiness requires confirmation that the team has access to all the non-code resources needed to execute the work item. This commonly includes final user interface (UI) mockups, design specifications, or necessary environment access. If a feature requires a specific third-party library or a new database schema, those resources must be available or planned for in advance. The team must also confirm that they possess the necessary domain knowledge or technical skills to complete the item without unexpected learning curves.
Stakeholder Approval
While the entire team collaborates on the DoR, the Product Owner or relevant business stakeholder must formally agree to the final requirements and priority of the item. This sign-off confirms that the proposed solution aligns with the product vision and business objectives. The approval step ensures the development team is building the right thing and that refinement time is not wasted on low-priority or misaligned features.
Integrating DoR into the Workflow
The Definition of Ready is primarily used during Backlog Refinement, sometimes called grooming. This activity involves the Product Owner and the Development Team reviewing and preparing upcoming product backlog items well in advance of the sprint. During refinement sessions, the team uses the DoR checklist to assess items, identifying missing information, unaddressed dependencies, or sizing issues.
Items that fail the DoR are returned to the Product Owner for clarification, while those that pass are moved higher in the backlog, signaling readiness. The DoR acts as a final filter during Sprint Planning, the event where the team selects items for the upcoming sprint. By only allowing DoR-compliant items into the sprint, the team ensures a high likelihood of achieving their sprint goal.
Definition of Ready Versus Definition of Done (DoD)
The Definition of Ready (DoR) and the Definition of Done (DoD) are complementary concepts serving different purposes in the development lifecycle. The DoR functions as an input gate to the development process, focusing on the quality of preparation before work starts. It ensures that the requirements, dependencies, and size of a work item are clear enough for the team to commit to.
In contrast, the DoD acts as an output gate, focusing on the quality of the completed work before it is considered finished and potentially shippable. The DoD is a comprehensive quality checklist, typically including criteria like passing all automated tests, completing code reviews, updating documentation, and deployment to a staging environment. While the DoR determines if a story is ready to be pulled into the sprint, the DoD determines if the work is truly complete at the end of the sprint.
Practical Steps for Implementing DoR
For a team new to the concept, the first step in implementing a Definition of Ready is to facilitate a collaborative workshop where the entire team drafts the initial criteria. The focus should be on what the developers need to feel confident and unblocked when they begin work, fostering a sense of ownership over the process. It is advisable to keep the initial DoR simple, perhaps starting with just three to five mandatory items, to prevent it from becoming an overly bureaucratic hurdle.
Once drafted, the DoR should be treated as a living document that requires continuous review and adaptation. Teams should regularly inspect its effectiveness, often during sprint retrospectives, to identify criteria that are too strict, too vague, or no longer relevant. The DoR must be highly visible and easily accessible, perhaps posted physically or integrated directly into the team’s digital workflow tool, to ensure it is consistently applied during every refinement and planning session.