Definition of Ready (DoR)

The Definition of Ready (DoR) is a crucial agreement within an agile team that acts as a checklist.

Its purpose is to ensure that a user story or other backlog item is sufficiently ready and clear before the development team starts working on it.

Unlike the Acceptance Criteria (unique to each story) or the Definition of "Done" (DoD, which applies at the completion of work), the DoR is a unified standard that applies to all stories before they enter an iteration or sprint.

It functions as a "quality gatekeeper" for incoming work, ensuring that the team has the information it needs to start building efficiently.

Ensuring Stories Are Ready for Development

The primary goal of DoR is to save time and avoid waste.

If the development team starts working on stories that are poorly defined, lack clear acceptance criteria, do not have ready designs, or have unresolved roadblocks, time will inevitably be wasted on clarifications, mistakes will be made, and work will have to be redone.

The DoR acts as a filter: if a story does not meet the agreed criteria, it is not ready to be considered for sprint planning or to start development.

This ensures that the team can focus on building value once the work is properly prepared, making planning meetings smoother and development more efficient.

It also serves as a tool for the team to manage the quality of the work they receive from the Product Owner.

Collaborative Creation of the DoR Checklist

The DoR is not imposed, but must be collaboratively created and agreed upon by the entire team, including the Product Owner and developers.

It is defined through a discussion where the team decides what "ready" means in their particular context. There is no universal DoR; each team defines its own.

Common elements that are typically included in a DoR are:

• The story is written in the agreed-upon format (e.g., Like-Want-What For).
• Acceptance Criteria are defined and clear.
• The story meets the INVEST criteria (or at least the most relevant ones such as Estimable and Small).
• The necessary UX/UI designs are available.
• There are no known roadblocks or dependencies that prevent getting started.
• The story has been esti