What is Definition of Ready?

 

Definition of ready is a list that the product owner and team agree to. Think of it as a working agreement between the team and product owner on what readiness means. It is a Input criteria to accepting story in a sprint.

It is a way for a product owner to signal an item in the product backlog as ready to work in sprint. It is the accountability of product owner that there is a definition of ready defined. Scrum team can refuse to take an item into sprint even if definition of ready may be true.  This is not a core part of scrum. Many scrum teams follow this useful technique.

DEFINITION OF READY FOR PRODUCT BACKLOG:

1.  Does the item have a self increment of business value?
2.  Is this a stack rank well ordered item?
3.   Is there well understood , simple acceptance criteria for the item?
4.  Has the team seen this item before sprint starts and spent time talking about it?
5. Is the acceptance criteria A5 size only?
6. Has the team estimated the backlog item?
7. Does the team feel comfortable taking an item into the sprint?
8. Can this item be finished within this sprint as per defintion of done.
9. What is the teams gut check. If they trust the PO and there is a good convesations and trust, items 1-8 may not always matter too much