write-acceptance-criteria

Write Acceptance Criteria

Purpose

Produce well-formed, testable acceptance criteria from any requirement or story goal.

Format

All ACs must use Given/When/Then (GWT) format:

• Given — the precondition or context (system state, user state, data present)
• When — the action or event that triggers the behaviour
• Then — the observable, verifiable outcome

Rules

1. One AC = one observable outcome. Split compound outcomes into separate ACs.
2. Use concrete values where possible (status code 200, "Invalid date", within 3 seconds) not vague language (correctly, successfully, properly).
3. Write from the actor's perspective — what does the user or system observe?
4. Cover: happy path, key failure modes, boundary values, and any NFR thresholds.
5. Do not reference implementation details (no method names, no CSS selectors, no DB columns).

Templates

Standard AC

Given [the system/user is in state X]
When [actor performs action Y]
Then [observable outcome Z occurs]

With AND

Given [context A]
  And [context B]
When [action]
Then [outcome A]
  And [outcome B]

Negative / failure mode

Given [context]
When [action with invalid/missing input]
Then [appropriate error is shown / system rejects / fallback occurs]
  And [no partial state change persists]

Quality check before finalising

• Is the outcome measurable without ambiguity?
• Could a developer write an automated test directly from this AC?
• Does it cover the failure mode as well as the happy path?
• Are any NFRs (performance, accessibility) reflected where relevant?