Definition of Ready (DoR) - Protecting Estimation Quality

The Definition of Ready (DoR) is a team's agreed-upon checklist that a user story must satisfy before it's brought into estimation sessions or pulled into a sprint. Think of it as an essential quality gate for requirements. While the exact criteria vary between teams, a good DoR acts as a critical filter protecting the team from the chaos of ambiguous or incomplete work.

Common DoR items relevant to estimation often include:

• Story clearly defines user value ('Why').
• Acceptance Criteria are specific, clear, and testable (potentially requiring GWT).
• Dependencies are identified.
• Proof that the user story creator has run through the INVEST checklist.

If a story fails the DoR, it shouldn't be estimated. It needs more refinement. From an engineering perspective, enforcing a DoR is vital. If you're in this situation, push back and request more refinement for the story.

It prevents wasting valuable team time trying to estimate poorly understood requirements, which often leads to wildly inaccurate numbers or commitments based on risky assumptions. It ensures that when estimation does happen, it's based on a shared, clear understanding, making the process far more productive and the resulting estimates more reliable. While some might see it as slowing things down upfront, it prevents much larger delays and rework downstream.