User Story Sizing and Acceptance Criteria
ByWhen doing sizing with story points people will get hung up on the details. They want all of the acceptance test requirements understood. The beauty of story points is that they have no units of time associated with them. We are just look at relative complexity compare to other stories in our back log. So if each story is at the same level of understanding it all works out.
It is not necessary to do detailed acceptance criteria before sizing. The acceptance criteria should be very general. Such as what is the expected result and what are critical negative cases. We do not need to deal with the wireframes or UI at this time. This will be done during the iteration planning. Here is an example from the a team backlog:
Confirm - Email - Indicate email not listed
As an agent, I want the system to provide an option, so that I can indicate that the email that the customer wants to confirm is not listed.
Acceptance:
Expected: Agent enters an email that has not been previously used and the system indicates the email can be confirmed.
Negative: Agent enters a email that is in the system and the system indicates the email cannot be confirmed for the customer.