Acceptance Criteria should generally not be in the court of the software engineer. However, as is quite common in software engineering, product will need a bit of prodding from engineering, in order to discuss what it is that they are looking for.
Real Quick - What are Acceptance Criteria?
They are the conditions that a software product must satisfy to be accepted by a user, customer, or in the case of system level functionality, the consuming system.
Ideal Syntax for Acceptance Criteria?
After being in a number of settings, the ideal way to create acceptance criteria is to use Cucumber/Gherkin syntax.
What Gherkin Syntax?
Gherkin is a syntax which supports BDD. It is aimed at making executable specifications written in plain language:
Scenario: eat 5 out of 12
Given there are 12 cucumbers
When I eat 5 cucumbers
Then I should have 7 cucumbersWhy is it important that we use Gherkin Syntax?
Gherkin syntax is designed to be succinct, and easily understandable which it is. In addition, it is a syntax that the entire company can rally around, being that it will be used by Automation Engineers as well. It is also in my experience, the only way to convince product to write acceptance criteria that actually stays the same from ticket from ticket, but don't tell them I said that!
Sample Ticket Creation for Choose Size Form.
Scenario: When Using the Choose Size picker
Given I enter pixel size
Given I enter column size
Given I enter row size
When I click on the Create Pixel Grid button
Then I should see grid createdNote that this is the ticket for creating a component for the choose size picker. However, we still do now know what the design will look. This we leave for the next chapter.