#154 – The DoR Gate

The Definition of Ready is not a not a contractual checklist where all the boxes must be ticked before the Scrum Team can start working on the PBI; rather, it’s a guideline that reduces the risk of not being able to deliver a ‘done’ Increment (in alignment with the Definition of Done). The purpose of the DoR is for the Scrum Team to agree on what a ‘ready’ PBI is–i.e., when the team can take the PBI into Sprint Planning. Backlog Refinement is, then, the activity where the collective work of getting the PBIs ready happens.

Examples of points in a DoR are: the PBI lives up to the INVEST criteria, Acceptance Criteria are articulated, dependencies are identified, and Non-Functional Requirements are described.