Definition of Ready Checklist in Jira (Tick Boxes on Every Story)
Put a Definition of Ready checklist on a Jira story with tick boxes in the description: story written, acceptance criteria agreed, sized, small enough, no open questions. Tick it off in refinement, so only ready stories go into a sprint.
Step by step
Ready or not
- Definition of ready. A story is ready when the team can start it without stopping to ask questions. A definition of ready checklist makes that clear. Let me put one on a story in Jira.
- Create. This is the backlog of our online shop. Click create.
- Pick Story. Click the work type, and pick story.
The checklist
- The story. The summary. Show stock left on a product page. In the description, the story itself. Who, what, and why.
- A heading. Under the story, a short heading. Definition of ready.
- Tick boxes. Now type two square brackets and a space. Jira turns them into a tick box. The first checks: the story is written, and the acceptance criteria are agreed. Then, the team has sized it, it fits in one sprint, and nobody has an open question.
- Create. Click create.
Tick it off
- Tick in refinement. Open the new story from the bottom of the backlog. Here is the checklist, right on the story. In backlog refinement, go through it with the team. The story is written, so tick the first box. The team agreed the acceptance criteria, so tick that one too.
- Not ready yet. Three boxes are still empty. It has no size yet, so this story is not ready for a sprint. It waits until every box is ticked.
Recap
- Ready before the sprint. So, add a definition of ready heading to every story. Type square brackets and a space for each tick box. Tick them off in refinement. Any empty box means not ready yet.
