Workshop: Shared understanding - The value of effective acceptance criteria

Having a shared understanding of customer requirements is central to all aspects of Agile project development.

Having a shared understanding of customer requirements is central to all aspects of Agile project development. User stories play a big part in cultivating a shared understanding. Therefore getting your stories right is important. Language can make or break this.

This exercise aims to demonstrate the value of alignment, how easy it is to not share the same understanding and how simple things such as forming acceptance criteria can overcome this.

What you need

  • Post-its or plain A4/A5 paper
  • Pens
  • Two large sheets of paper

Preparation

  • On one large sheet of paper, draw a house that matches the acceptance criteria (Detailed further below)
  • Cover the drawing with the other sheet of paper, ready for the big reveal later.

How to run the exercise

Round 1 - We may not be as aligned as we think we are…

Step 1. Hand out the Post-its (or paper) and pens

Step 2. Tell the audience “I’d like you to draw me a house please”

Step 3. Give them a few minutes.

Step 4. Then ask them to stick them on a wall together when they’re finished.

Step 5. Make the observation that they’re all different. And as lovely as they all are, they are not what you want. We all have a vision of what a house looks like, we have a broad common view (a door, roof etc) but they vary massively in the detail.

Round 2 - The acceptance criteria…

Step 1. Give them the following acceptance criteria as a handout or on a screen and ask them to draw it again, based on the acceptance criteria. 

Step 2. Tell the audience “Now I’d like the house to meet these criteria…”

  • A/C #1 - Have 2 storeys

  • A/C #2 - Have a door with a handle, letter box and window on the ground floor left hand side

  • A/C #3 - Have a big window to the right of the door

  • A/C #4 - Have 3 equal sized windows on the upper floor

  • A/C #5 - Have a pitched roof with a chimney

  • A/C #6 - Have a garage attached to the house

  • A/C #7 - The house must be surrounded by a garden with a tree in it

  • A/C #8 - The garden should be surrounded by a fence, which has a gate in it.

Note: Replicate this criteria exactly, take careful note of all the punctuation, every comma etc - we cover why later on in the execise.

Step 3. Give them a few minutes and ask them to stick their drawings on a wall together again when they’re finished. 

Now, do the big reveal of your own drawing of the house. You’ll find that they are largely the same. And call out the difference between this group and the group where they had no acceptance criteria.

Next, look out for the subtle differences.

Each person will have made their own mark. Some might have added extra detail that the acceptance criteria didn’t state - Just like a development story you can add extra value.

Now look at the parts of the house that are listed in A/C #2, people will most likely interpret these in different ways. Why? Ask them what’s going on.

Also look Acceptance Criteria A/C #7 & A/C #8.

Round 3 - explore the detail, language is important, it can trip us up

Get them to read A/C #2, #7 & #8 again. What do they notice about the language?

In A/C #2 the language is difficult, is the window on the door or is it to the left hand side of the door? The result is people will have interpreted it differently, therefore their shared understanding is not shared.

Any use of AND or a COMMA should be removed and re-written as single points on it’s own line. This is something they can watch out for in future.

In #7 & #8 you’ll notice the important words must and should. Yet people will nearly always draw #8 (fence and gate), this will also happen in software development. Keep your stories small and focused. Don’t use Should in stories, keep the A/Cs reflecting only what you need and add the ‘Shoulds’ as separate stories later when you are committed to delivering them.

The importance of visual language

A suggested follow on to this exercise is to watch Tom Wujec’s Ted talk ‘Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast’.

It highlights the importance drawing and understanding a process visually.

Just like carefully crafted language it helps to draw out different interpretations and create alignment.