Short definition
The Definition of Ready (DoR) is a Scrum team's shared checklist of conditions a backlog item must satisfy before it can be pulled into a sprint. Typical items include having acceptance criteria, an estimate, dependencies identified, and a clear owner. The DoR prevents under-refined work from entering the sprint and stalling mid-flight, and is applied during backlog refinement and sprint planning.
What the Definition of Ready is for
The DoR exists because a sprint full of half-formed stories burns time on clarification rather than delivery. Mid-sprint, the team discovers the story needs design input, or a dependency on another team, or an estimate that nobody made - and the work stalls. The DoR moves that clarification work to before the sprint, during refinement, so sprint time is spent building.
A typical DoR includes:
- Story has acceptance criteria documented.
- Story has been estimated (story points or t-shirt size).
- Dependencies on other teams or systems are identified and accepted.
- Designs or specs (if needed) are attached and approved.
- Assignee or assignment-strategy is clear.
- Story is independently deliverable (or its dependencies are also in the sprint).
DoR vs. DoD
The two definitions bracket the sprint:
- Ready is the entry gate. A story that doesn’t meet the DoR shouldn’t enter the sprint - it goes back to refinement.
- Done is the exit gate. A story that doesn’t meet the DoD can’t leave the sprint as completed - it carries over or gets reopened.
Both are team-owned and team-defined. Both are short (six to twelve items). Both should be visible to everyone on the team, ideally on the same wiki page or sprint goal board.
Common DoR pitfalls
Two failure modes:
- Too strict. A DoR that requires every detail to be specified upfront forces the team into waterfall - large upfront design effort with no opportunity to learn from early implementation. Keep the DoR to the items that actually block starting work.
- Too loose. A DoR that just says “the team agrees the story is ready” provides no gate. The list should be specific enough that the team can disagree about whether a given story meets it.
A good test: when a story arrives at sprint planning, can the team check the DoR list in under 60 seconds? If yes, the list is the right size.
Enforcing the DoR in Jira
Most common pattern: a Ready status (or a Ready for Sprint flag) added to the workflow between
Refined and In Progress. Backlog refinement moves stories from Open to Ready after the DoR is
satisfied; sprint planning pulls only from Ready. Some teams add a workflow condition that requires
specific fields (estimate, acceptance criteria, assignee) to be populated before a story can transition
into Ready, making the DoR partially machine-enforced.
Common questions
What is the Definition of Ready in Scrum?
The Definition of Ready is a Scrum team's shared checklist of conditions a backlog item must satisfy before it can be pulled into a sprint. Typical items include having acceptance criteria, an estimate, dependencies identified, and a clear owner. The DoR prevents under-refined work from entering the sprint and stalling mid-flight, and is applied during backlog refinement and sprint planning.
Definition of Ready vs Definition of Done - what's the difference?
The DoR is the gate going into the sprint - has this story been refined enough to start? The DoD is the gate going out of the sprint - has this story been finished to the team's quality bar? DoR protects sprint focus from ambiguity; DoD protects shipped work from sloppiness.
Is Definition of Ready part of official Scrum?
No. The Scrum Guide defines Done but not Ready - Ready is a community-adopted practice that emerged because teams found themselves pulling under-specified stories into sprints. Many Scrum coaches consider it useful; some argue it adds bureaucracy. Teams should adopt it if they have a recurring 'this story isn't actually startable' problem.
How is DoR enforced in Jira?
Usually by a 'Ready' status column on the backlog board between 'Refined' and 'Sprint Backlog,' or by a custom field flagging DoR completion. Some teams use a workflow condition that blocks adding an issue to a sprint unless required fields (estimate, acceptance criteria, assignee) are populated.