What is the purpose of acceptance criteria in a User Story?

Acceptance criteria play a crucial role in the development of User Stories in Agile methodologies. The primary purpose of acceptance criteria is to set specific conditions that must be satisfied for a User Story to be considered complete. These criteria establish clear and measurable requirements that help ensure the delivered feature meets the stakeholder's expectations and functional specifications.

By defining these conditions, acceptance criteria provide a basis for testing and validation, allowing the development team to ascertain whether the User Story has been successfully implemented. They guide the team in understanding the necessary outcomes and help avoid misunderstandings about what is required.

In contrast, while other choices might appear relevant to the overall development process, they don’t accurately describe the function of acceptance criteria. For instance, restricting the scope of requirements or detailing user journeys involves different aspects of project planning and requirements gathering. Listing software features is also distinct from acceptance criteria, as it pertains more to the comprehensive outline of functionalities rather than the specific conditions for acceptance of a User Story.