# Acceptance Criteria: From Informal Text to Formal Specifications

DevFeed: [Acceptance Criteria: From Informal Text to Formal Specifications](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/acceptance-criteria-bureaucracy-29350.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://arturdryomov.dev/posts/acceptance-criteria-bureaucracy/>)

Author: Artur Dryomov

Published: 2019-01-20T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Artur Dryomov](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/artur-dryomov.md>)

Topics: [Agile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/agile.md>), [Requirements](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/requirements.md>), [Cucumber](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cucumber.md>), [Specifications](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/specifications.md>)

Tags: [agile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agile.md>), [communication](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/communication.md>), [requirements](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/requirements.md>), [specifications](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/specifications.md>)

## AI overview

The article discusses Acceptance Criteria as a communication artifact between business and technical teams. It traces their evolution from informal text and email to formal specifications, highlighting Cucumber's Gherkin syntax as a structured option.

## Source excerpt

Cooperation! It sure sounds better than bureaucracy. A released product is a result of cooperation between the Business and the Tech. There is an obvious issue though. Both sides have different mindsets. The misunderstanding is inevitable. How do we solve this? Well, there are still wars on the planet so apparently humanity wasn't able to find a solution. What about establishing not world peace but a good communication channel? Agile methodologies establish such artifact as Acceptance Criteria (AC). AC is a specification for how the product should work. Sounds good and the motivation is solid, but there is a catch -- there are no explicit requirements. AC can consist of memes and be distributed by birds -- the sky is the limit (literally). Let's take a look at the evolution and trace our path to the bureaucracy nirvana.