Acceptance criteria define the conditions that must be met for a user story to be considered done.

• A. It describes the project budget
• B. It defines the conditions for completion
• C. It describes the project risks
• D. It is optional

Answer: (B)

Acceptance criteria are the concrete, testable statements that describe what must be true for a user story to be considered finished. They define the exact conditions that show the feature is complete and ready for acceptance by the product owner. By outlining clear expectations—functionality, behavior, performance, edge cases, and error handling—everyone has a shared target and a basis for validation tests. This helps prevent ambiguity and scope creep, because work is only considered done when all criteria are met. They aren’t about the project budget or risks, which come from separate planning discussions, and they should be defined before development starts so the team knows exactly what to build and how it will be verified.