We charge $5 per completed user story. That sentence is only worth something if "completed" has a hard edge. A soft edge means an argument at the end of every month.
The definition
A user story is complete when its pull request meets the acceptance criteria you approved in the PRD. Not when code was written. Not when an agent reported success. When the PR meets the criteria you signed off on.
Why acceptance criteria carry the weight
Acceptance criteria are written before any code exists, and you read them before you approve. That order matters. Nobody can move the goalposts after seeing the work, on either side.
Take a story like "an admin can export the current report as CSV". Good criteria name the details that usually get missed:
- The export uses the filters the admin has set.
- A large report still downloads.
- A failed export shows an error a person can understand.
Each line is something you can check by hand. If a line is true in the PR, that part is done. If not, it is not.
What this does not mean
Completed does not mean merged. Your team makes the merge call, and it can hold a good PR for reasons that have nothing to do with the work, like a release freeze. It also does not take away your review. Your engineers keep the final say on every line.
What to check on your first PRD
- Can each criterion be checked by a person clicking through the feature?
- Are the empty, error and loading states named?
- Is anything in there you did not ask for? Strike it before you approve.
Five minutes on these questions is the cheapest review you will ever do, because nothing has been built yet.