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Product & acceptance criteria

A desk of the Fastpace GroundTruth library

Done, defined precisely enough that a machine can check it.

The specification end of the life cycle: what separates a criterion from a feature name, who owns acceptance criteria once drafting is assisted, why prose is a pointer rather than a spec, and what a definition of done has to become when the builder has no judgement.

Definition of doneOpen knowledge 6 articles

Articles

  1. Given/When/Then, revisited for machine readers The format was designed to get a business analyst and a developer talking. It is now being parsed by software. That changes what a good scenario looks like. Definition of done 26 Aug 2026
  2. One concept per file: the filesystem as schema The oldest data structure in computing turns out to be a decent knowledge schema, provided you accept one rule. Getting the cut right is harder than it sounds. Open knowledge 26 Aug 2026
  3. Writing acceptance criteria an agent cannot game Precise criteria are not the same as unGameable criteria. Here are the specific patterns that look rigorous, pass cleanly, and deliver nothing. Definition of done 25 Aug 2026
  4. The LLM-wiki, formalised The pattern spread as folklore before it had a specification. Now that it has one, it is worth asking what formalising a folk practice actually buys you, and what it costs. Open knowledge 25 Aug 2026
  5. What the Open Knowledge Format is, and why the ADLC needs one Google Cloud published a v0.1 spec that says knowledge is a directory of markdown files. The unglamorous part is the point, and it is exactly what agentic development has been missing. Open knowledge 25 Aug 2026
  6. Why "works correctly" is now a production incident Vague acceptance criteria used to be free, because a human filled the gap with taste. An agent fills it with the literal text, and ships that at speed. Definition of done 25 Aug 2026

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