Write executable criteria
Turn the hypothesis into acceptance criteria where each one states observable behavior and carries an evaluation path.
Acceptance contract
Every criterion carries the evidence that could settle it
Every criterion has an automated, human-judged or explicitly unverifiable evaluation path.
Sibling repository../payments-validation-fixture836a75dShared with course 301. You work from specs/product/payments.md rather than the diff.
Why this stage exists
This is the Define exit gate, and it is the course in one sentence. A criterion nobody can settle turns Judge into an argument between opinions.
You cannot choose an evaluation path without knowing what evidence exists and what it proves. That is why the workbench reference is carried into this stage.
What you start from
Work from these inputs only. Anything not on this list is either a later stage’s concern or a decision you do not own.
- Outcome hypothesis
- Your statement from stage 2.
- The workbench
- Six evidence types and what each one supports.
- Evaluation lead
- Available to consult. Not available to write your paths for you.
Every criterion carries the evidence that could settle it
One worked pass, so the shape of the work is visible before you do it on your own.
- Write the criterion as observable behavior with its precondition.
- Ask which evidence type could settle it: counterexample, proof, statistical, opinion or silence.
- Choose the path: automated, human-judged or explicitly unverifiable.
- Record what a clean result would still leave unknown.
What this turns onExplicitly unverifiable is an allowed answer and a strong one. Claiming a criterion is testable when nothing can test it is how silence becomes a green row.
Do the work
- Write the acceptance contract for the refund slice.
- Give every criterion an evaluation path and its residual.
- Mark at least one criterion explicitly unverifiable and say why.
- Have the evaluation lead challenge your paths rather than supply them.
You produce
Acceptance contract
- Criterion
- Observable behavior
- Evaluation path
- Evidence type
- What a clean result leaves unknown
Challenge your own result
Every criterion has an automated path. Is that a good contract?
Show how this resolves
It is suspicious. Real features carry policy and judgment that automation cannot settle. A contract with no human-judged or unverifiable rows usually means the hard criteria were dropped rather than decided.
Ready to continue when
- Every criterion has an automated, human-judged or explicitly unverifiable evaluation path.
- Every criterion states what a clean result leaves unknown.
What transfersThe Define exit gate applies to any feature, in any stack.
Source · 06 Process and ceremonies