CH-06
Acceptance Criteria Added After Work Started
Content & History
Default severity: medium
Product BacklogProcessQuality
What it detects
Configured acceptance criteria field was empty or below minimum length at the time of the issue\'s first active status transition.
Detection formula
ac_field = config.workflow.acceptance_criteria_field first_active_date = changelog.find(status IN config.workflow.active_statuses, EARLIEST).date AC_at_activation = field_value(ac_field, AT first_active_date) IF AC_at_activation IS EMPTY OR LENGTH \< config.content.min_ac_length // default: 10 chars THEN FLAGExamples in practice
- Complete before first IN_PROGRESS transition
- A team shows configured acceptance criteria field was empty or below minimum length at the time of the issue\'s first active status transition while acceptance criteria field is set to Configured per workspace.
- Example signal: Configured acceptance criteria field was empty or below minimum length at the time of the issue\'s first active status transition.
Suggested response
Protect narrative quality: write items before work starts and avoid late or empty edits.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
Configured acceptance criteria field was empty or below minimum length at the time of the issue\'s first active status transition.
Why it matters
When "Acceptance Criteria Added After Work Started" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.
What you can achieve
Protect narrative quality: write items before work starts and avoid late or empty edits.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Acceptance Criteria Added After Work Started" from firing again?
- What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
- Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?
Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.