Project Management Institute (PMI) Professional in Business Analysis Practice Exam

The Definition of Ready serves an important function in project management, particularly within Agile methodologies. It ensures that a user story or work item is fully prepared and understood before the development team commits to starting work on it. This includes having clear requirements, acceptance criteria, and any necessary dependencies identified. By having a Definition of Ready in place, teams can reduce misunderstandings, minimize rework, and enhance overall workflow efficiency, ultimately leading to a smoother development process.

For example, if a user story lacks sufficient detail or does not meet the established criteria in the Definition of Ready, the team might face delays, interruptions, or misaligned expectations. Therefore, this concept helps facilitate better planning and execution by ensuring that the team is adequately equipped to start the work.

The other options address concepts that are not directly related to the readiness of a user story. Authorizing project initiation pertains more to stakeholder engagement and approval processes rather than the readiness of work items. Completion criteria focus on what defines done for tasks, while establishing a project timeline relates to scheduling rather than ensuring that work items are actionable and ready for development. Each of these elements plays a role in project management but does not specifically pertain to the groundwork necessary to begin work effectively on user stories.