Agile Definition of Ready Checklist

Streamline Your Sprint Planning with a Definition of Ready Checklist

A well-defined "Definition of Ready" (DoR) is essential for successful agile development. This checklist template helps product owners, scrum masters, and development teams ensure that every user story is fully prepared before entering a sprint, reducing blockers, improving velocity, and keeping ceremonies focused on delivery.

Why Use a Definition of Ready Checklist?

Without clear entry criteria, teams often pull incomplete stories into sprints, leading to mid-sprint blockers, scope creep, and missed commitments. This Paperform template gives your team a standardised way to verify that stories meet your DoR criteria before sprint planning begins.

The form covers all critical elements: story completeness, dependency resolution, acceptance criteria clarity, team understanding, estimation readiness, and technical feasibility. Each section uses conditional logic to capture additional details when issues are identified, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

Perfect for Agile Teams and Software Development

Whether you're running Scrum, Kanban, or a hybrid approach, this template adapts to your workflow. Product managers can use it during backlog refinement sessions, scrum masters can review it before planning meetings, and developers can quickly flag stories that aren't ready for commitment.

The form integrates seamlessly with your existing tools. Connect it to Jira, Linear, or Asana via Stepper (stepper.io) to automatically update story statuses, notify stakeholders when stories fail DoR checks, or trigger follow-up tasks for unresolved dependencies. This eliminates manual status updates and keeps your sprint planning efficient.

Built for Speed and Clarity

With Paperform's intuitive interface, teams can complete DoR checks in minutes. The clean, professional design works perfectly on any device, so you can review stories during standup, in refinement sessions, or async before planning. Conditional fields only show relevant questions, keeping the form focused and fast.

Use Paperform's reporting features to track which DoR criteria are most often missed, helping you improve your backlog refinement process over time. Export responses to spreadsheets or sync them directly to your project management tools through native integrations.

This template is trusted by agile teams worldwide who need a reliable, no-code solution for sprint readiness. Get your stories ready faster, reduce sprint disruptions, and help your team deliver more predictably with this Definition of Ready checklist.