Many organizations dipping their toes into agile just want to know one thing: Are we agile or not? Most agilists agree, however, that rather than a binary designation, agile is more of a continuum. It's a sliding scale that can vary across the development lifecycle. A better question is: How agile are you?

Nonfunctional requirements describe aspects of the system that do not map onto a single piece of functionality. Essentially, they're constraints you need to operate within. Allan Kelly details how running performance tests regularly can be the key to nonfunctional requirements, as well as how much value these constraints produce.

The definition of done is an informal checklist that the team agrees applies to all pieces of work. But how does the definition compare to acceptance criteria? And should it apply to every task, or every story? How often should you review or change your definition? Allan Kelly helps you navigate your team's definition of done.

Acceptance criteria can be helpful in expanding on user stories in order to capture requirements for agile projects. However, acceptance criteria should not be a route back to long, detailed documents, and they are not a substitute for a conversation. This article tells you how and when acceptance criteria should be written and employed.