Exit Criteria
Exit criteria are the conditions that must be satisfied before a testing phase can be considered complete — a target pass rate, zero open critical defects, required test coverage reached, or all planned test cases executed. They give a team an objective answer to "are we done testing?" instead of a gut-feel guess.
Without defined exit criteria, testing tends to end for the wrong reason: the release date arrived, not because the product is actually ready. Exit criteria turn "done" into something measurable and agreed on in advance, ideally before testing starts, so there's no pressure to redefine "done" downward under deadline pressure.
Common exit criteria: 100% of planned test cases executed, no open Severity 1 or 2 defects, code coverage above an agreed threshold, and all entry-criteria-blocking dependencies resolved. Exit criteria are documented in the test plan and reviewed at the end of each cycle — if they're not met, the honest options are extend the cycle, cut scope, or explicitly accept the risk of shipping anyway.
