Definition of Done

Is your “Definition of Done” done?

If yes, when was the last time your team reviewed and updated it?  If it has been awhile, set up a session or tackle in your next retrospective.

The D.O.D is one of the key ways we build quality into our work at all levels.   “It is a comprehensive checklist of necessary, value-added activities that assert the quality of a feature and not the functionality of that feature.”

The functionality of the feature is addressed through acceptance criteria.

As a reminder, your team D.o.D. should be one they are capable to meeting now.  Some teams might propose an “aspirational” Definition of Done – one they cannot meet today, but hope to meet in the future.  This creates significant transparency and expectation issues within and around the team as neither they nor anyone around them would really know what they mean by “Done”.

Keep those aspirational plans around, they make great places to begin discussion on how to improve next.  But, they do not belong in the current Definition of Done.

For more thoughts on the Definition of Done, visit the links below:

https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2008/september/what-is-definition-of-done-(dod)

https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2008/september/definition-of-done-a-reference

https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/definition-of-done/

https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/multiple-levels-of-done