A simple question like ‘Is the task done?’ can not be answered simply by saying yes or no.
‘Done’ means more than just implemented; it means tested, documented, reviewed, and accepted.
No matter how you phrase the question, it’s essential that everyone involved shares a clear, explicit understanding of what “done” means for your team or project. That’s why an explicit
Definition of Done is so critical in Agile and Scrum that ensures everyone is aligned on what “done” actually means. Teams risk misunderstandings, incomplete work, and poor-quality deliverables without a clear Definition of Done.
By knowing and using the Definition of Done in Scrum, teams will be able to produce higher-quality software quicker, with less confusion and more trust in their code. So, let’s explore a bit more about the idea of DoD in project management.
DoD in Agile?
Definition of Done in Agile is a collective understanding among team members that describes all the things that need to be fulfilled before a product backlog item is complete. It’s not coding—it’s doing everything required for quality, documentation, testing, and integration.
In Scrum and Agile methodologies, the DoD provides consistency, quality, and transparency through a checklist or quality measure that needs to be achieved prior to completing work. It avoids subpar or incomplete work from progressing and allows teams to produce stable, shippable products by the end of each sprint or iteration.
Key aspects of the Definition of Done often include:
- Completion of coding and implementation
- Passing all required tests (manual and automated)
- Updated documentation
- Code reviews and integration into the main product
- Meeting any organizational or regulatory standards
DoD encourages responsibility, eliminates rework, enhances predictability, and ensures team effort is aligned with customer expectations. It is usually developed together by the team and updated from time to time to accommodate evolving project requirements.
Examples of DoD
The Definition of Done is different for each team and product, and there can be numerous real-world examples of a Definition of Done (DoD) for multiple scenarios to show what type of criteria might be used to deem work done based on that. Following are some examples:
| Basic DoD Example for a Development Team: Code written Unit tests written and passed Code reviewed Merged into the main branch | Expanded DoD Example for a Scrum Team: Code implemented Peer code review completed Unit and integration tests passed UI/UX acceptance tests completed Product Owner approval Documentation updated Deployed to staging |
Definition of Done vs. Definition of Ready
These two Agile terms often get confused, but they serve very different purposes:
- Definition of Done (DoD): A Definition of Done is really a checklist to guarantee completeness and quality before work is stamped as done. It will differ across team, project, and product, but always works towards a common ground to prevent confusion and ensure deliverables are actually ready for release or handover.
- Definition of Ready (DoR): The Definition of Ready ensures that work items are well-prepared and actionable before the team begins work, helping to plan effectively and avoid interruptions. Some call it a checklist that ensures a user story or task is ready to be worked on. It typically includes clear requirements, acceptance criteria, and estimates.
In short:
- DoR = Ready to start
- DoD = Ready to ship
| Aspect | Definition of Done (DoD) | Definition of Ready (DoR) |
| Purpose | Specify when a product backlog item (PBI) or task is considered complete and potentially releasable. | Defines when a PBI or task is sufficiently prepared and understood to be started by the team. |
| Focus | Focuses on the quality, completeness, and acceptance criteria of the work after development. | Focuses on the prerequisites, clarity, and readiness of work before development begins. |
| Scope | Intrinsic to the item, i.e, testing, documentation, acceptance criteria, and integration. | Often involves external factors, requirements clarity, dependencies resolved, and resource availability. |
| When applied | Used at the end of a sprint or work cycle to decide if work can be marked done and delivered. | Used during backlog refinement or sprint planning to decide if work is ready to be pulled into a sprint. |
| Examples of criteria | Code complete, tests passed, reviewed, documented, deployed to staging, stakeholder approval obtained. | The user story is well-defined, the acceptance criteria are clear, dependencies are identified, and designs or mockups are available. |
| Role in workflow | Ensures the team delivers high-quality, shippable increments consistently. | Helps avoid surprises and delays by ensuring work is actionable and understood before starting. |
| Formal status in Scrum | The team defines a formal Scrum artifact and commitment. | Optional; not a formal Scrum artifact but widely used to improve sprint planning and flow. |
| Impact | Prevents incomplete or low-quality work from being considered done. | Prevents starting work that is unclear or blocked, reducing sprint disruptions. |
Why is the Definition of Done Important?
DoD offers many advantages to Agile teams, and it’s necessary because it ensures quality, clarity, and consistency in Agile delivery. It keeps teams aligned, lowers risks, and ends up with higher-quality products and happier customers.
- Quality Assurance: DoD ensures each task or product increment achieves consistent quality before being labeled as done. It minimizes defects, rework, and technical debt through rigorous testing, reviews, and documentation.
- Transparency: With a clearly outlined DoD, all team members—developers, testers, product owners, and stakeholders—understand precisely what “done” is. This avoids misunderstandings and confusion regarding the completion status of items of work.
- Predictability: The DoD enables teams to deliver finished and trustworthy work, sprint after sprint. Such consistency enhances the predictability of releases and project timelines and supports improved planning and risk management.
- Improved Communication: By establishing the expectations for completion, the DoD encourages better communication and synchronization between Product Owners, Scrum Masters, developers, and other stakeholders. It ensures that expectations are communicated and fulfilled.
- Customer Satisfaction: To deliver work that is DoD-compliant means delivering working, tested, and user-ready software. This creates customer trust and satisfaction through delivering consistent, high-quality products that fulfill their requirements.
How to Create a Definition of Done
“Done” is a subjective idea and is frequently hard to pin down. With your project, that can’t happen. Developing a Definition of Done is a collaborative process. Here’s how you can create one:
- Gather the Team: Get all important roles—developers, testers, Scrum Master, and Product Owner—together to bring their ideas and knowledge to the table.
- Review Current Workflows: Examine how your team presently determines “done” and what procedures are used in finishing work items.
- Identify Gaps:Reflect on past sprints or projects to recognize omitted steps, quality defects, or unfinished deliverables which led to issues.
- List Completion Criteria: Make a list of all the activities and conditions required for a task or product increment to be marked as done. This may include:
- Code development and peer review
- Automated and manual testing
- Documentation updates
- Deployment to staging or production
- Stakeholder approval
- Compliance checks
- Document and Share: Make the Definition of Done publicly visible and easily accessible to your entire team- post it in your project management software, team wiki, or in your office space.
- Refine Continuously: Revisit and refresh the DoD regularly during retrospectives or sprint planning to evolve to new learnings, technologies, or project needs.
Best Practices For Creating DoD
To optimize your DoD in Agile, observe the following best practices. By taking these steps and best practices, your team will have a useful, functioning Definition of Done that enhances quality, clarity, and predictability in delivery. As noted, an effective definition of done is a transparent, collaborative, living document.
- Keep it realistic: Don’t overload the DoD with too many complicated criteria. Stick to what really guarantees completeness and quality. The ideal way to have a DoD within Jira is with a Custom Field. You can utilize the default text field or checkboxes, but neither is ideal – text fields don’t indicate which are complete, and checkboxes only appear when editing.
- Break it down to make it measurable: Employ clear, objective, and verifiable criteria so anyone can directly determine if work is done in accordance with the DoD. Because custom fields can depend on issue types, the most effective means of doing this segregation is to have one DoD for technical tasks and one DoD for user stories. This makes the DoD flexible to the workflow of development, not the other way around.
- Align with stakeholders: Make sure that the DoD is customer need and product expectation-driven to bring real value. Configure the DoD custom field in such a way that adding/modifying/removing items is possible only by the product owner. This will hold him or her accountable for articulating what he or she wants.
- Apply consistently: Apply the DoD to every sprint and backlog item in order to ensure standardized quality levels. This demands accountability and reinforces what “Done” really means.
- Make it a part of sprint planning and reviews: Reinforce the DoD’s importance by discussing it regularly during Scrum ceremonies. The best way to have an agile team follow the DoD is to embed it into their Scrum workflow.
To sum up
DoD serves as the guide that ensures work meets defined standards and maintains quality, consistency, and transparency in Agile processes. A clearly defined DoD not only ensures improved quality deliverables but also creates transparency, predictability, and trust core ingredients for effective Agile projects and contented stakeholders.
It drives quality, consistency, and trust in your development process. Whether you’re just starting with DoD Agile practices or refining your current approach, remember: if a task doesn’t meet the Definition of Done, it’s not done.
