#22 – Done

Authors’ comments:

No matter how good or useful your Definition of Done is, if your deliverables never get released, your work is not changing anything in the world. However, assuming that there is an actual need, in order for the Scrum team to have a common understanding of when work is complete, they agree on a Definition of Done, i.e., a list of facts that must be true for the increment of product functionality that the team delivers every sprint. The DoD typically consists of accepted Acceptance Criteria, tests that need to be passed, documentation that must be made, non-functional requirements that must be met and tasks for enabling releasing of the increment.

If a team, for whatever reason, is in a predicament where they do not deliver end-to-end value, their DoD should be aligned with whoever takes the increment and further develops it or releases it. As the team matures, and the scope of their PBIs become more end-to-end, their DoD is extended, as the DoD is not a static definition, but a dynamic one, so any team should have as their ambition to continuously refine it.