Definition Of Done (Dod)
The team's agreed checklist of completion and quality conditions that must all be satisfied before a deliverable is accepted as ready for customer use.
Key Points
- Owned by the team and visible to stakeholders; it sets a shared bar for completeness.
- Applies consistently to each increment or backlog item and can be refined over time.
- Covers quality checks such as tests passing, reviews completed, standards met, and documentation updated.
- Prevents partially done work from being released and improves forecasting of what can be finished in a Sprint.
Example
A Scrum team building a mobile app defines its DoD to include: all acceptance tests passing in CI, code reviewed and merged, security scan clean, updated user help text, and Product Owner acceptance. A story that fails the security scan does not meet the DoD and cannot be marked done for the Sprint.
PMP Example Question
Which statement best describes the purpose of the Definition of Done (DoD) in an agile project?
- It lists the conditions of satisfaction for a specific user story.
- It is the team's standard checklist that confirms work is complete and releasable.
- It specifies prerequisites a backlog item must meet before being pulled into a Sprint.
- It is the schedule baseline used to track progress against plan.
Correct Answer: B — the team's standard checklist of completion and quality criteria
Explanation: The DoD defines what complete means across items. Option A is acceptance criteria, C is Definition of Ready, and D is unrelated to agile quality/completeness standards.
