Learning Agile: The Definition for “Done”
Hi All!
On my last post “Learning Agile — Three Pillars to Make Scrum Work “ a question regarding what “Done” means after all, came up. Due to this, today I decided to write more about such an important word in the Agile world.
Per all I have read so far on Agile and Scrum, there is no general definition for “Done”. The agreement of what “Done” means depends on the project, the backlog items, the increments and what that specific team has decided “done” means. Not only the team must agree on what “done” means but also, they should guarantee that understanding is common to all team members (transparency).
Having said this, it’s important to highlight that the meaning of this key word may vary significantly Team to Team, Project to Project.
This word is so important in the Agile frameworks because this will drive what is “ready to deliver” from each Sprint and therefore is a thermometer of the project health and a way to track its schedule.
According to the Scrum Guide (http://www.scrumguides.org), “the same definition guides the Development Team in knowing how many Product Backlog items it can select during a Sprint Planning. The purpose of each Sprint is to deliver Increments of potentially releasable functionality that adhere to the Scrum Team’s current definition of “Done.” Development Teams deliver an Increment of product functionality every Sprint. This Increment is usable, so a Product Owner may choose to immediately release it.”
Due to the fact that “Done” means ready to be used, it’s important to keep in mind that, if an increment, it must be thoroughly tested within / with the key product, in order to make sure it works with the solution.
Speaking from an Information Technology standpoint, a completely “done” product should include full analysis, coding, programming, documentation, business controls and data privacy reviews, unit tests, user acceptance tests, regression tests, sign offs, stability and integration tests etc. In summary, it should be ready for deployment.
It’s also important to highlight that if there are multiple Scrum Teams working on the system or product release, the development teams on all of the Scrum Teams must define, in conjunction, the definition of “Done.”
A tip from the Scrum Guide says that. “as Scrum Teams mature, it is expected that their definitions of “Done” will expand to include more stringent criteria for higher quality. Any one product or system should have a definition of “Done” that is a standard for any work done on it.”
Hope this clarifies the matter of this key word! :)
Please leave a comment with your feedback.
Thank you!
