Definition of Done
DoD vs. DoR, checklist items, team ownership, and DoD for different story types
Definition of Done essentials
- DoD = exit criteria — what a story must meet to be considered complete
- DoR = entry criteria — what a story must have before it can start
- DoD applies uniformly to every story — no partial exceptions
- Typical items: code reviewed, tests passing, deployed to staging, accessibility checked, docs updated, PO accepted
- DoD is team-owned and updated at retrospectives
Question 0 of 5
Which of the following is a correct Definition of Done (DoD) item?
Specific, measurable process gate is the correct DoD item. Why each option is wrong or right:
- Option A is Gherkin acceptance criteria — story-specific, not DoD
- Option B is vague and not measurable — "all edge cases" is subjective
- Option C ✅ — specific (unit + integration tests), measurable (80% coverage), process gate (passing)
- Option D — self-review is not a substitute for peer code review; the DoD item should be "reviewed by at least one other team member"
What is the main difference between Definition of Done (DoD) and Definition of Ready (DoR)?
DoD = exit criteria (done); DoR = entry criteria (ready to start). Examples:
- DoR items: "Story has acceptance criteria", "Story is estimated", "Dependencies are identified", "Mockups approved"
- DoD items: "Code reviewed", "Tests added and passing", "Deployed to staging", "Accessibility checked", "Documentation updated"
A team's Definition of Done includes: "Deployed to production." What potential issue does this create?
Not all stories go directly to production — nuance is needed. Deployment in DoD options:
- Small hotfix: "deployed to production" is appropriate
- Large feature: "deployed to staging" or "behind feature flag in production" may be more appropriate
- Risky change: "reviewed by security team before production deployment"
- Sprint DoD: "deployed to staging, all tests passing"
- Release DoD: "deployed to production, monitoring alerts set up, runbook written"
Which DoD checklist is most complete for a full-stack feature?
Review + tests + staging + accessibility + docs + PO acceptance is the most complete. Full-stack DoD checklist areas:
- ✅ Code quality: peer reviewed
- ✅ Testing: unit, integration, or E2E tests added and passing
- ✅ Deployment: staging (or production with feature flag)
- ✅ Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA check
- ✅ Documentation: API docs, README, or changelog updated
- ✅ Acceptance: PO confirmed it meets the acceptance criteria
Which statement about the Definition of Done is correct?
Team-wide agreement, applies to every story uniformly. DoD principles:
- ✅ Team agreement: defined collaboratively by developers, QA, and the Scrum Master
- ✅ Uniform: applies to every story — no story is "done enough" with a partial DoD
- ✅ Evolving: the team can update the DoD at retrospectives as practices improve
- ❌ Story-specific DoD defeats the purpose — consistency is the value