How to write a Definition of Done
Source Article: https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/definition-of-done
Recently, in doing a project in class, I had to write a Definition of Done (DoD) file for my portion of the project. I had a basic understanding of what needed to be conveyed, but not exactly how to convey it. I wanted to know more. I looked further into what the industry standard is, and that’s how I came across this post, which I used to help me figure out the one for my project.
I recall from the previous class activity that we looked at the Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, and the guide did give information on what the Definition of Done was and what it is meant to convey, but I wanted something more in-depth.
According to the article, the Definition of Done is a shared set of criteria that tells a Scrum team when a product increment is truly complete. The specifications contained are not created by one person but agreed upon by the entire team because there needs to be a shared understanding of what’s expected at the end of each sprint and for the project overall. This is needed to avoid miscommunication and make sure the team adheres to the pillars of Scrum: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. The developers of the team have the responsibility of parsing out what the DoD will be continuously as it will evolve and change as increments pass.
I knew that whatever was agreed upon needed to be something that is measurable and testable, otherwise there would never be a satisfying way to declare being done. But the article mentioned something about the DoD needing to also be “ready to ship”. This means that there can be no hidden work left after the spring, and there can’t be extra polishing stages.
The most helpful portions of the article were the examples that were provided of what can be included in a DoD. Here are some of them./
- Increment Passes SonarCube checks with no Critical errors
- Increment’s Code Coverage stays the same or gets higher
- Increment meets agreed engineering standards
- Acceptance Criteria for Increment pass
- Acceptance Tests for Increment are Automated
Most of the examples include the project passing specific tests or meeting certain standards that would be either required by the client or the organization the team is working for, which is par for the course. The DoD is an important part of Scrum, and I need to understand how to think of a project in order to write one in future cases.
From the blog CS@Worcester – A Beginner's Journey Through Computer Science by Christiana Serwaah and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
