Defining Done Guide

What Is It?
Agile teams make an agreement on what constitutes potentially shippable software in their environment. This agreement is called the definition of done. The DoD serves as a contract the delivery team writes with its stakeholders as well as the teams standard of excellence. Define done for user stories, iterations and releases 2. Draw three areas on your white board to represent done for a user story, done for an iteration and done for a release. Sample Definition of Done

Who Does It? When?

Creating the Definition of Done is a collaborative effort between the ScrumMaster, Delivery Team and Product Owner. The initial Definition of Done can be created before or during the first iteration planning meeting. Its important that the DoD is continually revisited in future iteration planning meetings to drive continuous improvement and to ensure that it is still serving the team. 3. For each item of work, place it in the appropriate section by considering If the team can deliver the work with each story. If not then Can the team deliver the work at the iteration boundary? If not then The team must deliver the work at the release boundary or not at all.

How do we create a Definition of Done?

Identify the work necessary for release

1. Write down all of the work necessary for a release. Write each item on a separate post-it note.

Some teams focus exclusively on story done. Work items are placed above the line (story done) or below the line (release done). The goal is to continue to move work above the line into story done. This goal drives the continuous improvement of the team.

As you place each item, discuss the completeness of the work that will be delivered. For example, all
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Whatever the reason for items below the story waterline, the team knows that the inability to deliver these means building up technical debt. They work towards moving those items that they can above the water line. And for those that remain under, stories are added to the backlog to indicate the technical debt that must be paid prior to release.
Rachel Weston, Agile Coach

DeFininG Done GuiDe (ConTinueD)

Benefits
The team and its stakeholders develop a common vocabulary. When we say this work is done, everyone knows what we mean. Stakeholder confidence in the team increases. Releases are more predictable. Technical debt is reduced there are no more surprises at the end of the release cycle. Work that contributes little or no business value is surfaced.

code checked in or unit test coverage > 80%. Use language that you can check like a unit test. For example, code review completed vs. code review. Remember that each layer beyond delivered with the story equates to accumulation of risk and debt - so every attempt should be made to move each item as high up the ladder as the team can - with the caveat that an iteration starts tomorrow - and youll need to live with whatever definition of done youve agreed to. Watch out for mini-waterfalls within your iteration. For example, if you find yourself with regression testing as part of iteration done, consider if you can complete this with each story instead.

For the work that cannot be completed with the story:

4. Discuss what obstacles or impediments prevent the team from delivering the work with the story (e.g. we have an independent QA verification team and they have to be tightly scheduled). The impediments, no matter how large, can be informative to management about how the team can improve time to market (cycle time) and provide better predictability (by decreasing the technical debt that must be paid prior to release). 5. Think creatively about how you might incrementally address impediments (e.g., we must produce a regulatory document with each release, so we decide to write a portion of the document with each story or iteration). If you are able to iteratively address the obstacle, agree to add a user story to reflect the work. 6. If the impediment cannot be removed or incrementally addressed, capture it as part of a prioritized backlog of impediments. Remember to add user stories to your backlog to indicate the technical debt that must be paid prior to release.

Management becomes aware of impediments to faster time-tomarket and better predictability. Problems stemming from organizational structure become visible Teams clearly understand the expectations associated with their delivery commitments

Commit and Post

7. Call for a fist of five. All team members must agree to the Definition of Done as they will be accountable to each other for delivering the work for each story, iteration and release. 8. Prominently post the Definition of Done to serve as a reminder of the teams commitments to each other. 9. Continue to revisit the Definition of Done, practicing kaizen - continuously improving your teams operational excellence by moving work away from release boundaries.

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