Definition of Done (DoD)
The Definition of Done (DoD) is a shared, explicit standard that describes when a piece of work is truly complete, for example coded, reviewed, tested, documented and ready to release. In Scrum it is the formal description of the state an Increment must reach to meet the quality measures required for the product.
How the Definition of Done Works
In the 2020 Scrum Guide, the Definition of Done is the commitment attached to the Increment, the usable piece of product the team produces. The moment a Product Backlog item meets the Definition of Done, it becomes part of an Increment. An item that does not meet it cannot be released or even shown at the Sprint Review; it goes back to the Product Backlog.
The Scrum Guide also sets out who owns it. If the organization has a Definition of Done as a standard, every Scrum team follows it as a minimum. If not, the Scrum Team must create one that suits the product. Teams may add stricter items of their own but not drop the organizational ones.
A DoD is usually a short checklist that applies to every item, for example:
- Code reviewed and merged.
- Automated tests written and passing.
- Acceptance criteria verified.
- Non-functional checks done, such as performance, security and accessibility.
- Documentation and release notes updated.
- Deployed to a staging or production environment.
The definition is not fixed. Teams tighten it as their tooling and automation improve, moving toward "done" meaning "released".
Why the Definition of Done Matters
The DoD creates transparency. When "done" means the same thing to everyone, a status update can be trusted and progress is real rather than estimated. Without one, work gets called finished when it is only partly there. The leftover testing, fixes and documentation pile up as hidden work and technical debt, which usually surfaces just before a release.
Unlike acceptance criteria, which are specific to each story, the DoD applies to every item. It sets a consistent quality floor across the product, regardless of who did the work. That includes work produced by AI coding agents: a clear DoD gives reviewers an objective checklist for deciding whether generated code is ready to merge.
Definition of Done Example
A SaaS team agrees this Definition of Done:
- Code reviewed by at least one other developer.
- Unit and integration tests pass in continuous integration.
- Product owner has confirmed the acceptance criteria.
- No new errors from the automated accessibility checker.
- Feature deployed to staging behind a feature flag.
- User-facing changes recorded in the changelog.
A story whose code works but has no tests is not done. It is not presented at the Sprint Review and returns to the backlog.
Definition of Done vs. Definition of Ready
The DoD sets the conditions for finishing work. A Definition of Ready sets the conditions for starting it, such as a clear story, agreed acceptance criteria and known dependencies. The Definition of Ready is a common team practice but, unlike the DoD, it is not part of the Scrum Guide.