Definition of Done

“Definition of Done” is a common concept in Agile methods, especially in Scrum. It’s a single list of everything that should be done for each item (e.g., user story). A Definition of Done usually contains the following:

Development processes, such as specification, design, build, integrate, test, and documentation
Non-functional features, such as security, performance, scalability, and maintainability
Quality criteria and acceptance criteria

The general idea is that well-formed items are so similar that a majority of their development and quality activities are the same, and can be documented in a centralized place (Definition of Done) rather than being mentioned separately for each item. Although, a relatively different approach is to use the Definition of Done to describe what it means for the increments to be done, and use that to decide what has to be done for each item.

Definition of Done can be used in the Quality Theme to simplify PRINCE2 Agile. Since it shows everything that should be done for each item, it can also be used to measure Progress.

Definition of Done

See Also