Delivery Management

The Definition of Done

Defining when the Product Increment is considered “Done”, what to look for and the typical patterns used to measure it.

Sjoerd Nijland

Jul 16, 2020 • 8 min read

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Definition of Done

Product Increment

Product Ownership

Enterprise Adaptability

Empiricism

Summary

Sjoerd Nijland talks abt the product increment and the definition of done citing that most teams deliver products in one shot and consider them done but the Agile author argues that this only ends up in getting something that is barely good enough but not perfect. He also adds that a done product is that which we keep on improving to perfection through learning and adapting. If your goal is to learn about the characteristics of a 'done' product backlog and increment plus the definition of DONE and its key benefits to Agile teams, this article is a must-read.

Takeaways

A done product is that which we keep on improving to perfection and this can hardly be achieved through a single attempt, especially in a complex environment.
Delivering products in one shot only ends up in getting something that is barely good enough but not perfect in terms of usability.
Those performing the work and those inspecting the resulting increment must share a common definition of “Done”. Scrum requires participants to develop a shared understanding of the process. Having transparency over “Done” also provides the benefit that the level of quality attained becomes clear.