Distinctions
Is
| Identity | Explanation |
|---|
| Shared quality bar | The baseline conditions work must satisfy before the team considers it complete |
| Cross-story completion standard | A reusable standard that applies across many stories, requests, or increments |
| Explicit delivery discipline | A way to prevent unfinished testing, documentation, review, or validation work from being hidden |
| Completion boundary | A line between “built enough to discuss” and “done enough to rely on” |
Is Not
| Other | Why It’s Different |
|---|
| Acceptance Criteria | Acceptance criteria are specific to a story; Definition of Done is the broader standard for completion quality |
| A checklist for bureaucracy | A good DoD protects reliability, shared expectations, and downstream users |
| A substitute for judgment | Teams may still need context-specific validation beyond the default DoD |
| A frozen policy | The DoD should evolve as the team learns what quality failures recur |
Boundary
Definition of Done is the team’s shared standard for when work is complete enough to release, rely on, or call finished.
Systems
Relationships
| Relationship | Concept | Rationale |
|---|
| Complements | Acceptance Criteria | DoD sets the general quality bar while acceptance criteria define story-specific success |
| Distinguished by | Definition of Done vs Acceptance Criteria | Prevents the team’s general completion standard from being confused with story-specific acceptance conditions |
| Mitigates | Invisible Value | Makes validation, review, testing, and documentation visible as part of completion |
Perspectives
| Stance | Who (Point) | What They See (View) | Optimize For | Insight | Blind Spots |
|---|
| The Looks-Done Checker | Stakeholder or downstream consumer | Done means the requested change appears to work | Speed, visible output, and low ceremony | The visible result matters; work that cannot be used is not valuable | May miss hidden validation, review, documentation, or operational readiness work |
| The Quality Steward | Delivery team | Done means the work meets a shared quality standard and can be safely relied on | Reliability, maintainability, and reduced downstream surprises | Completion requires more than visible functionality | Can make completion feel opaque unless the quality bar is explicit |
| The Shared Bar Setter | Team and stakeholders | Definition of Done sets the general completion standard; Acceptance Criteria set story-specific success | Clear expectations about both quality and fit-for-purpose | Separating DoD from AC prevents generic completion from being mistaken for stakeholder acceptance | Requires maintaining two related but distinct agreements |