Question 1

What is a Definition of Done?

Accepted Answer

A Definition of Done (DoD) is the shared checklist a team agrees must be true before a story, feature, or release is considered complete. It prevents 'done' from meaning different things to different team members and makes quality non-negotiable.

Question 2

How often should a Definition of Done be updated?

Accepted Answer

Review the DoD every quarter, and after any incident that revealed a gap. The DoD should evolve as the team's quality bar rises — add items, remove items that are now automated, never leave it stale.

Question 3

What is the difference between Story, Feature, and Release DoD?

Accepted Answer

Story DoD applies to an individual ticket: code review, tests, lint, types. Feature DoD applies to an epic before it ships behind a flag: integration tests, accessibility, runbook, telemetry. Release DoD applies to the whole product before shipping to all users: release readiness, sign-off chain, customer comms, observability. Each level builds on the previous.

Question 4

How does Definition of Done differ from acceptance criteria?

Accepted Answer

Acceptance criteria are per-story and answer 'does this feature work as specified?' — they're behavioural. Definition of Done is team-wide and answers 'is this work production-ready?' — it covers code quality, tests, accessibility, security, operational readiness. A story can meet acceptance criteria yet fail DoD if tests are missing.

Definition of Done (2026)

Code0/4

Quality0/4

Testing0/4

Operations0/5

Stakeholder0/3

Accessibility0/4

Security0/4

Three levels of DoD

Test Plan

Release Readiness

Quality Goals & SLOs

QA RFC / ADR