All along I thought it was supposed to be defined by the Scrum team — with the development team and the Product Owner aligning on the Definition of Done. That’s how we’ve done it in the past projects I’ve had. But then I’ve come across a material saying otherwise. Apparently, based on the 2017 Scrum Guide:
…If the definition of “Done” for an increment is part of the conventions, standards or guidelines of the development organization, all Scrum Teams must follow it as a minimum.
If “Done” for an increment is not a convention of the development organization, the Development Team of the Scrum Team must define a definition of “Done” appropriate for the product. If there are multiple Scrum Teams working on the system or product release, the Development Teams on all the Scrum Teams must mutually define the definition of “Done”.
To be fair though, there was no convention that we knew of or that we were advised to adopt. And so the Scrum Team went ahead to define “Done” (which apparently is more consistent with the 2020 version).
My past projects happened to be consistent around our DoDs. Unless there’s some exception which then had to be documented in the acceptance criteria, to be considered “Done”, user stories generally were…
- dev tested
- peer reviewed
- deployed in the test environment (via automated scripts)
- tested by testers in the test environment, with all major to critical bugs resolved
- reviewed by the BA in the test environment
- reviewed and accepted by the PO in the test environment
Looking into the 2020 Scrum Guide, it seems they changed it such that if there’s no such organizational DoD, it’s the Scrum Team rather than the Development Team (as in the 2017 version) who defines it.
If the Definition of Done for an increment is part of the standards of the organization, all Scrum Teams must follow it as a minimum. If it is not an organizational standard, the Scrum Team must create a Definition of Done appropriate for the product.
The Developers are required to conform to the Definition of Done. If there are multiple Scrum Teams working together on a product, they must mutually define and comply with the same Definition of Done.
testkeis 