A definition of done is the standard every piece of work has to meet before it counts as finished - tested, reviewed, documented, deployed, whatever your team agreed. It applies to every story, unlike acceptance criteria, which belong to one story each.
Why a shared definition matters
Without one, "done" means whatever the person saying it happens to mean, and the gap surfaces at the worst moment: a story marked complete that has no tests, was never reviewed, or is sitting unmerged on a branch. A definition of done makes the bar explicit so nobody has to infer it, and so a status report means something.
What teams typically include
The list should be short enough that everyone can recite it. A twenty-item definition of done is aspirational documentation rather than a working standard.
- Acceptance criteria met
- The story's own conditions are satisfied and have been checked.
- Code reviewed
- By someone who did not write it.
- Tests written and passing
- At whatever level the team has agreed - the point is that the standard is named rather than negotiated per story.
- Merged and deployed
- To the environment the team counts as done. Work on an unmerged branch is not finished.
- Documentation updated
- Where the change affects something someone else relies on.
Done in the tracker versus done in reality
The two diverge quietly. A story dragged to a done column is a claim, not a fact, and status reports built on claims drift from reality until someone checks them by hand. Reading completion back from the tracker of record - and treating a cancelled item as cancelled rather than quietly counting it as delivered - is what keeps a delivery or budget projection honest.
Frequently asked questions
Anything else? Email hello@crowdlinker.com and a person will answer.
Should the definition of done differ per team?
It can, and often should - a team shipping an internal tool has a different bar from one shipping a payments flow. What matters is that within a team it is one agreed list.
Does a definition of done replace acceptance criteria?
No. The definition of done is the standing bar for all work; acceptance criteria are what this particular story has to do. A story needs both.
How Spectr helps
Write user stories your developers can actually start
Draft stories with real acceptance criteria, then approve, edit or reject each one