What is Definition of Done?
Definition of done (DoD) is a team-agreed checklist of criteria that every user story must meet before it can be considered complete and accepted, ensuring consistent quality across all delivered work.
Definition of Done: In Depth
The definition of done is a quality gate that prevents the silent accumulation of technical debt. Without a shared definition, "done" means different things to different people: one developer considers a story done when the feature works locally; another requires code review and passing tests; a third adds documentation requirements. The definition of done makes these expectations explicit and applies them uniformly to every story, every sprint.
A typical definition of done for a software team might include: code written and passing all existing tests, new unit tests written for new functionality, code reviewed by at least one other developer, feature deployed to a staging environment, acceptance criteria verified by the product owner, and documentation updated if relevant. Some teams add performance benchmarks, accessibility checks, or security review requirements depending on the nature of the work.
The definition of done operates at the team level, above individual stories. Every story must satisfy the DoD to be counted as "Done" — not just "Dev Done" or "Code Complete." This distinction matters enormously for sprint velocity and delivery predictability. A story that is 95% done but stuck in review is worth zero points in that sprint. The DoD incentivises teams to complete work fully rather than moving on to new stories while leaving a trail of partially-done work behind them.
Acceptance criteria and the definition of done are complementary but different. Acceptance criteria are unique to each story and describe what that story must do. The definition of done is universal and describes how every story must be built. Both must be satisfied for a story to be truly complete. Codepylot's story board enforces a natural definition of done through its workflow: a story moves to Done only after an agent's branch is merged, AI code review passes, and acceptance criteria are confirmed — creating a lightweight but consistent quality gate for every feature.
Related Terms
User Story
A user story is a short, plain-language description of a software feature written from the end user's perspective, typically following the format: 'As a [user], I want [goal] so that [benefit].'
Acceptance Criteria
Acceptance criteria are the specific conditions a user story must satisfy to be considered complete and accepted by the product owner or stakeholder.
Sprint Planning
Sprint planning is an agile ceremony where a team selects user stories from the backlog to work on during an upcoming sprint, estimates effort, and commits to a sprint goal.
Story Points
Story points are a unit of measure used in agile development to estimate the relative effort, complexity, and uncertainty of user stories, typically using a Fibonacci sequence scale.
Given/When/Then Format
Given/When/Then is a structured format for writing acceptance criteria and test scenarios that describes a precondition (Given), a user action (When), and an expected outcome (Then).
Related Resources
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What is the difference between definition of done and definition of ready?
The definition of done specifies what a story must achieve to be considered complete (exiting the board). The definition of ready specifies what a story must have in place before a team can start working on it (entering the sprint). Definition of ready typically requires a clear description, acceptance criteria, a story point estimate, and no unresolved blocking dependencies.
Should the definition of done change over time?
Yes. Teams should review and update their definition of done at sprint retrospectives as their standards mature. Early-stage teams might start with minimal criteria and add requirements — like automated tests or performance checks — as they build the capability to meet them. A definition of done that never changes suggests the team has stopped improving.
How does the definition of done relate to AI coding agents?
AI coding agents need a clear definition of done to produce high-quality output. When an agent implements a story, it should aim to satisfy not just the acceptance criteria but also any universal standards like test coverage, code style, and documentation. Codepylot's agents automatically run an AI code review on completion, surfacing issues against a consistent quality rubric — acting as an automated first pass of the definition of done.