Stupid Question 105: What is Done (what is DoD)?
When are we ‘Done’? What is definition of done?
While discussing the latest ‘stupid questions’ on Twitter DoD was mentioned. I had to ask, what is DoD?
DoD stands for Definition of Done is a Scrum term - and describes what done is. Sounds simple? Well, even though a simple word the definition itself is not easy. I had somebody ask me this once, actually it was two friends of mine- both great devs and also testers, Daniel W. and Jonas A. I was struggling with a school project and they asked me, what I considered done,- what the teacher would consider done what?
We had many discussions about this, what done is. I always found it hard to limit myself- but time would always do that for me so I had to start defining these terms.
While in school, with limited time and resources, and different expectations, the definition of done was quite different from what it is today for me in a real project with a real customer, real money and real users. Not to mention more time, resources and a lot more of responsibility. So it varies from project to project, and also from team to team. And the definition might even change during the project. What seems very important is that this is discussed early on. For me personally I try to define done also in regards to things such as my ‘stupid questions’. When is a post done? (A post can take anything from one hour to three times as much if not more, and even though I sometimes would like to cover this and that, I have to draw the line somewhere and decide what done is).
I’m no Scrum guru, I’ve read about it, heard about, done some of it, and like most of it. So in regards to Scrum and DoD I couldn’t explain more specific what DoD should be considered in that context, but to read (or listen) about what other developers think have a quick look here:
Your Scrum definition of Done
Definition of Done
Building a Definition of Done
WHAT IS DONE? - A CONVERSATION WITH SCRUM CO-CREATOR KEN SCHWABER
(I really recommend the podcast by Scott Hanselman and Ken Schwaber!)
Comments
Done depends on what your team agrees upon. Many teams gravitate toward the definition of a story as being done when it can be shipped. That means the developer has written the code and the unit tests, the story has passed through quality assurance and any other testing frameworks, the business has reviewed and signed off on the feature.
I've always started my projects with a feature requirements list. When every requirement in that list is met and I've removed all known bugs, I call it done and send it for testing. Of course, new bugs get found in testing, and new features get requested, so those are added to the requirements list and a new iteration begins. I guess there's really no such thing as done until the software reaches retirement.
(if this posts twice, please remove the latter; I had a flaky internet connection while posting) For me, this is one of the most difficult questions around. According to the Belbin Test, I'm a "Completer Finisher": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Role_Inventories#Completer_Finisher Look at how I can make my team mates mad about having too much eye for detail. For me, I came to the conclusion that software is never "Done", but at certain points in time it is "Good Enough".
Last modified on 2012-12-15