Definition of Ready DOR & Definition of Done DOD

Definition of Ready (DoR)

Acceptance Criteria: The user story has clear, testable conditions for success.
Estimated Effort: The team has sized the task (e.g., using story points).
Dependencies Resolved: External blocks, required APIs, or assets are identified and cleared.
Value Defined: The business value or user need is explicitly stated.
Feasibility Confirmed: The team agrees the task can fit inside a single sprint.

Definition of Done (DoD)

Code Review: Peer review and approval completed by another team member.
Testing Passed: Unit tests, integration tests, and QA verifications pass successfully.
No Defect/Bugs: Critical errors are resolved, with minor issues logged.
Documentation Updated: Technical notes or user-facing guidelines are revised.
Deployed/Merged: Code is safely merged into the main branch or staging environment.

Definition of Done DoD vs Definition of Ready DoR in Agile Scrum

Agile Scrum Definition of Done DOD

The Definition of Done (DoD) in Agile Scrum is a shared, team-wide checklist of the quality criteria every product backlog item must meet before it can be considered truly complete and releasable. It ensures consistent quality standards and prevents “almost done” work from accumulating as technical debt.

DoD vs. Acceptance Criteria

It is common to confuse the DoD with Acceptance Criteria, but they serve different purposes:

Definition of Done: Applies to all product backlog items. It dictates the technical quality standards (e.g., code reviewed, tests passed) required to be releasable.
Acceptance Criteria: Specific to an individual user story. It details the unique functional behaviors and business requirements needed to satisfy the user.

Typical DoD Checklist

While the DoD evolves as the team matures, a standard software development checklist often includes:

Code written and passes static analysis checks
Peer code review completed (Pull Request approved)
All unit and automated acceptance tests are written and passing
Security and performance checks completed
Meets accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG)
All necessary documentation (API, release notes, user guides) is updated
Deployed to a staging/testing environment

Why the DoD Matters

Transparency: Everyone—from developers to stakeholders—knows exactly what “done” means, removing ambiguity.
Quality Assurance: Establishes a minimum quality threshold, reducing bugs and future rework.
Releasability: Ensures the product increment is genuinely usable and ready to be shipped to end-users.