Definition of Done (DoD)
A shared checklist of criteria that every work item must satisfy before it can be considered complete and potentially releasable.
The Definition of Done is a team-level agreement that applies to all work items, unlike acceptance criteria which are specific to individual stories. A typical DoD for a web team might include: code is reviewed, unit tests pass, integration tests pass, accessibility audit passes, visual regression shows no unintended changes, documentation is updated, and the feature works in the staging environment.
The DoD acts as a quality gate that prevents incomplete work from being marked as done. It should evolve over time as the team matures and identifies new quality dimensions to enforce.
Why It Matters for QA Teams
Without a shared DoD, 'done' means different things to different people. One developer might consider a feature done after writing code, while QA expects full test coverage and a staging deployment first.
Example
A team's Definition of Done checklist: Code reviewed and approved by at least one peer. All unit and integration tests pass. No new accessibility violations detected by axe. Visual regression tests reviewed and approved. Feature deployed to staging and verified. Product owner has reviewed the feature in staging.