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What is the definition of done in scrum?

The definition of done is a shared checklist every item must satisfy before it counts as complete — typically code reviewed, tests passing, merged, deployed and documented. It exists so that 'done' means the same thing to everyone, which is what makes velocity trustworthy and sprint reviews possible.

Why an undefined 'done' breaks velocity

If one person's done means merged and another's means demoed, the points on the board measure two different things and the velocity average becomes noise. A written definition of done is not bureaucracy; it is the unit test for your own metrics.

A realistic small-team definition

Code reviewed by one other person; automated tests pass; merged to main; deployed to production or staging; the issue's description matches what was actually built; anything user-facing noted in the release note. Six lines is plenty — a twenty-item checklist gets ignored by the second sprint.

Definition of done versus acceptance criteria

Acceptance criteria are per-story: what this specific feature must do. The definition of done is universal: what every item must satisfy regardless of what it is. You need both, and confusing them is why some teams have neither.

Making it visible

Keep the definition where the work is. A Flocci Library wiki page attached to the project — and linkable from an issue's Links panel — beats a decision buried in a chat thread, because the whole point is that a new joiner can read it on day one and a card in Review can be checked against it.

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Related questions

Who writes the definition of done?

The team, together, and it should be revised in retrospectives when reality proves it wrong. A definition imposed by a manager gets satisfied on paper and ignored in practice.

Should 'deployed to production' be in the definition of done?

If you can deploy on demand, yes — it closes the gap between finished and valuable. If releases are batched by an external constraint, use 'merged and deployable' instead, and be explicit that the release is a separate step.

What is the definition of ready?

The mirror-image checklist for entering a sprint: clear title, enough description to estimate, sized, no blocking dependency. It stops planning meetings from turning into writing meetings.

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