Definition of Done vs. Acceptance Criteria

One of the common questions among many scrum teams is the difference between the definition of done and acceptance criteria and how they affect user stories. While acceptance criteria relate more t...


One of the common questions among many scrum teams is the difference between the definition of done and acceptance criteria and how they affect user stories. While acceptance criteria relate more to software development, the definition of done is unique to scrum.

People tend to mix these two terms, but they couldn't be more different, even though they have many things in common. Knowing how to tell these two apart will help you with their practical application.

DEFINITION OF DONE (DOD)

DoD is designed as a list of items, each of which is used to validate PBI or story. Definition of done exists to ensure that the development team agrees on the work they are trying to accomplish. It assumes a form of a checklist, and it's used to check every user story for completeness or PBI – product backlog item. In other words, DoD is made to be applicable to all items in the product backlog, not just a single story.

To sum things up:

* The DoD is applied to product increments as a whole
* Usually ...