UNDERSTANDING DEFINITION OF DONE VS ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

Every so often, agile team members and product managers confuse Definitions of Done (DoD) and Acceptance Criteria (AC). Both are required to complete Features and Stories but understanding the differences can result in saved time, higher quality, and improved flow. While very common among newer teams just implementing and adopting agile practices, I have found experienced teams also need a reminder of the differences on occasion. 

Generally, when I discover there is some confusion on the matter, I remind people of two questions: 

• Does this requirement or specification apply to all items in the backlog?
• Are we seeing the same requirement or specification written on many items within our backlog?

If the answer is yes to either of these questions, it’s likely the requirement in question is part of the DoD. 

My reasoning? Simply put, and the easiest differentiator, is that AC typically apply only to one Story or Feature while DoD apply to the entire backlog of work. 

Most often, when applying DoD’s to your backlog, its based on the higher-level deliverable requirements, functional and non-functional, that would apply to each segment of work at the lower level, i.e each story which needs to be completed to deliver a feature may share some or all non-functional requirements (NFR) of the feature. The DoD is important to ensuring increments of value can be considered complete. 

Acceptance criteria are used to determine whether the implementation is correct and delivers the business benefits expected. Additionally, AC mitigate risk through early validation of the benefit hypothesis by creating alignment between stakeholders, product management, and the development team. At the Feature level, AC can also be used as the source of stories. 

So, next time your team starts to break down a new feature into its backlog, review the acceptance criteria, and DoD at the program level, and collaborate on which requirements are necessary across all stories being written. Those requirements, along with validation, defect, and other concerns are likely part of your DoD; all else can be considered AC.

Knowing and applying this will simplify your refinement sessions, save time and resources, improve quality through broader application of DoD’s, and increase flow as teams focus on what’s most important to each story.