A Product Backlog Item's acceptance criteria is a list of things that must be true for that backlog item to be considered done.
But a definition of done is also a List of Things that Must Be True for a Product backlog Item to Be Considered Done.
Are these competing ideas?
Do you need both acceptance criterion and a Definition of Done?
If so, how do the two ideas relate?
Let's dig into the relationship between acceptance criteria and a team's definition of done.
Hi, I'm Mike Cohn.
I am the author of three bestselling books on Agile and Scrum.
Each product backlog item should have an associated set of acceptance These are essentially high-level tests to prove the backlog item does what it's supposed to.
Suppose you're developing an e-commerce website that allows people to buy wine.
One of your backlog items gives site visitors the ability to search for a wine, acceptance criteria for that will include things like users can search
by type of wine such as Cabernet or Chardonnay.
Users can searched by price range.
Users can search by ratings and so on.
On this same wine shopping site, there will be another backlog item that allows users to pay for the items in their shopping cart.
That will have acceptance criteria such as the buyer is charged the right amount, shipping charges are calculated correctly and added,
if a credit card is declined, the buyers notified and given a chance to edit the card's details and more.
Notice that these acceptance criteria are very specific to each product backlog item.
Searching by price is an acceptance criterion for the search for wine backlog items, but searching by prices doesn't make any sense as acceptance for paying
for items in a cart.
Contrast that with a team's definition of done.
A team definition done should contain things that apply to all, or perhaps nearly all of its product backlog items.
On a definition have done, we'll see things like the item has been thoroughly tested, the code is checked in, The website works in Chrome,
Safari, Firefox, Edge and Opera, and other items like that.
You could write these as acceptance criteria for every product back log item.
But it would be a lot of work adding these to every backlog item.
So instead, we elevate common items into a universal definition of done.
Think about the Winebine website.
Every backlog items the team delivers needs to be thoroughly tested, have its code checked in, and so on.
The difference between acceptance criteria and a definition of done is that acceptance Criteria are specific to a particular product backlog item.
The definition Of done Is universal.
It includes things that nearly all product Backlog items need to comply with.
I say nearly All because you'll occasionally have items that don't need To meet every part of the definition have done.
In our Wine website example, the definition of done required that things work in five browsers.
That system will have some behind the scenes features without a user interface though.
Perhaps it sends nightly emails with low inventory warnings.
There's no web browser involved in that little area at all.
Still, because most features will be run in a browser, including browsers in your definition of done is a good idea.
Let's look at a quick example of how I'm using a definition-of-done and acceptance criteria right now.
My acceptance-criteria for this video were, one, explain what acceptance criterion are.
Two, explained what a Definition-Of-Done is.
Three, explains the difference.
But for this video to be complete, I also need to meet my definition of done for every video.
That includes starting with a quick introduction, keeping the video as short as possible to respect your time, creating a cover image for the videos when
I upload it, writing a short description, and adding a couple of these links to other videos.
Oh, my Definition of Done also includes reminding you to click the like button and to subscribe so you don't miss future videos,
I hope your definition of done also includes leaving me a comment.
Let me know how you're doing with acceptance criteria and your definitions of Done.
Or let me what other topics you'd like me to address so I can get those done.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.