The document discusses defining the term "done" in agile projects. It notes that without a clear definition of "done", there can be confusion about the status of work items. The document recommends defining "done" upfront to mean that all requirements for a product backlog item or user story have been met and all blocking bugs have been resolved, so it is ready for end-user testing. Defining terminology early avoids misunderstandings throughout the project.

1. Defining the Word “Done” in Agile Projects
One of the mostchallengingpartsof workingina software developmentteam islearningthe
terminology.Thisblogpostwillfocusonthe terminologyusedby QualityAssurance andSoftware
Testingprofessionals. Excellentwrittenandverbal communication skillsare extremely importanttothe
job. In orderfor a team to be successful, everyoneneeds tospeakthe same technical language.
In a recentproject,we hadn’tclearlydefined“done” andwhatit meantto everyone in the
team. This quickly ledtoconfusionbywhatanyone meantwhentheysaiditwasdone. A lotof “what
exactlyisfinished inthisand/orwhydidyousetthisto ‘done’if you’re still missingX, Y,and Z from this
work item?”Once we establishedanagreed-upondefinition,thisdidn’thappen.
BASIC TERMINOLOGY
First,let’sknockoutsome basicQA/Devterminologywiththree importantconcepts:bugs, user
storiesandProductBacklog Items(PBI). Duringthe lifetime of anagile project,you’ll encounterall three.
Bugs are usedto shownot justwhere the problemis,buthow the problemviolatesthe
requirementsof auserstory or PBI.A bug alsoincludesimportantdetailslike the stepstoreproduce the
error,so a developercanbegintroubleshooting the issue.
A userstoryis a high-level,overallideaforafeature of an application.A productbacklogitem
(PBI) isa seriesof prioritizedrequirements foranapplicationduringthe software developmentlife cycle
(SDLC).PBI’sare like a stack of to-doitemsfordevelopers.A userstorymaygenerate manyPBI’s.
Here are some examples.
A userstory may be as simple as:“Asa customerfor ‘BuymyStuff.com’,Iwantto be able to sign
intomy account.”
Productbacklogitems(PBI) are prioritizedlistsof specificrequirements thatare more granular
and technical thana userstory’srequirements.Anexample of aPBIis,“The sign-inscreenneedstohave
Username andPasswordfields thatare validatedpriortoallowingsign-in.”
The Need to Define Done
First,I wouldlike tomentionthatthere isnoexactdefinitionof the word“done”whenitcomes
to Agile Development. Neitherauserstory nor a PBI can be considered “done”until all associated bugs
are “Done/Completed”. Regardlessof the methodologyyou’re using,clearlydefiningwhatismeantby
the terms “done”or “complete”cangetconfusingthroughthe life of aproject. What may seemlike
“done”to a developermaynotbe the same as whatyour QA teamor ProjectManager thinks “done”
means. It’sa bestpractice to alwayscome to an agreeddefinition duringthe planningphase,beforeany
bugs, userstoriesor backlogitems are everconsidered“done”. The earlierthiscanbe conveyed,the
better.

2. On one project I wasworkingon, the developersthought“done”meantthatall the
requirementsof aPBI were resolved.Iwasconsidering“done”tomeanthatall bugsimpedingthe PBI
were alsoresolved. We came toan agreementthat“done”shouldmean“readyfor end-usertesting”,
not just“readyfor QA”.That’s a prettybigdifference!
DEFINING “DONE”
A successful measure for“done”,inmyexperience asQA,isdefined as:
1. Marking a bug as “done”means:
a. The Bug has beenverifiedtoastate of workingas intended/expectedorotherwise
verified fixed.
2. A PBI or userstory is setto “done”whenall of the requirements are met. Thismeans all
associated bugsthatimpeded all requirements have alsobeensetto“done”.
As youbeginwindingdownyouragile project,all userstoriesorproductbacklogitemsshould
be set to “done”andconfirmed havingbeenimplemented. Once all of the project’sworkissetto
“done”the projectis consideredcompletedwithall requirementsmetand acceptance passing.
If you wantto see or learnmore,watch this dialogue withRallySoftware’sZachNiles about
“Done”in agile development.The more youlookupand learnabout “Done” the more familiarwiththe
conceptyou’ll be andhowimportantitis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSpHg4Bm5IQ
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