Ready, Set, Done!
Exploring Definition of Ready
and Definition of Done
Proprietary Material
© 2021 NextUp Solutions
Richard
K
Cheng • Agile Trainer and Coach
• CST, CSM, CSPO, CSP, PMI-ACP, PMP,
AKT, KMP, SAFe SPC, Certified LeSS
Practitioner, CAL, Certified Enterprise
Scrum Trainer, Training from the Back
of the Room Certified Instructor
• Washington, DC
• Background working with government,
commercial, and non-profit
organizations
• 3 citizenships (Taiwan, Canada, USA)
Painful
Sprint
Planning
Ever been in a painful sprint planning
meeting?
Product
Backlog
Refinement
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
Add
Split
Reorder
Remove
High priority
to
next Sprint
Granularity
Fine
Coarse
Product Backlog
Reorder
Sprint
Schedule
Refinement
INVEST*
Independent
Negotiable
Valuable
Estimate-able
Small
Testable
*from Bill Wake, https://xp123.com/articles/invest-in-good-stories-and-smart-tasks/
Definition of Ready
1. Do we understand the PBI/User Story?
2. Do we understand the Acceptance Criteria?
3. Do we understand the value?
4. Do we know how to implement it?
5. Is it right sized (less than 5 days, estimate)?
6. Dependencies?
7. Do we have a better way of doing it?
Done?
What does it mean to be “done”?
Definition of Done
• DoD is a checklist of valuable activities required to produce software.
• DoD is the primary reporting mechanism for team members.
• DoD is informed by reality.
• DoD is not static.
• DoD is an auditable checklist.
*from Dhaval Panchal, http://www.scrumalliance.org/articles/105-what-is-definition-of-done-dod
Definition of Done for the PBI
Security
Testing
Browser
Tested
Stress
Testing
Acceptance
Criteria
Definition of Done for the Sprint
Definition of Done for the Release
PO Approval
Stakeholder
Review
Unit Tested
Definition of Done for the PBI
Definition of Done for the Sprint
Definition of Done for the Release
Security
Testing
Browser
Tested
Stress
Testing
Acceptance
Criteria
Unit Tested
Stakeholder
Review
Product Vision
Roadmap
Idea
Day
Sprint
…
…
…
Plan
Day
Day
Daily Scrum
Review
Retro
Sprint
Plan
Review
Retro
Initiation Release
Plan
Release Release
Plan
Plan
Time
Scrum
Overview
Richard
K
Cheng • Agile Trainer and Coach
• CST, CSM, CSPO, CSP, PMI-ACP, PMP,
AKT, KMP, SAFe SPC, Certified LeSS
Practitioner, CAL, Certified Enterprise
Scrum Trainer, Training from the Back
of the Room Certified Instructor
• Washington, DC
• Background working with government,
commercial, and non-profit
organizations
• 3 citizenships (Taiwan, Canada, USA)

Ready, Set, Done!