Scrum basics — definitions

Agile_Ed
Agile_Ed
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

Before we can look in much detail at specific problems teams have with Scrum I think it’s helpful to cover a couple of basics regarding the mechanics. So you can be fairly confident these things will come up the problem posts soon!

Definition of Done

This is a well known artefact of Scrum, and something a team needs to understand. Below is a sample DoD:

In order for a story or task to be considered Done, the following criteria must be satisfied:

  • Agreed tests (unit and automated) have been reviewed against acceptance criteria and are complete
  • Developed code compiles in Jenkins and all associated tests run and pass
  • Code quality and coverage standards met
  • All acceptance criteria (functional/non-functional) defined in the story have been met, demonstrated and approved to the Product Owner or appropriate representative
  • Technical debt has been agreed and tickets raised
  • Documentation has been updated and stories/tasks have release tagged

How detailed should it be?

This is an interesting point. Personally I would like to keep to as few points as possible, because I think a lot of points should be covered / inferred by others. I’d quite like a DoD that just said:

  • Features are ready to be deployed to production

That may seem a little terse, but if you’ve got to that point then all the other points MUST (or at least should as part of a professional development process) have been done, and could be removed.

In reality though teams will get new team members and it’s important that everyone is immediately clear on what they are aiming for and what is expected of them, so having the extra items explicitly listed could be said to be more valuable.

Definition of Ready

This is getting more and more attention these days. I first started using one for the simple reason that the teams found it helpful, and that is a good enough reason for me. For clarity DoR means “Ready to be taken into a sprint”. Below is an example:

In order for a story or task to be considered Ready, the following criteria must be satisfied:

  • The acceptance criteria, including any NFRs, is agreed by the team
  • Applicable wireframe links and screenshots are attached to the ticket
  • Technical design has been done
  • External dependencies have been identified, linked, understood and managed
  • The story is sliced appropriately
  • The story is small enough to be delivered in a single sprint
  • The story has been estimated by the team
  • The team understands how to Demo the story

The DoR is helpful for whoever is preparing the stories / tasks, whether it is a Product Owner or Business Analysts (as they may be some of the least Agile experienced people in the team). If they know what it required of them up-front you can save valuable time in regular Backlog Refinement sessions by not having to go over the basic requirements when you have the whole team in a room.

How detailed should it be?

Again, I’d like to keep it as simple as possible but it’s helpful for some teams to have the full detail. But what if all you had was this?

  • The story has been estimated by the team
  • The team understands how to Demo the story

I’d like to suggest that if you can do that, everything else MUST have already been worked out.

In summary

Whatever the artefact, process or role in Scrum, you don’t just do them because they are there — they are not a dogma. You use / do / have them because they are useful and the team benefits from them. So keep your DoD and DoR longer if it helps, shorter if everyone knows the drill.

Personally I’ve always found it useful for teams to have a specific but concise list of what is expected of them, clarity is always good. But if you don’t need a DoR (because all of the elements are being covered and are happening anyway) then why have one?

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