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The Product Increment and

The Definition Of “Done”

Road to Mastery — Season 2 — Episode 3

Sjoerd Nijland
Serious Scrum
Published in
6 min readJul 26, 2019

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[revised for 2020 Scrum Guide update]

There can be plenty of confusion in the workspace over the smallest and simplest terms. Those performing the work must share a common definition of “Done”.

“The Failure to have absolute transparent definition of Done is the undoing of everything you do in Scrum.” Ken Schwaber

The entire point of Scrum is to create Done Increments.

  • The Definition of Done is a commitment to the Increment.
  • The Definition of Done is a shared understanding of completeness.
  • The Definition of Done is a shared understanding of quality.
  • The moment a Product Backlog item meets the Definition of Done, an Increment is born.

Done Increments are essential for Scrum’s empiricism. Done increments provide real evidence of real results instead of pseudo-progress reports.

The Definition enables inspection if the work performed on a Product Backlog item qualifies as an Increment. Almost done is not done. It’s either done or it isn’t. There is no such thing as 80% done. What’s more,

“If a Product Backlog item does not meet the Definition of Done, it cannot be released or even presented at the Sprint Review.” -SG

Don’t Deliver and Forget. Inspect…

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Sjoerd Nijland
Sjoerd Nijland

Written by Sjoerd Nijland

Founder Serious Scrum. Scrum Trainer. Join the Road to Mastery.

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