Stop 07 · Agile & Product Delivery for BAsTopics · 6/10

Definition of Ready & Definition of Done

In short

'Is this ready?' and 'Is this done?' cause more arguments in Agile teams than almost anything else. Two short checklists, agreed in advance, settle them before they start.

Definition of Ready is a team's checklist for when a story is clear enough to start work on; Definition of Done is the checklist for when it's truly complete — both prevent ambiguity and disputes.

The purple blob sits at an exam desk, checking two pens and a blank card laid out neatly.

Think of it like this

Exam hall rules

Before you enter the exam hall, you need your admit card, ID and two pens. That's ready. You're done only when every answer is written, the sheet is signed and handed to the invigilator. Leaving early with the sheet in your bag isn't done.

Watch it happen

Two checklists, two moments

Ready (to start)

Story and acceptance criteria written
Estimated and fits one sprint
Designs and dependencies sorted

Done (to finish)

Code reviewed and tests passing
Acceptance criteria met and checked
Deployed to staging, docs updated

Ready guards the start of work, Done guards the finish. The team agrees both and applies them to every story.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Ready protects the sprint

A story that isn't ready brings surprises mid-sprint. The BA usually does most of the work to make stories ready.

Done means done

'Done except testing' is not done. The Definition of Done applies to every item, every time.

Team agreement

The whole team writes and owns these lists, not one person. Revisit them in retros.

Keep them short

Five to eight clear checks each. A long list nobody reads protects nothing.

See it in code

Walk through the code

text

1DEFINITION OF READY2[ ] User story has who, what, why3[ ] 2-5 acceptance criteria, testable4[ ] Designs attached (if UI change)5[ ] Dependencies known and unblocked6[ ] Estimated by the team, fits in one sprint7 8DEFINITION OF DONE9[ ] All acceptance criteria pass10[ ] Code reviewed and merged11[ ] Automated tests added and passing12[ ] Deployed to staging and demoed to PO

1/2Ready checks are mostly BA work: clear story, testable criteria, nothing blocking.

A starter pair of checklists to paste into Confluence or Notion. Your team will adjust them, which is the point.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Using Definition of Ready as a gate to reject any story with one open question.

Do this instead

Use it as a guide. Small questions can be answered during the sprint if the team agrees.

Oops

Marking a story done because the developer finished coding.

Do this instead

It's done only when every item on the Definition of Done is checked.

Your mission

Write your team's lists

~20 min

Quick check

A developer says a story is done, but nobody has checked it against the acceptance criteria. What's true?

Go deeper

1Draft a Definition of Ready checklist a BA would be responsible for satisfying.
2Draft a Definition of Done checklist for a hypothetical team.
3Learn why skipping Definition of Ready often leads to stories starting with unclear requirements.