A Process for Defining Done in Agile Development

GATHER THE TEAM

• Get everyone together that will be on the project team.
• Collect ideas for one user story at a time.

SELECT A NOTE-TAKER

• Someone needs to be in charge of making sure all of the ideas are captured.
• Use a whiteboard or post-it notes to capture ideas.

START THE BRAINSTORMING

• Ask “What do we need to do in order to get this to the user?”
• When the initial ideas stop, ask “What else?” over and over until there is silence.

CREATE A LIST OF TASKS

• Organize the ideas into a list of tasks the lead step-by-step from getting started all the way to “done.”
• The team may be surprised at how much needs to happen!

BREAK THE LIST

• Separate the list of tasks into those that belong in the Sprint and those that are part of the implementation.
• Put the implementation tasks into a separate Sprint.

GET TO WORK!

• You did it! Congratulations!

Take Action

Be sure to check out these other handy resources and information about Agile development:

• Agile Articles and Resources
• Agile Services: Training, Coaching, & Consulting
• Agile Testing Services
• Agility RPM