One of the common questions among many scrum teams is the difference

between the definition of done and acceptance criteria and how they

affect user stories. While acceptance criteria relate more to software

development, the definition of done is unique to scrum.



People tend to mix these two terms, but they couldn't be more

different, even though they have many things in common. Knowing how to

tell these two apart will help you with their practical application.



DEFINITION OF DONE (DOD)



DoD is designed as a list of items, each of which is used to validate

PBI or story. Definition of done exists to ensure that the development

team agrees on the work they are trying to accomplish. It assumes a

form of a checklist, and it's used to check every user story for

completeness or PBI – product backlog item. In other words, DoD is

made to be applicable to all items in the product backlog, not just a

single story.



To sum things up:



* The DoD is applied to product increments as a whole

* Usually ...