Definition of Done
Definition of Done is a team's shared, agreed checklist of what "complete" actually means for any piece of work — code written, tests passing, code reviewed, documentation updated — used to prevent inconsistent, subjective judgments about whether a story or feature is actually finished.
Without an explicit Definition of Done, "done" tends to mean something different to each person on a team — a developer might consider a feature done once the code compiles, while a tester considers it done only once it's been verified against acceptance criteria — leading to friction and surprises late in a sprint.
A typical Definition of Done includes items like: code reviewed and merged, unit tests written and passing, no known critical defects, and documentation updated — agreed on once by the whole team and then applied consistently to every piece of work, rather than negotiated freshly each time.
