Agile2013

Do your projects have to meet corporate quality goals? Does your organization operate in a regulatory environment, such as FDA regulations? Does your project have non-functional requirements such as performance, scalability, security, or safety? Or are you just tired of mounting technical debt? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, or if you just want to improve product quality, find out how we used the Definition of Done to address these problems. We faced these issues with many teams we coached and mentored: through trial-and-error, we have developed a multi-level application of the Definition of Done to address these issues: story-level, iteration level, and release level. In this experience report, we will share how one organization used this multi-level Definition of Done for a large Agile program comprised of multiple, distributed Scrum teams. Quantitative results will be presented to show how product quality improved and technical debt was reduced as the Definition of Done became more stringent. Although the focus of the presentation will be one organization, we will also use real world examples of the application and evolution of a Definition of Done and the results achieved from other organizations as needed.