“Done, Done” in Agile

A user story is done after it is implemented by developers and verified by testers/business analysts. However, it is not “Done, Done”.

This article is one of the “IT Terminology Clarified” series.

The definition of “Done, “Done” varies across ‘Agile’ software teams.

Done Done
“We’re done when we’re production-ready” — The Art of Agile Development book

I have seen many ‘fake’ agile coaches or ‘fake’ scrum masters talk about different versions of “Done Done”, such as

• “Unit tested”
• “manual tester verified against the acceptance criteria”
• “passed business analyst/customer review”
• “the user story is marked ‘done’ in JIRA”
• “the feature is deployed in production”

In my opinion, none of the above is really “Done, Done”. When I told my definition (see below) to many colleagues/friends, I don’t remember a single disagreement.

“Done, Done” for a user story in Agile

After the end-to-end automated tests passed and are verified by the business analyst or customers, and the new automated tests are included in the automated regression suite, which are run frequently…