Definition of Done – for a UXer

As a UXer, I am aware of the agile concept, the Definition of Done (DoD). But how does it affect me is another question. Recently I have been invited to a couple of chats while looking at potential career opportunities, in one of them, one Dev Lead was interested in my DoD – so after, I decided I’d research, from a UX perspective, if this was something I should know as many projects fails because ‘done’ is poorly defined.

Having a clear DoD helps Scrum Teams work together more collaboratively, increases transparency, and ultimately results in the development of consistently higher quality software.

The general censuses is three-part. First, code is produced or completed, second code is commented, and lastly code is checked in. This is a very simple DoD, but it works. It works for Dev Teams, but how does the UXer fit into this?

It has been proposed that approval by Product Owner is the third step, but it doesn’t necessarily mean styled, so my thoughts would be that un-styled functionality is a big ask to sign off. Also, it doesn’t mean tested. It just means developed.

“DONE!” should mean shippable. I have heard the phrase “done done done”, this usually means it has been reviewed (both design review and code review) – and everything is tickety-bo. Sorry.