Definition of Done: Ending the ‘Almost‑Finished’ Trap

As a Director, you’ve seen the ticket move to the “Done” column. The feature is, according to the engineering team, finished. A collective sigh of relief ripples through the sprint review.

But then, the chaos begins.

The marketing team can’t write the announcement because there’s no clear summary of customer benefits. The support team is panicking because they have no documentation. The sales team can’t demo it because they don’t know how it actually works.

The feature is technically complete, but it is operationally useless. The work isn’t actually “Done.” It has just been handed off, creating a new wave of confusion and “shadow work”—the endless follow-ups and frantic Slack messages required to make the delivered work usable.

This isn’t a failure of a single team. It’s the failure of a weak interface, a classic symptom of what happens when you have a strong “Definition of Ready” but a non-existent “Definition of Done.”

The Real Contract: A Service Agreement

Most teams mistakenly believe the “Definition of Done” (DoD) is a checklist for themselves. At HogoFlow, we see it differently.

A DoD is not an internal checklist; it is a service level agreement (SLA) with the next team in the value stream. A task is only truly “Done” when the person receiving the handoff can begin their work immediately and effectively, without needing to ask clarifying questions. It’s the contract that protects the receiving team from incomplete work.

But implementing a meaningful DoD isn’t easy, because it’s a cultural agreement, not just a document. You’ll hear the obvious objections like, “It’s just more bureaucracy,” or “We don’t have time for this.”

The real challenges, however, are the unspoken ones. A rigorous DoD makes quality standards explicit, which can expose uncomfortable truths. It can feel like a loss of autonomy when another team has a say in your process. And most significantly, it can feel like an increased workload being pushed onto the executing team. Recognizing these human factors is the key to architecting a DoD that actually works.

Architecting the Agreement

A powerful DoD is a concise contract that guarantees work is ready for its next stage. At HogoFlow, we use the C.L.E.A.R. Framework to ensure every critical aspect is covered. It guarantees the work is:

• Compliant with the original promise. This is the foundation. The work must fully satisfy the requirements and acceptance criteria agreed upon in the “Definition of Ready.” It’s the proof that the team delivered what they committed to, not just what was convenient.
• Launch-Ready with all supporting assets. Code alone is not a feature. A design file alone is not a campaign. “Done” means the entire package is ready for the next person to use. This includes user-facing documentation, internal training materials, or demo videos that enable other teams to do their jobs effectively.
• Effective and verified. The work doesn’t just have to exist; it must be proven to be of high quality. This means it has passed all necessary quality assurance checks, from peer reviews and automated tests to a final review by the assigned Subject Matter Expert (SME) and a formal sign-off from the key approver.
• Accessible to the right people. A deliverable that no one can find or use is the same as one that doesn’t exist. This means final assets are stored in the agreed-upon location, all files follow standard naming conventions for easy discovery, and the correct permissions have been granted to all relevant teams.
• Reviewed to close the loop. “Done” also means the process of creation has been formally closed and the organization has learned from it. Key stakeholders must be formally notified of completion, the JIRA/Trello ticket must be closed with links to all deliverables, and a retrospective should be scheduled to discuss the process.

To build this contract, we use several advanced techniques that go beyond a simple checklist.

The most critical principle is the “Receiving Team Acknowledgment” A DoD is not ratified until the team receiving the work has reviewed and agreed to it. This transforms it from a one-sided declaration into a bilateral treaty and creates shared ownership.

For example, when defining the DoD for a new feature, the Head of Support might add two non-negotiable items: a draft of the user-facing Knowledge Base article must be provided one sprint before launch, and a 30-minute training session must be conducted for the entire Support team. With this, the work is only “Done” when the Support team is fully equipped and ready.

To avoid bureaucracy, we use the “DoD T-Shirt Sizing” technique. Not all “Done” states need to be equally rigorous. The teams agree that a simple bug fix has a “Small” DoD, while a major new feature requires a “Large” DoD that includes items like sales training and a post-launch monitoring plan. This introduces pragmatism into your process.

Finally, to truly understand what “Done” needs to include, we facilitate an “Anti-DoD” Workshop.

To build the DoD for a marketing campaign’s creative assets, we ask the designer, “Imagine this campaign fails because of your graphics. Why?” The Marketing Manager might respond, “Because the call-to-action was for existing users, but the image you used looked like it was for new customers.” This counter-intuitive technique immediately reveals a missing item for the DoD and surfaces the hidden assumptions that are often the root cause of failed handoffs.

The Business Case for “Done-Done”

As a Director, instituting a culture of rigorous, cross-functional “Definitions of Done” is one of the highest-leverage activities you can undertake.

It transforms your organization’s workflow by drastically reducing the hidden hours teams spend on “shadow work”—chasing information, clarifying requirements, and fixing incomplete handoffs. When handoffs are clean and complete, the entire process from idea to customer value moves faster, not just individual teams.

Ultimately, a reliable DoD is a sign of respect. It builds inter-departmental trust, as teams know that when they receive work, it will be complete, high-quality, and ready to use. It makes quality a shared responsibility, not just the job of the last person in the chain. A weak “Definition of Done” is the source of your most expensive operational waste; a strong one is the foundation of a truly scalable, high-performance organization.