Product Owner and the Definition of Done

The development team is solely responsible for the DoD. The PO can create backlog item "requirements" that the application perform at a certain level, or that it be extensible in particular ways, or whatever. The PO, however, can not tell the development team how to do its business.

The job of the development team is to write high-quality, high-value software. The PO decides what the value is, and the development team decides what the quality is. If the PO gives feedback that the product sucks because it's buggy, slow, hard to use, etc., then the dev team has to take that into account and change the way they produce software, but it's very much not in the PO's purview to tell them HOW to accomplish that.

The Scrum Guide talks about the scrum team, being owner of the DOD, so the PO is included.

For me it is something like a "contract" between Development Team and PO and as in any contract, both parts can provide input until both are ready to "sign" it.

For something like performance goals, you can also use "constraints". Those are types of userstories that are not estimated on not pulled in the Sprint Backlog but are there to remember such things like "be compatible wit h all IE beck to 8" or something like this. Because if you have many of them they will blow up your DOD and there will be PBI's that will not meet the DOD because the are not in the same context,

@Jack:

I think the main issue here is quality. I believe the PO may state some quality aspects, namely, the aspects users are aware of (extrinsic). As you said, the job of the development team is to write high-quality, high-value software; but some quality aspects that affect value should be agreed with the PO, as Phillipp said.

Regarding specific PBIs related to quality, some quality attributes can be stated this way (i.e. documentation) but others should be stated as required for all stories (i.e. performance or usability). In that way, PO can tell to the team to accomplish those attributes, so they may decide to include that in DoD.

I think DoD may be viewed similarly to PB, but reversed: PO can provide input, but Team is responsible for it.

Thanks!

@Francisco, I think you've got it right. The PO can provide input, that's where I was going with the PBIs regarding perf and quality, and those would naturally require a DoD that can accomplish these goals. But it's the dev team that decides how to do it. The PO can't say "you have to have perf tests that are run x often", but CAN say "the application has to perform in x way, go figure out how to make it do that".

@Francisco, I think you've got it right. The PO can provide input, that's where I was going with the PBIs regarding perf and quality, and those would naturally require a DoD that can accomplish these goals. But it's the dev team that decides how to do it. The PO can't say "you have to have perf tests that are run x often", but CAN say "the application has to perform in x way, go figure out how to make it do that".

@Jack, thanks for your insights. The issue is much clearer to me right now.

Cheers!

I believe PO must have input to the definition of DoD - he is the one who is going to take that to business. So he must have something that was not meant by dev team while defining. So definition is PO + Dev team while responsibility to deliver as per DoD goes to Dev team.

In one of the Open Assessment question, there is that exact question and scrum.org correct answer is the Development Organization (or team). I still have trouble with the answer. I would think it would be the Scrum Team as input from all would be needed.

What am I missing?

If the definition of "done" for an increment is part of the conventions, standards or guidelines of the development organization, all Scrum Teams must follow it as a minimum.
If "done" for an increment is not a convention of the development organization, the Development Team of the Scrum Team must define a definition of “done” appropriate for the product.

The key point is explained in the first line.

The Scrum Team owns the Definition of Done, and it is shared between the Development Team and the Product Owner. Only the Development Team are in a position to define it, because it asserts the quality of the work that *they* must perform.

The quality asserted must be appropriate for the product, which implies that the PO must be consulted. Failure to consult the PO may result in an increment not being accepted, as the DoD would not then be shared.

In Scrum the Development Team is self-organizing it means that team decide HOW to make a potentially shippable product increment every sprint. The usage of the Definition of Done helps Development team to organise and control its work within the sprint. For instance, only Product Owner may decide what increment successfully passed acceptance criteria and ready for sprint review, and after Development team has got that knowledge it add new item: "Acceptance tested" in the Definition of Done checklist.

https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#artifact-transparency-done clearly stats who defines it.

If "Done" for an increment is not a convention of the development organization, the Development Team of the Scrum Team must define a definition of "Done" appropriate for the product. If there are multiple Scrum Teams working on the system or product release, the Development Teams on all the Scrum Teams must mutually define the definition of "Done".

Development organization or the Development Team of the Scrum Team.

I see the original question has been properly addressed but for the sake of clarification here I go.

It almost seems like playing with nuances.

Scrum Team owns the DoD. Without PO guidelines (very clear in  03:18 pm March 22, 2013 entry by  @Jack ) the DevTeam would be basically clueless.

DevTeam defines DoD by itself following the development organization (if it exists) standards. If not, they create the definition.

I am a bit confused about the difference between "own" and "define" in the context of Definition Of Done. What constitutes "owning" vis a vis "defining"?

May I seek clarification on my question above regarding the difference between "own" and "define" in the context of Definition Of Done.

@Dibbha Iyer,

The Definition of "Done" for a single Scrum Team is unique to them and it can be said that they (Scrum Team) own the Definition of "Done"

Further, these excerpts from the Scrum Guide help...

Only members of the Development Team create the Increment.

When a Product Backlog item or an Increment is described as "Done", everyone must understand what "Done" means. Although this may vary significantly per Scrum Team, members must have a shared understanding of what it means for work to be complete, to ensure transparency. This is the definition of "Done" for the Scrum Team and is used to assess when work is complete on the product Increment.

The DoD is defined by the Development Team because they are responsible for the quality of the Increment. The PO, can definitely provide input into the DoD, but ensuring that a "Done" Increment that meets the DoD is delivered belongs to the Development Team.

The DoD helps bring transparency, therefore this excerpt may further help solidify your understanding.

Those performing the work and those inspecting the resulting increment must share a common definition of "Done"

Hope this helps.

May I seek clarification on my question above regarding the difference between "own" and "define" in the context of Definition Of Done.

Perhaps any difference ought to be minimized.

If one party defines what "Done" means, while another is left to own it by completing the necessary develiopment work, there could be a problem. Transparency, inspection, and adaptation over the work needed to reflect "releasable" could suffer.

@ Steve Matthews

In your post from 13 July above, you have shared that: "....ensuring that a "Done" Increment that meets the DoD is delivered belongs to the Development Team."

However, in a different forum, I came across the question - Who must do all the work to make sure Product Backlog items conform to the definition of "Done"? - the answer to which is mentioned as Product Owner...

Would you be able to share some further thoughts to help understand this apparent contrast?

Thanks in advance

Best.

Arka

in a different forum, I came across the question - Who must do all the work to make sure Product Backlog items conform to the definition of "Done"? - the answer to which is mentioned as Product Owner...

Which other forum? Can you provide a link to the source?

Those who are responsible for creating a Done increment are undertaking development work, and are therefore members of the Development Team.