Definition of Done Checklist

A practical cut of Definition of Done Checklist for engineering and product leads — decisions first, framework essays last.

Who this is for

Teams that write trade-offs down before coding burn fewer sprints when a stakeholder changes their mind mid-build. We keep ADRs short on purpose.

Decisions that still look smart in 18 months

Ship a thin vertical slice, measure, then widen. Big-bang rewrites rarely survive the first month of real traffic.

Build checklist we actually use

Instrument the happy path and the ugly path. Silent failures are what turn a launch into a weekend incident.

Failure modes we keep seeing

Teams that write trade-offs down before coding burn fewer sprints when a stakeholder changes their mind mid-build. We keep ADRs short on purpose.

How we measure rollout

Instrument the happy path and the ugly path. Silent failures are what turn a launch into a weekend incident.

We update this when delivery patterns change on live client work.