Definition of Done
Practical Business Applications #17: Definition of Done
Video game development is a high-stakes industry where product quality and timely delivery can make or break a business. Studio heads and executives often grapple with projects that slip behind schedule or launch with costly bugs and unmet player expectations. One major culprit is the elusive concept of “done” – teams think a feature or asset is complete, only to discover later that essential polish, integration, or testing was missing. This gap between perceived completion and actual readiness leads to rework, crunch time, and misaligned expectations with stakeholders.
How can game development companies ensure that when a team member says a task or feature is done, it truly meets the organization’s standards for release?
The answer lies in adopting a Definition of Done as a guiding practice.
The Definition of Done (DoD) is a concept born in agile software development, but its power extends far beyond any one methodology. At its core, a DoD is a clear, shared agreement on what “done” really means for the team – a checklist of criteria that any piece of work must satisfy to be considered complete. By formalizing this shared understanding, game studios can close the gap between assumption and reality in their development process.
This guide will explore what a Definition of Done is in a framework-agnostic way, how to use it, and how to integrate it into video game production pipelines.
What Is It?
A Definition of Done is an agreed-upon set of criteria that defines when a given piece of work is truly complete. In simple terms, it’s a checklist of conditions that must be met before anyone can call a task, user story, or other deliverable “done.” This goes beyond just coding a feature or creating an art asset – it encompasses all the quality steps, reviews, and integrations needed to ensure the work is fully finished and ready for use. It serves as a kind of explicit contract within the development team: everyone understands and consents to what “done” entails, which prevents the scenario of engineers, artists, or designers working with different assumptions about completion.
A Definition of Done is methodology-agnostic. While the concept originated in Scrum and agile circles, where “done” often means a product increment is potentially shippable at the end of a sprint, you don’t need to be following Scrum or any formal framework to benefit from a DoD. Whether your studio uses Kanban boards, traditional milestone-based waterfall scheduling, or some hybrid process, establishing clear done criteria is equally valuable. It simply means that for every task or deliverable, the team has a shared checklist of standards that must be met.
What kind of criteria go into a Definition of Done? The specifics can vary by project and discipline, but they generally cover aspects of quality, completeness, and compliance with both team standards and external requirements:
For a typical DoD for a software feature might state that: the code is written and peer-reviewed, merged into the main build, all unit tests and integration tests pass, the feature has been tested in a QA environment with no major bugs open, and relevant documentation or in-game help is updated.
In a game art context, a DoD for creating an asset (say a 3D character model) might include: the model meets the polygon count and scale requirements, has proper UV mappings and textures, is rigged and integrated into the engine, passes an animation test in the game, and is approved by the art director.
For design tasks (e.g., drafting a level), the DoD could require that the design be implemented in the game, play-tested by the team, tuned to meet the desired player experience, and signed off by the creative director.
In short, the DoD is a formal description of your quality standards – the quality required for work to become part of it.
It’s important to distinguish the Definition of Done from related concepts like acceptance criteria. Acceptance criteria are usually specific conditions that a particular feature must satisfy to be accepted from a functionality perspective, often defined by the product owner or designers for a user story.
For instance, acceptance criteria for a “player inventory feature” might include “the player can hold up to 100 items” or “items are sorted by rarity.” The DoD, on the other hand, is more universal – it applies to all work items in a similar category and focuses on completeness and quality process, e.g., “code is documented,” “feature passes load testing.”
If acceptance criteria ensure the feature does what it’s supposed to do, the DoD ensures the feature is built the right way and ready to release. Both are needed for a feature to truly deliver value, but they address different dimensions of “done.” In practice, the acceptance criteria for a user story would be verified as part of the DoD – for a story to be done, it must meet its specific acceptance criteria and satisfy all the general quality checks listed in the DoD.
Another related term you might encounter is Definition of Ready (DoR) – a checklist that defines whether a task or story is ready to start (for example, requirements clarified, dependencies identified, resources available). While DoR is useful for planning, the Definition of Done is about the finish line. It says: at the end of this task or feature, what must be true for us to call it complete? Both DoR and DoD help impose discipline and clarity, but our focus here is on DoD since that’s what drives quality in the final product.
The DoD essentially forces the question, “What does done really mean for us?” and makes the answer explicit. By implementing a Definition of Done, teams combat the dangerous ambiguity of the word “done.” No more “done-ish” or “dev complete” states that leave testing or fixes for later – a common trap that leads to work piling up undone. Instead, something is either done or not done, with no gray zone.
This rigor is especially valuable in large game projects where different departments (programming, art, design, QA, audio, etc.) hand off work to each other. A clear DoD means that when, say, the programming team delivers a build to QA, QA knows that certain baseline quality check, like unit tests and smoke tests, have already been completed, or when artists mark an asset as done, the developers integrating it know it adheres to the agreed specifications (polygon count, naming conventions, etc.).
In essence, the Definition of Done creates a shared language of completion that everyone, including non-technical stakeholders, can understand. When a feature is reported as “done” under a strict DoD, a producer or executive can be confident that it’s not just code-complete in isolation, but functionally working and meeting the quality bar for the game as a whole.
The Business Value of DoD
Why should top managers and business owners care about the Definition of Done? Simply put, a well-defined DoD directly supports the key business outcomes that studio leadership is responsible for:
Higher product quality;
More predictable delivery schedules;
Improved team accountability;
Better alignment with stakeholder expectations.
Let’s break down how.
1. Enhanced Product Quality
Incorporating a Definition of Done into the development process is fundamentally about baking quality into every step of work. Instead of treating quality control as a separate phase or an afterthought, the DoD makes quality criteria explicit for each task and feature.
For example, if the DoD mandates that “all code has been thoroughly tested via unit, integration, and end-to-end tests” and that “no known Severity 1 or 2 bugs remain” for a feature, then by the time that feature is marked complete, it has already cleared a battery of quality checkpoints. This dramatically reduces the chance of serious defects slipping through. Each increment of work is done “right” the first time, or it’s not done at all. Over the course of a project, this translates to a more stable game with fewer late-stage surprises.
Atlassian’s agile guidance notes that checking every item against the DoD keeps quality goals in mind throughout development and ensures the team consistently meets the required standards for release. In practice, teams see fewer bugs in final testing and fewer emergency patches post-launch because the DoD prevented many issues from ever reaching those stages.
For a business, higher quality means a better player experience, stronger reviews, and less cost on bug-fixing and support – all of which are crucial for a game’s commercial success.
2. Delivery Predictability and Risk Reduction
In game development, unpredictability is the enemy of good business. Missed deadlines and chronic delays can derail marketing plans, strain publisher relationships, and burn through budgets. A Definition of Done helps mitigate these risks by making the scope of work more transparent and ensuring no “secret” work remains after a task is supposedly finished.
One way it does this is by improving estimation and planning. When a team defines what “done” entails, they naturally factor in all the steps (integration testing, optimization passes, localization updates, etc.) during sprint or milestone planning. This prevents the common scenario of teams over-committing based on a narrow view of tasks.
As an illustrative example (very common in dev teams), consider a team asked to estimate how many gameplay features they can implement in a month. Without a DoD, they might plan assuming only coding the basic functionality, and after that, would face overtime to finish all planned things. With a solid DoD, they’ll recognize that each feature also requires QA testing, bug fixing, tuning, and review to be truly done, so they will likely commit to fewer features but complete them to a shippable standard.
3. Team Accountability and Efficiency
The Definition of Done creates a culture of accountability within development teams. Because the DoD is a shared, transparent checklist, it holds everyone to the same standard. Team members know that they can’t simply mark a task complete when their individual portion is finished; they are accountable for seeing that the broader criteria are met.
This tends to improve discipline – programmers are less likely to toss code “over the wall” to QA with only a quick local test, for example, if they’ve all agreed that passing a full test suite and code review is required for done.
It’s not management imposing extra chores – it’s the team collectively committing to a quality bar. This kind of agreement often inspires a healthy peer pressure: team members hold each other accountable. In daily stand-ups or status meetings, conversations shift from vague claims, “I think it’s done,” to objective reports, “It’s done – it met all criteria on our checklist, and QA signed off.” If something isn’t done, the team calls it out and keeps it in progress. There’s no fudging the truth by saying a task is “done except for some testing” – by definition, if testing isn’t done, the task isn’t either.
This clarity can improve transparency within the team and for management. Progress tracking becomes more meaningful: for instance, velocity or throughput metrics will only count truly completed items, giving leadership an honest view of how much work the team can finish per iteration.
Furthermore, the DoD can actually speed up the development process in the long run. While it may seem like extra work to adhere to a checklist, it prevents the inefficiency of partial work and back-and-forth handoffs. Teams that adopt DoD often report less time fixing bugs from previous work or clarifying whether something was really finished. By doing things right the first time, they avoid duplicating effort. In this sense, a DoD is a time-saver and efficiency booster – “their work will be accepted as ‘done’ on the very first try”, rather than bouncing between QA, developers, and others.
4. Stakeholder Alignment and Trust
From a business perspective, one of the most significant benefits of instituting a Definition of Done is the improved alignment it creates with stakeholders, whether they are upper management, publishers, or clients for whom the game is being developed. When your team consistently delivers work that meets a known Definition of Done, stakeholders learn that “done means done.” This builds trust. Conversely, nothing erodes stakeholder confidence faster than being told a feature is finished only to discover later that it fails in demo or isn’t fully usable. Unfortunately, without a DoD, such misunderstandings are common – a developer’s definition of done, “it compiles on my machine,” may not include what a producer expects, “it’s playable without obvious bugs in the game.” A standard DoD eliminates these gaps by ensuring everyone has the same criteria for completion.
Another benefit is that if a publishing partner knows your studio’s DoD requires that “all known critical bugs are fixed and the build passes a smoke test” before a feature is marked done, they can be confident that any feature labeled done in a status report is actually in a demonstrable, working state. This shared expectation “protects trust,” teams stop overpromising inadvertently, and stakeholders are not surprised by low-quality outputs.
Moreover, by involving stakeholders (product owners, producers, QA leads, external QA, compliance folks, etc.) in defining the DoD up front, you ensure the criteria reflect what stakeholders care about. For instance, a publisher might insist that localization text is integrated or platform certification checklists are completed as part of done for a milestone; if that’s built into the DoD, the development team will incorporate those steps before calling the milestone finished, thereby aligning deliverables with stakeholder requirements.
Finally, having a visible Definition of Done can improve customer and player satisfaction indirectly. Features developed under a strong DoD are more likely to meet their promised functionality and quality at launch, which means the game delights players as expected.
In summary, the DoD acts as a bridge between the development team and stakeholders, ensuring that “done” work meets the quality expectations of all parties and preventing the miscommunication that so often plagues complex project.
In essence, the Definition of Done brings a strategic advantage by uniting technical excellence with business objectives:
It improves quality, which protects your brand and player satisfaction.
It improves predictability, which allows for better planning and use of resources.
It enforces accountability and efficiency, which means a more effective team and less waste.
And it aligns expectations, which keeps clients, publishers, and customers happy with what you deliver.
For a video game company, these benefits can translate into saved costs, reduced risk of project failure, and a stronger reputation for reliability and quality.
How to Use It
Implementing a Definition of Done is not a mere box-ticking exercise – it’s about weaving this concept into the daily practices and mindset of your development team. Using a DoD effectively starts with how it’s created and agreed upon, and carries through to how it’s applied to each piece of work and continuously improved.
Collaborative Creation of the DoD
A Definition of Done works best when it is crafted and owned by the team that will use it. This means involving representatives from all relevant roles in defining the criteria: programmers, artists, designers, QA, DevOps, production, etc. Management or a team lead can facilitate, bringing in any non-negotiable organizational quality standards, but the DoD shouldn’t be a top-down edict. By having team members contribute, you ensure the DoD is realistic - each discipline can voice what’s feasible to complete within a task and comprehensive, covering perspectives one role might overlook.
For example, developers might add criteria about code and unit tests, QA engineers might add criteria about test cases executed, artists might add asset optimization checks, and so on. This collaborative approach also secures buy-in – when everyone has a hand in defining “done,” they’re far more likely to commit to following it. It becomes a collective promise of quality.
As a practical step, many teams hold a workshop or brainstorming session to create the initial Definition of Done, often starting with a template or industry examples and then tailoring it. It’s wise to keep the DoD brief and to the point – include only criteria that add clear value, so it’s easy to remember and apply under pressure. Teams often start with a lightweight DoD and later refine it, adding criteria as their capabilities grow or removing criteria that proved unhelpful, rather than trying to draft a perfect, exhaustive checklist from day one.
Making DoD Part of Daily Work
Once defined, the DoD should become a living reference for the team. It’s not meant to sit in a document repository gathering dust – it needs to be visible and ingrained in the workflow. A common practice is to display the Definition of Done prominently in the team’s work area or digital workspace.
For instance, the DoD can be attached to every user story or task as a checklist. Team members then literally check off each item as they complete a work item. Modern tools even allow automating some of this: e.g., you cannot move a card to “Done” unless certain sub-tasks, which correspond to DoD criteria, are marked complete, or Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines can be set to flag if code coverage criteria aren’t met. The idea is to embed the DoD into the workflow so that following it becomes second nature.
Many teams incorporate a quick DoD review in their definition of their process: when a developer thinks a task is done, they’ll do a last run-through of the DoD checklist – did I do all those things we agreed on? – before calling others to verify or moving the task to done. This might happen naturally as part of a code review or a handoff: e.g., a programmer ensures the “code review” and “unit test” boxes are checked, then a QA ensures the “passes all tests” and “no critical bugs” are checked, etc., as the work flows through the pipeline.
Using DoD in Planning and Estimation
Another key usage of the DoD is during planning sessions – whether it’s sprint planning or scheduling a milestone in a more traditional approach. The DoD gives a clear picture of what “done” entails for each backlog item, which helps the team estimate effort more accurately and choose how much work to take on. In a sprint planning meeting, for instance, the team should review the Definition of Done and remind themselves that every story and feature they commit to must meet those criteria by the end.
This often sparks important conversations: “We have a DoD that says we need a design lead sign-off and a QA pass for each new feature. Do we have the bandwidth to do that for all five of these stories in the next two weeks? Maybe we should commit to four stories instead, or negotiate simpler acceptance criteria.”
It’s far better to have these discussions upfront than to “find out the hard way” later that the team overcommitted. This leads to more predictable delivery and helps avoid end-of-cycle crunch, where unfinished testing or polish suddenly appears and threatens the timeline.
Checking Work Against the DoD
During development, the DoD serves as a built-in quality control mechanism. Team members should continuously or at least at completion, verify that a work item meets all the DoD criteria. Some of these criteria can be verified objectively or even automatically – for example, if the DoD says “100% of new code is peer-reviewed,” the team can enforce that via branch protections – no merge without a peer review approval. If it says “passes regression tests,” the continuous integration system can run the test suite and give a green light. Other criteria might require human validation, like “game design lead has approved the gameplay feel,” which means someone must actually play the updated game, and the design lead gives a thumbs-up. The important habit is that no one calls the work done until all items in the checklist are true.
Also, there is a nice practice in game development, that often avoided due to “too much immediate work should be done”, to do internal playtests or demos of features as they are completed, e.g., end-of-week team playtest of everything marked done that week – this reinforces that done features are integrated and working in the game, not just in theory. Using the DoD means building these verification activities into the normal rhythm of work, rather than treating them as extraneous tasks.
Adapting and Evolving the DoD
Finally, “using” the DoD includes the idea that it is not static. As your team and project evolve, so should your Definition of Done.
Perhaps early in a project, your DoD is modest – for example, during a prototyping phase, your DoD might omit some rigorous steps. You might decide that during prototypes, it’s okay if not all art is final or not all code is fully optimized, as long as the concept is proven.
But later, as you head towards production, you’ll tighten the DoD to include performance optimizations, final art polish, etc. Conversely, you might discover that some criteria you initially put in are not worth the effort or are impractical – the team should feel free to adjust the DoD in retrospectives or process reviews. It is a good practice to periodically review the DoD to add new quality activities as capabilities improve.
Many teams incorporate DoD improvement as part of their retrospectives: e.g., “We had a bug escape to production – was there a DoD criterion we should add to catch this in the future?” or “Our DoD says all tasks must update the design documentation, but we found that’s slowing us down with little benefit – can we simplify that criterion?” By iterating on the DoD, you ensure it remains optimized to serve its purpose: catching the right issues and ensuring quality without being unnecessarily burdensome.
In the context of business, this adaptability means you’re continuously improving your quality processes. A DoD is not meant to be set in stone by a one-time decree; it’s meant to be a living agreement that gets better over time.
Using DoD at Different Levels
One of the powerful aspects of the Definition of Done is that it can be applied at multiple levels of granularity in a project. In video game development, this is particularly useful because of the layered nature of the work, from tiny tasks (like fixing a shader) to massive milestones (like preparing a beta build). Let’s explore how DoD can be used at different levels: individual tasks, features, game builds, and full releases.
DoD for Individual Tasks
At the most granular level, a DoD guides the completion of single tasks – which could be a programming task, an art asset creation, a sound design task, etc. Even a “task-level” DoD can bring clarity and quality.
For example, suppose a programmer is assigned a task to implement a character’s jumping mechanic. A task-level DoD will ensure that when the programmer finishes coding the jump, they also perform code review with a peer, run unit tests or create them, integrate the code into the game build, verify that the jump works properly in the latest build, and update any relevant technical documentation. Only after all those are done would the task move to “complete”. This prevents the common situation of “I finished coding, so I thought I was done” – the task isn’t done until it’s really done in context.
Likewise, for an artist tasked with creating, say, a new character model, the DoD might require that the model be not only sculpted and textured but also imported into the engine, set up with the correct materials and LODs, tested in-game for scale and lighting, and reviewed by the art lead or art director for adherence to style. If any aspect is missing, the task isn’t closed.
By using a DoD on individual tasks, a studio ensures that each small piece of content or code is integration-ready and of shippable quality before it leaves the developer’s desk. This dramatically reduces downstream integration problems.
DoD for Features or User Stories
A feature or game element, like “Implement the inventory system” or “Design level 3 boss fight,” is usually a collection of tasks that together deliver a new capability or content in the game. At the feature level, the Definition of Done ensures that all the pieces come together and that the feature as a whole achieves a state of completeness.
Here, DoD might include criteria like:
All tasks for this feature are done and integrated;
The feature’s acceptance criteria are met;
The feature has been play-tested in a latest build;
No known blocker or critical bugs remain in this feature;
It’s been approved by the product owner or design lead;
It has been documented in the game’s design documentation and patch notes.
In practice, teams might have a checklist for feature completion that covers cross-disciplinary aspects. For instance, consider the feature “New multiplayer matchmaking system”: the programming tasks are code-complete and tested, the UI artwork is implemented and polished, the system has been tested with a group of players internally, and the design team confirms it meets the intended user experience. Only when all those are true would the feature be considered done.
It’s useful to make this explicit due to the interdisciplinary nature of features. A feature-level DoD prevents situations like “code says feature X is done, but design says it’s not fun yet” or “art is done, but it’s not hooked up in the game.” If your DoD includes stakeholder review and gameplay testing, such misalignments are caught before declaring victory.
One notable practice in some game studios is having feature sign-off meetings for major features, effectively a DoD review: relevant stakeholders (e.g., design lead, tech lead, QA lead) come together to play the feature and agree it meets the definition of done, or they identify what’s missing.
This fosters cross-functional accountability – no feature is done until everyone whose perspective matters is satisfied.
DoD for Builds or Milestones
Moving up in scale, game development is punctuated by builds – internal builds, milestone builds for publishers, alpha/beta releases, etc. A build is basically a collection of features and content that is packaged together at a point in time. Here, a Definition of Done can be applied to the build as a whole. You can think of it as “what is our criteria for calling this build ready or this milestone achieved?”
At the build level, DoD criteria tend to be broader and more externally focused. They might include:
All included features in the build meet their DoD;
The game passes a full regression test (no lingering critical bugs from prior features);
Performance metrics meet our minimum threshold (e.g., the game runs at least 30fps on target hardware);
The build is installable and playable end-to-end without crashes;
It has been approved by key stakeholders or a greenlight committee;
All build-specific documentation (release notes, known issues list) is prepared.
Essentially, this is a quality gate for the entire game at a certain stage.
By having a clear Definition of Done for a milestone, managers and producers can objectively answer, “Is this milestone achieved?” rather than relying on gut feel. If any criterion is not met, then the milestone isn’t truly done, and you know what issues are blocking it. This is far better than claiming a milestone is done only to have a publisher find it isn’t, which can damage credibility.
DoD for Full Release
Finally, at the largest scale, the Definition of Done can be applied to the entire product – the point at which the game is ready to ship to the market. At this level, the DoD often overlaps with a formal release checklist or gold master criteria that studios and publishers maintain. It might include everything from technical completeness to legal and marketing readiness.
For example, a release DoD might stipulate:
All game content is complete and implemented; the game has zero showstopper bugs and no Category A bugs (and perhaps only a limited number of lower severity bugs documented);
Performance and load times meet targets on all supported platforms;
The game has passed console certification requirements for Xbox/PlayStation/Nintendo (each of those platforms has a checklist – your DoD can incorporate meeting those checklists);
All localization text is translated and displayed correctly; accessibility options are implemented as per standards;
User documentation and manuals are finalized;
Backend services are deployed and tested, and the marketing team has approved all branding/asset usage.
This sounds extensive, but essentially it enumerates what “done” means for the entire project from a business standpoint: the game isn’t done until it’s not just feature-complete, but also polished, compliant, and ready for customers. Many of these items involve coordination beyond the development team (e.g., legal checks, age ratings, etc.), which is why a release DoD is typically agreed upon at the organization or publisher level. By integrating these concerns into the Definition of Done, a studio ensures that they don’t overlook critical release requirements.
From a leadership perspective, having such a checklist is invaluable to manage a smooth launch. It provides a clear progress measure in the final stretch – you can track how many of the release DoD items are completed, and focus the team on any remaining ones. It also helps with stakeholder communication: you can confidently tell the board or the publisher, “We have cleared all our Definition of Done criteria for the release, we are ready to ship,” which is far more assuring than a vague “We think we’re ready.”
In sum, applying a Definition of Done at the release level ties together the entire organization’s efforts and ensures that the product that goes out the door meets the quality and completeness expectations set at the beginning.
Multiple Levels of Done
A multi-level DoD is useful for studios that use iterative development, which is common in game R&D or live game feature development. This means defining graduated levels of “done” to manage work that is intentionally released in stages.
For instance, the following level of Definition of Done can be used for new features:
Level 1 meant the feature worked in a basic form and allowed a decision to be made (e.g., “Is it fun?”);
Level 2 meant the feature was integrated into the whole game and could be play-tested by users in context;
Level 3 meant the feature was “good enough to ship” in a public release (no major flaws, but perhaps not fully optimized or polished).
Level 4 meant the feature was fully polished and as good as the team could make it.
The rationale is that game development often involves trying out ideas that might get thrown away or might evolve significantly; demanding Level 4 completeness from the outset would be wasted effort if the feature is experimental. So the team does just enough to prove the idea, then iterates towards higher levels of done once they decide to keep the feature. This tiered approach provides flexibility while still maintaining clarity at each stage – everyone knows what D1, D2, etc., entail.
If you adopt a multi-level DoD, ensure that it doesn’t degrade into “we never really finish anything properly.” Ideally, lower levels are used for exploratory work, and higher levels are used for anything that is to be released.
The key takeaway for a business leader is that the Definition of Done concept is flexible. You can calibrate it to support iterative innovation while still having a clear endgame.
How and Where to Integrate It
Defining a DoD is one thing; truly realizing its benefits requires integrating it into the processes, tools, and culture of your game development pipeline. The goal is to make adherence to the Definition of Done a natural part of how work gets done at every stage.
Integration into Development Pipeline and Tools
Modern game development relies on source control systems, build servers, task trackers, etc. Each of these is an opportunity to bake the Definition of Done into the pipeline.
For example, consider your source control and continuous integration setup. You can enforce certain DoD criteria through automation: set up branch protection rules so that code cannot be merged into the main branch unless it meets conditions that mirror your DoD, e.g., at least one peer code review approval is given, automated unit tests and integration tests have passed with zero failures, static analysis shows no critical issues, etc. This automated gating ensures that no code that fails the agreed “done” criteria makes it into the game’s codebase.
Another pipeline integration is with continuous integration/build systems. You might configure the build to automatically run a suite of smoke tests or even a full test suite whenever new content is integrated, and flag the build as unstable if tests fail. This corresponds to a DoD item like “feature passes all tests in a production-like environment.” In effect, the pipeline itself polices part of the DoD, reducing human error or forgetfulness.
Many studios also integrate asset validation tools. For instance, if the DoD for art assets includes “no texture file bigger than 4K resolution” or “polygon count under X for characters,” an automated pipeline can check asset imports against those rules and warn or prevent artists from marking those assets done until compliance is achieved.
In task-tracking tools, you can create a DoD checklist field for each task or story. Developers and artists then must check off each item, e.g., “All subtasks completed,” “Code reviewed,” “Comments added to code,” “QA tested in dev environment,” etc., before they resolve the ticket as done. Some teams using Kanban create explicit “Done Criteria” columns, e.g., Dev Complete, QA Complete, etc., that essentially break the DoD into workflow stages.
However you do it, integrating with tools serves two purposes: it streamlines compliance and it provides visibility. A lead or producer can quickly see in the task tracker if a story is missing a checkbox. This kind of integration turns the abstract concept of a DoD into concrete actions that are embedded in the daily work. As a result, following the DoD becomes the path of least resistance – the pipeline nudges everyone to do the right thing.
Integrating Documentation and Knowledge Management
Often neglected in game projects is the aspect of documentation – design docs, technical docs, art style guides, etc. A good Definition of Done includes criteria ensuring that documentation is kept up to date alongside the code or assets. Integration here means linking the DoD with your documentation processes.
For instance, if you use a wiki or design document repository, you might include it in the DoD: “If a feature or system has a design or technical doc, update it to reflect the latest changes.” To integrate this into the workflow, teams can add a step in their process, such as “update the design wiki page and paste the link in the task before closing.”
Another integration point is to maintain an internal knowledge base or even use the codebase itself for certain docs. If your DoD says “public-facing release notes written” or “in-game help text updated,” ensure that those tasks are tied into your workflow. E.g., producers or leads can enforce that a feature isn’t scheduled as done until documentation sub-tasks are done, which might simply involve the writer or engineer responsible marking it off. The benefit of integrating documentation into the DoD is huge for long-term efficiency: it prevents the situation where a team finishes development and then scrambles to write manuals, tooltips, or hand-off documents at the end, or worse, forgets to do so, causing confusion later. For a live game, it also ensures player-facing communications (patch notes, etc.) are ready when the feature ships.
From a business perspective, you maintain better continuity of knowledge. If a key developer leaves the team, you won’t be completely lost because the DoD forced some transfer of knowledge into docs during development.
Quality Assurance Checkpoints and Testing Integration
Perhaps the most critical integration of DoD is with Quality Assurance processes. Instead of treating QA as a separate phase that happens after development, the DoD weaves QA into the development itself.
Concretely, this means that many DoD criteria will be directly related to testing: e.g., “Unit tests written and passed,” “Feature tested by QA in a test environment,” “No Severity-1 bugs open against this feature,” etc. To integrate this, it’s effective to assign QA involvement at the story or feature level.
Integrating QA means scheduling time for it in the development cycle: if you’re in sprints, don’t plan a sprint to be full of dev tasks such that QA has no time, plan for testing time as part of each story’s estimation; this loops back to planning with the DoD in mind. The key is cultural: developers should not see “done” as purely their coding work; QA should not be off to the side catching whatever falls out. Both should collaborate so that by the time code is written, tests are already identified and maybe partly automated.
Continuous integration helps here too – for instance, integrate a practice of daily builds and smoke tests: every day or every commit, the game is built and a suite of automated tests run. If any fail, that’s a red flag that something violates the DoD.
Moreover, integrate QA into the Definition of Done creation itself – get their input on what quality checks to include. Many QA teams have internal “test done” definitions; combine that with the development DoD so that it’s one unified list. An issue noted in industry discussions is that sometimes QA’s own planning (like writing test plans) isn’t visible to others.
By bringing QA tasks into the official workflow, e.g., test plan creation as part of DoD for a feature, test cases written and reviewed as an acceptance sub-criterion, you integrate their work with the dev work. This prevents a silo where QA operates in isolation.
Essentially, integrating QA means treating testing outcomes as requirements: no work is done until it’s proven to work. This dramatically improves quality and also respects QA’s role, giving them a formal checkpoint rather than leaving them to chase after devs.
For business leaders, this integration means fewer nasty surprises in final QA phases, because testing was happening continuously. It may require investing in automation or in-house QA staff, but that investment pays off in stability.
Cross-Functional Reviews
Game development is inherently cross-functional – features often need input or approval from multiple departments: design, art, audio, monetization, etc. Integrating the Definition of Done means setting up processes where these cross-functional checks are routine.
For example, your DoD might state that any gameplay feature is not done until the design lead has reviewed it in-game, or any new art asset is not done until the tech art team verifies it won’t tank the frame rate, or any new UI screen is signed off by the UX designer and localization team. These are essentially sign-offs that should be included in the DoD criteria for relevant tasks.
To integrate this, incorporate review steps into your workflow for each discipline. Some studios use a system of formal “content reviews” or “feature review meetings.” Others keep it lightweight: e.g., when a task is ready for review, tag the responsible lead to check it. The important part is that the task isn’t marked done until those parties give the go-ahead. This ensures broad alignment – an artist might think their work is complete, but the optimization expert might catch that it needs an LOD model; a programmer might finish a weapon’s code, but the design lead might want the damage values adjusted for better balance. By building these interactions into the Definition of Done, you prevent silos and downstream rework.
The sprint review in Scrum is actually one example of a cross-functional review at the end of an iteration, where the team and stakeholders look at what’s done and confirm it meets expectations. You can simulate that on a more continuous basis by not waiting until the very end, but having small reviews when each item is done. Also, integrating cross-functional checks fosters a sense of collective ownership: quality isn’t just QA’s job, fun isn’t just design’s job, performance isn’t just engineering’s job – everyone’s accountable to ensure the DoD is met in all aspects.
Visibility and Communication
Integrating the DoD also means making it a part of the team’s vocabulary and reporting. Teams should talk in terms of the DoD.
For instance, in stand-up meetings, instead of saying “Feature A is done, moving to next task,” team members ideally would say something like “Feature A is done – it meets all DoD criteria: code is merged, tests are passing, and design approved the feel, so we closed it.” This reinforces the standard.
Project status reports to management can be structured around DoD compliance: e.g., rather than just listing features in progress, a report might highlight “Feature X is functionally complete but missing two DoD items: localization and final QA test – expected to complete those by next week.” This level of detail helps managers track true progress and allocate help if needed.
Some companies even integrate the DoD at the organization level by training new hires on it and including it as part of their development playbook or SOP. The message is: this is how we work here – nothing is done until it meets our Definition of Done. When that attitude is shared from top management down to interns, it creates a unified front on quality.
Continuous Improvement of Integration
Lastly, integrate feedback loops to improve how DoD is implemented. If the team finds the DoD is cumbersome or missing something, adjust either the DoD or how it’s integrated.
For example, if developers complain that waiting for an external department’s sign-off is causing delays, maybe formalize a quicker review channel or adjust the workflow so that the request is sent earlier. Or if QA finds that by the time they get to test, there’s too little time, you might integrate them earlier in the task cycle.
The DoD itself might need updates – e.g., after a post-mortem on a sprint, you realize a certain quality issue slipped through because it wasn’t in the DoD, so you add it. The goal is a smoothly integrated system where following the DoD is just the way work flows, rather than an extra chore.
In summary, integrating the Definition of Done into your game development pipeline means aligning your tools, processes, and people’s habits with the DoD’s criteria. From code commit to final build, each stage should have checks or practices reinforcing those done conditions. This holistic integration is what turns the DoD from a theoretical checklist into a practical engine of quality and efficiency.
When DoD May Be Counterproductive
While the Definition of Done is a powerful practice, it is not a magic wand – and if misapplied, it can introduce unnecessary overhead or rigidity. It’s important to strike the right balance. Business leaders should be aware of situations where an overly strict or detailed DoD might become counterproductive and how to recognize and adjust to those cases.
Micromanagement Tool
If a Definition of Done checklist becomes extremely long or filled with trivial items, teams can get bogged down in the process to the detriment of outcomes. For instance, a DoD that requires ten different managerial approvals or an excessive amount of documentation for every small change. Developers and artists might spend more time chasing approvals and filling out paperwork than actually creating value in the game.
The spirit of DoD is to ensure quality, not to drown the team in bureaucracy. A good rule of thumb echoed in agile literature is that the DoD should represent the least amount of work necessary to achieve the desired quality level.
If you find your team constantly saying, “We did all this extra stuff for the DoD that didn’t really make the game better,” that’s a red flag that the DoD might be overkill.
Another symptom is if tasks routinely spill over or never get closed because the checklist is simply too onerous to complete within a reasonable time. The DoD should be challenging yet achievable within the context of your sprint or workflow; if it’s not, it likely needs trimming or adjusting.
Prototyping
Game development often has phases where you intentionally prioritize rapid iteration and creativity over final polish – such as prototyping new game ideas, creating vertical slices, or experimenting with gameplay features in pre-production.
In these phases, a full-fledged Definition of Done can be overkill and even counterproductive. Requiring developers to adhere to every strict quality criterion when they are just trying to test a concept can slow down discovery and innovation.
Small Teams
In very small teams or startup environments, a formal, detailed DoD might feel like overkill. Such teams often communicate so continuously that they achieve shared understanding organically. If two co-founders are pair-programming or sitting next to each other, they may not need a written checklist to know what needs to be done for something to be considered finished. Enforcing a heavyweight process in this scenario can introduce needless formality.
In this case, the DoD should remain informal and lean. The test is: does following the DoD feel like it’s obviously helping us catch important issues, or is it making a 2-day task into a 5-day task without clear value? If it’s the latter, trim it down.
Unrealistic Criteria
Another way DoD can go wrong is if the criteria are unrealistic or unnecessary given the project’s context.
For example, setting a DoD criterion that “100% of code must have 100% unit test coverage” or “every asset must be reviewed by every department lead” might sound thorough, but could be impractical. Teams might then either burn excess time trying to hit these marks or start gaming the system.
One sign of unrealistic DoD is if the team consistently cannot meet the DoD within iteration timelines – every story is rolling over or being forced through without criteria met, creating tension. This might indicate that certain criteria need to be dropped or relaxed until the team can build up to them. It’s good to aspire to high standards, but if a criterion cannot be met due to tooling, skill, or time, it should perhaps live in a “wish list” for the future DoD, not the current one.
As an example, a team without an automated test environment might find “integration tested on all target platforms each story” impossible to do every time. They might then decide, okay, our working DoD is to test on one platform per story and rotate, and we’ll improve later when we have the infrastructure.
Leaders should avoid setting DoD criteria that the team cannot support – it demoralizes the team or forces them to routinely violate the process.
In sum, while the Definition of Done is an excellent servant for quality, it can be a poor master if overemphasized at the expense of agility and creativity. Business leaders should foster a mindset of balance: enforce the DoD strictly when it clearly adds value and safeguards quality, but remain flexible and pragmatic when the situation calls for speed.
Conclusion
Throughout this guide, we explored that the Definition of Done is a methodology-agnostic checklist of criteria that declares when work is truly complete, not just “maybe done.” We also discussed concrete ways to put the Definition of Done into action. However, the DoD is not a silver bullet that automatically fixes process problems – it’s a tool that must be adapted and used wisely.
For business owners and top managers, the call to action is clear: make Definition of Done a cornerstone of your development strategy. Start that conversation with your teams about what “done” should mean for your projects. Invest the time in establishing it, and then reinforce it through process and example. Monitor its effects and continuously refine it.
In an industry where the only true measure of progress is working, fun, and quality game in the players’ hands, having a strong Definition of Done is how you ensure that progress is real. It’s about creating games that aren’t just almost done or rushed out the door, but games that are truly complete, polished, and ready to succeed in the market.