ANSWER

So, you are faced with a question in an interview, "What's your definition of done"?  And that's it; no other context.  "Hmmm," you say to yourself.

In this situation, you'd been fine because you prepared a few different answers to be safe.  It's because, in project work, there could be a few approaches to take.  A team may use an Agile approach, Waterfall, or a combination of both.  (While some purest of either method believe it's one or the other, others know there are some pros to doing it if the whole dev team is on-board.)

When you're in the interview, don't panic.

Think for a moment, making sure you understood the question.

If you didn't, ask the interviewer to specify a methodology.

Now, if they say, I'll leave it to you.  How do you handle it?

Here are some approaches:

You've researched the company and the team.  You have a good idea of how they run their projects.

You go with what you know, what your gut tells you, what's comfortable.  That way, you can provide a real-life experience.  You will show your confidence in understanding the concept.

In any case, be genuine and real.  People can tell if you're speaking from the heart.

The Scrum Guide's definition of Done (DoD) is shared and agreed upon within the Scrum team.  And it's unique to the team's project and can vary, sometimes significantly, from other teams and other projects.

An item is "Done" when a backlog item/increment is potentially shippable.  Where, at the end of a Sprint, you must have something complete and ready to ship, but shipping is not required.

In Waterfall, there isn't a specific definition of done.  The person/team working in a particular Stage of the process must complete it to move to the next.  For example, the Design Stage can start only when all written requirements are approved.  And all Stages must be complete/done to ship the product.

So, in the end, both must be completed/done to ship, but Agile has a few (more) times in the process to determine if something is ready.

Ange Spring
Business Systems Analyst
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