A team asks its Scrum Master to settle an argument about the difference between the Definition of Done and the acceptance criteria they write on individual Product Backlog items. Which explanation is accurate?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 1. Understanding and applying the Scrum framework hard
Machine-checked — no person has signed for it. This question was read against the source cited below by an automated pass, which found no contradiction. That is a weaker claim than it sounds: the same kind of process wrote the question, so it can confirm its own mistake.
Treat it as a good draft rather than as settled fact, and read the source below before you rely on it. It is not used in mock exams here — only questions a person has signed for are.
The options
Correct The Definition of Done is one quality standard that applies to every item and to the Increment as a whole; acceptance criteria describe what one particular item must do — an item is finished only when both are satisfied
Correct. One is per product and constant, the other is per item and different every time, and they answer different questions: is this built to our standard, and does this do the specific thing we asked for.
Not correct They are two names for the same thing, and maintaining both duplicates work
Wrong. Collapsing them means either writing the same quality checklist onto every item or losing the item-specific behaviour, and teams that try it usually end up with a Definition of Done that says nothing.
Not correct Acceptance criteria replace the Definition of Done once a team is mature enough to judge each item on its merits
Wrong. The Definition of Done is the Increment's commitment; it does not get outgrown. A team judging quality item by item has exactly the inconsistency the commitment exists to prevent.
Not correct The Definition of Done is written per item by the Product Owner during Sprint Planning
Wrong on all three points. It is a standard for the product rather than per item, it is not authored in Sprint Planning, and it is not the Product Owner's to set.
Why
Worth knowing precisely: acceptance criteria are not part of Scrum at all — they are a widely used practice that sits around the framework, which is why no Scrum source defines them. The Definition of Done is defined, and it is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product. Carry the distinction as one sentence: the Definition of Done is the same sentence for everything the team ships, acceptance criteria are a different sentence for every item.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section Commitment: Definition of Done
- What it says
- The Definition of Done is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 1 and space the ones you get wrong.
Practise Professional Scrum Master I
More questions on this objective
- A department is choosing an approach for a product where both the requirements and the technology are poorly understood and keep changing as the team learns. Someone argues for Scrum "because it is founded on empiricism". What does founding an approach on empiricism actually commit the team to? machine-checked
- At the end of a Sprint three items are functionally complete but have not been through the automated test suite the Definition of Done requires. To avoid an awkward conversation the Developers mark them Done on the board and include them in the Sprint Review. Which pillar has been damaged, and what follows from that? machine-checked
- A Scrum Team holds every event on schedule, keeps a burn-down chart and reviews its metrics carefully. For six Sprints running, the same impediment — a two-day wait for a shared test environment — has been named in the Retrospective, and nothing about it has changed. What is the accurate diagnosis? machine-checked
- Mid-Sprint, the Developers discover that a third-party API rate-limits far below what they assumed, which makes the current plan unworkable. One of them suggests carrying on as planned and raising it at the Sprint Retrospective, so the Sprint is not disrupted. What should happen instead? machine-checked
- Which THREE of these statements about Scrum theory are accurate as the framework defines it? machine-checked
- A Developer is fairly sure the design the team agreed last week will not scale. The team is halfway through the Sprint, everyone else seems content, and saying so means an uncomfortable conversation and probably rework. Which Scrum value most directly asks them to speak? machine-checked
All questions on Understanding and applying the Scrum framework