My recent notes about Scrum covered the Definition of Done and sprinting. Writing them made me realise something awkward: my interpretation of these terms differs from the official Scrum Guide. So what now?
A Sprint feels incredibly short to me. In sport, it’s the smallest unit. Nothing’s shorter than a sprint. Even a quick sprint to the toilet is still a sprint. In Scrum, a sprint runs one week to a month. My language brain rebels at this. A sprint is something I can knock out in a day or an hour. By that logic, a Scrum sprint is more like middle-distance running.
A User Story typically runs to one sentence, part of the broader user journey. Something like: “As the mother of a seven-year-old, I want to teach my children to swim myself.” From there, dozens of sub-tasks emerge to help that mother. My writer’s understanding of “story” involves narrative arc: beginning, middle, end, following a clear thread. The story isn’t the scaffolding (the plot) — it’s the finished piece.
The “Definition of Done” fascinates me most. Enormous potential for both misunderstandings and shared success lives here — if you lay it all out clearly beforehand with your team and client. When will this project feel successful to you? What do you want to achieve? (And who do you want praise from if success proves hard to measure otherwise?) When is the task truly finished?
Expectations on the table give you something to steer by. When trouble hits, you’ve got solid arguments ready.
What needs to exist before we start?
Scrum only defines DoD, not DoR — no “Definition of Ready”. I think that’s a mistake. Rubbish briefing produces rubbish outcomes. The people doing the work need a DoR ready and should demand it early. What’s the absolute minimum required? (For me: communication objectives, primary audience, core messages, tone, and length.)
The principle applies everywhere: let’s think from the start about what we want to achieve and how we’ll get there. The project succeeds with much higher probability that way.
The German original lives at reinergaertner.de, my blog since before most of the internet existed (1997). Translation: AI. Quality control: me, squinting. Apologies in advance.