Definition of Done (DoD) is a shared, explicit agreement on the minimum quality standard required before any backlog item can be marked complete. It prevents scope ambiguity, reduces technical debt, and ensures the team’s “done” means the same thing to everyone. In game development, a DoD might include: feature implemented, playtested internally, no blocking bugs, assets at final quality, reviewed by a second team member (Keith 2021, see source-agile-game-development).
A weak or absent DoD is a common root cause of “almost done” items accumulating and never shipping.
Related: product-backlog, sprints, scrum-in-game-development, qa-and-bug-triage