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Specify the Definition of Done criteria for your Kanban columns

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Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018

When your team advances from one stage to the next in their work, it's crucial that they have a shared understanding of what constitutes "done." You can define the criteria for the Definition of Done in each Kanban column. By doing so, the team can identify the necessary tasks that need to be completed before advancing an item to the next stage. By doing so, you're also implementing one of the core Kanban tenets, make processes and policies explicit.

Team members can quickly double-check the done criteria.

Definition of Done

If you're just getting started, review Kanban overview and Kanban quickstart to get an overview of how to implement Kanban.

Prerequisites

  • To configure team settings, you must be added to the Team Administrator role or be a member of the Project Administrators security group. To get added, see Add a team administrator or Change project-level permissions.
  • You must be assigned Basic access or higher to exercise all backlog and board features. Users with Stakeholder access can only edit work items on the board and add existing tags to a work item. Stakeholders can't add work items or update fields displayed on cards. For more information, see About access levels.
  • To configure team settings, you must be added to the Team Administrator role or be a member of the Project Administrators security group. To get added, see Add a team administrator or Change project-level permissions.
  • You must be assigned Basic access or higher to exercise all backlog and board features. Users with Stakeholder access can only edit work items on the board and add existing tags to a work item. Stakeholders can't do the following tasks. For more information, see About access levels.
    • Add work items to a board
    • Drag-and-drop work items to update status or reorder cards
    • Update fields displayed on cards

Add the Definition of Done to a column

  1. Open your Kanban board.

    If you're not a team admin, get added as one. Only team and project admins can customize the Kanban board.

  2. Choose the gear icon to configure the board and set general team settings.

    Open board settings for a team, vert nav

  3. Choose Columns and then a column tab to configure the Definition of Done for that column.

    Kanban board, Configure Definition of Done

  4. When you're done with your changes, select Save and close.

  1. Open your Kanban board. If you're not a team admin, get added as one. Only team and project admins can customize the Kanban board.

  2. Choose settings icon to open the common configuration settings dialog for the Kanban board.

    Kanban board, open common configuration settings

  3. Choose Columns and then a column tab to configure the Definition of Done for that column. You can specify the Definition of Done for each intermediate column on your team's Kanban board.

    Kanban board, Configure Definition of Done

  4. When done with your changes, choose Save.

Team members can quickly check that they've met the criteria by choosing the Information tooltip info icon.