> tpl_del_006
Delivery Working Agreement, Definition of Ready and Definition of Done
Foundational engineering team social contract and quality gateway document establishing core Working Agreements (collaboration norms, core hours, code review SLAs), a strict Definition of Ready (DoR) for story intake, and an automated Definition of Done (DoD) gating production deployments.
Squad working agreement defining team collaboration norms, story DoR intake criteria, and automated DoD release gates.
Important Tech Document Template & Operational Notice
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Problem Solved
Engineering teams suffer from toxic interpersonal friction, ambiguous quality expectations, and escaped production bugs because squads lack explicit agreed-upon working norms and allow unverified code to merge.
When to Use
- •Bootstrapping a new engineering squad or rebooting the operating norms of an existing delivery team
- •Establishing clear non-negotiable boundaries for when a user story is ready for development (DoR)
- •Configuring automated CI/CD branch protection rules and quality gates that enforce the Definition of Done (DoD)
When NOT to Use
- •For formal corporate employee employment contracts and HR discipline policies (use TPL-PEO-001)
- •For overarching enterprise architecture principles and system design standards (use TPL-ARC-005)
5 Template Sections & Structural Outline
Core hours (e.g. 10:00 - 15:00), async-first communication guidelines, Slack channel etiquettes, no-meeting focus blocks, and standup discipline.
Mandatory 24-hour review SLA for PRs, PR sizing limits (< 400 lines of diff), constructive review tone guidelines, and pair programming rules.
Non-negotiable entry criteria: business value stated, INVEST compliant, UX wireframes attached, Gherkin acceptance criteria, dependencies resolved, sized by squad.
Verification gates: automated unit test coverage (>80%), SonarQube zero new bugs/vulnerabilities, peer review approval, staging verification, and docs updated.
Mandatory review cadence of the working agreement at every retrospective, process for amending rules, and resolving internal team friction.
Completion Instructions
Independent Review Checklist
- All mandatory sections completed
- No secrets or passwords included
- Executive sponsor sign-off obtained
Delivery Working Agreement, Definition of Ready and Definition of Done - Worked Case Study
Fictional Entity: Distributed Core Banking Squad Working Agreement & Quality Gate Charter
Real-world production case study demonstrating complete operational adoption for Distributed Core Banking Squad Working Agreement & Quality Gate Charter.
- •Established 9-point social contract and DoR/DoD quality gate for an 11-person distributed engineering team across 3 time zones
- •Enforced 24-hour PR review turnaround SLA, reducing average pull request merge latency from 4.8 days to 14 hours
- •Decreased escaped production defects by 62% over 6 months by automating DoD SonarQube and coverage gates in CI/CD
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental difference between the Definition of Ready and Definition of Done?
The Definition of Ready (DoR) is an intake gate: it ensures a user story is sufficiently clear, estimated, and unblocked before the squad commits to it in sprint planning. The Definition of Done (DoD) is an exit gate: it guarantees that completed code meets all quality, testing, security, and documentation standards before deployment.
Can a Product Owner override the Definition of Ready to meet a hard commercial deadline?
No. Allowing unrefined stories into a sprint violates the team social contract and almost always causes slower delivery, defects, and rework. If a deadline is urgent, the PO and engineers must immediately swarm to refine the story to meet the DoR before pulling it in.
How should team members handle violations of the Working Agreement?
Violations should be addressed immediately and blamelessly within the squad. If someone repeatedly ignores PR review SLAs or skips standups, the Scrum Master facilitates a direct, respectful retrospective conversation to uncover the root cause (e.g. overloaded meeting schedules).
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Authoritative Sources
- Scrum Alliance: Definition of Done vs Definition of ReadyScrum Alliance • OFFICIAL REQUIREMENT
- Agile Alliance: Team Working AgreementsAgile Alliance • OFFICIAL REQUIREMENT
- ISO/IEC 25010: Systems and Software Quality ModelsInternational Organization for Standardization • OFFICIAL REQUIREMENT