Which concept provides a shared understanding across teams of when work is finished?

• A. Definition of Ready
• B. Acceptance Criteria
• C. Quality Gate
• D. Definition of Done

Answer: (D)

Definition of Done provides a shared understanding across teams of when work is finished. It sets the criteria that must be met for any item to be considered complete, so everyone agrees on what "done" means across the program. In SAFe, this often includes coding completed, all tests executed and passed (unit, integration, and acceptance tests as applicable), proper integration with the system, documentation updated, and release readiness. Having a DoD across teams reduces ambiguity during integration and planning, enabling a potentially releasable Increment at the end of each iteration or program increment. This differs from Definition of Ready, which concerns whether work is ready to start; acceptance criteria are item-specific conditions for a story’s completion, and a quality gate is not the standard cross-team finish criterion.