Definition of Done vs. Acceptance Criteria for Non-Software Work
Actualizado Oct 30, 202610 min de lectura
A campaign can contain every requested message and asset, yet still be sitting unpublished in a folder. Research can answer the brief without reaching the person who needs it. A hiring panel can choose a candidate while nobody records the decision or assigns the next step.
The main output exists, but the work is not finished.
A Definition of Done helps teams close that gap. Acceptance criteria serve a different purpose: they describe what one particular deliverable must satisfy. For recurring work, the most useful setup keeps both visible beside the work, so reviewers can check the item-specific requirements and the recurring finish steps without searching through a separate process manual.
A Definition of Done is a shared, reusable completion standard for a recurring type of work. It lists the conditions that should be true whenever that work is closed.
Acceptance criteria are requirements for one specific deliverable. They describe what that item must include, accomplish, or satisfy.
The distinction is commonly discussed in Scrum and Agile practice. Scrum.org describes the difference between a shared Definition of Done and item-specific acceptance criteria. Mountain Goat Software describes a Definition of Done as agreed conditions that must be true before an item is considered complete.
Marketing, research, hiring, and operations teams can adapt the distinction without adopting Scrum as a whole. The non-software application in this article is practical guidance, not a formal Scrum rule.
| Definition of Done | Acceptance criteria | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | A recurring category of work | One particular deliverable |
| Reuse | Applied repeatedly | Written for that item |
| When it is written | Established and maintained as part of the team’s workflow | Set while the item is planned or clarified |
| How often it changes | When the team changes how it completes that work | From one item to another |
| Example | Every campaign is approved, published or scheduled, stored, and handed off | This campaign targets existing customers and includes an email, landing page, and social copy |
A useful Definition of Done captures the steps people regularly forget after producing the obvious output.
For campaign work, that could mean:
These conditions apply across campaigns. They do not specify the audience, message, channels, or launch date for any one campaign.
The standard should cover the finish line, not every action taken along the way. “Hold a kickoff meeting” probably does not belong. Neither does “make it excellent,” unless your team has invented a reliable excellence detector.
Different kinds of work usually need different standards. A hiring decision and a research handoff do not share enough closeout steps to justify one giant company-wide checklist. Create a separate Definition of Done for each recurring category where missed finish steps cause trouble.
Acceptance criteria capture requirements that vary by item. Depending on the work, they might cover:
For example, the acceptance criteria for one research package might require it to answer why trial users abandon onboarding, combine interview findings with support themes, and present recommendations to the product lead by Friday.
Those requirements belong to that package. The next study may ask a different question and have a different audience, method, format, or deadline.
Some subjects can appear in both standards at different levels. A campaign Definition of Done may require recorded approval every time, while one campaign’s acceptance criteria name the person who must review its product claims. The recurring rule stays stable; the item-specific detail changes.
For more item-level patterns, see Acceptance Criteria Examples for Work Beyond Software.
Suppose a marketing team is preparing a spring product launch.
Its acceptance criteria could be:
These criteria define this campaign. Another campaign would have different audiences, assets, reviewers, and timing.
The team’s reusable campaign Definition of Done might say:
The campaign can meet its acceptance criteria and still fail the Definition of Done. Every required asset might be accurate and approved, but the email has not been scheduled. Or the campaign may be live while support remains unaware of the change and nobody owns the follow-up.
Acceptance criteria tell reviewers whether the team produced the right deliverable. The Definition of Done checks whether the team finished the recurring work around it. Keeping both next to the campaign makes that distinction useful during the final review, rather than leaving it as a nice definition nobody consults.
For one research package, acceptance criteria might specify the question, intended audience, method, required format, and deadline.
The recurring Definition of Done could require linked sources, findings stored in the agreed location, delivery to the relevant stakeholder, and a recorded decision or next action. A team that needs a longer-term home for findings can build a research repository that preserves conclusions as well as links. A polished report that nobody receives is mostly an expensive diary entry.
Acceptance criteria for a particular hiring decision might specify the role requirements to assess, the evidence the panel must consider, and who must participate in the decision.
A hiring Definition of Done could require the decision to be recorded, the appropriate people to be notified, relevant context to be preserved, and follow-up work to have an owner. Documenting decisions so your team can find them later helps with this part. Selecting a candidate in a meeting does not finish the hiring workflow.
Each operations request has its own requested outcome, requester, deadline, and constraints. Those are its acceptance criteria.
The reusable completion standard might require confirmation that the request was fulfilled, documentation of any lasting process change, handoff to the person who will maintain it, and assignment of unresolved follow-up. For larger changes, how to hand off an active project offers a related way to think about ownership after the main work is complete.
Start with one recurring type of work, such as campaign launches or research handoffs. Do not begin with “all work.” That road leads to a 63-item checklist covering everything from legal review to cleaning the office microwave.
Then use this process:
Keep the list short enough to review during real work. A Definition of Done should prevent predictable gaps, not preserve every lesson the team has ever learned.
Put the reusable Definition of Done somewhere stable and easy to find during review. Place the acceptance criteria directly with the relevant deliverable or work item.
Avoid burying the shared standard in a process wiki that people visit twice: once during onboarding and once while desperately searching for the holiday policy. Link or surface it from the place where the work happens. A project overview can provide a useful home for shared context, as described in what to include in a project overview.
A reviewer should be able to answer two questions without starting an archaeological dig:
Any team tool or document system can support this arrangement. Proximity matters more than format. Requirements become decorative when reviewers have to hunt for them.
In Notework, a team could keep a shared “Campaign Definition of Done” on a page inside its marketing project. Recurring campaign work could live in the Task Tracker collection preset, with each task represented by a full entry page.
The “Spring launch” entry page could hold its acceptance criteria, brief, links, and supporting context. A collection is a structured set of entry pages with typed properties, so information such as status, owner, and due date can remain visible. Saved Table, Board, List, Calendar, Timeline, and Gallery views show different views of the same entries.
Marketing project
│
├── Page: Campaign Definition of Done
│ └── Reused for every campaign
│ • approval recorded
│ • channels published or scheduled
│ • source files stored
│ • follow-up assigned
│
└── Task Tracker collection
└── Entry page: Spring launch
└── Specific to this campaign
• audience
• message
• required assets
• reviewer
• launch date
During review, the campaign owner can confirm the approval condition on the entry page, check the status and due date, and assign any remaining follow-up. A teammate can comment on the specific approval or handoff block when a condition needs clarification. Notework comments are anchored to blocks, so the discussion stays with the requirement being reviewed. The setup keeps the shared standard, the campaign’s acceptance criteria, and the unfinished follow-up visible in the same project. It does not automate approval. People still make and confirm the decision.
Use acceptance criteria alone for a one-off deliverable with specific requirements and few recurring closeout steps.
Use a Definition of Done alone for routine work where individual items vary very little. A recurring request with the same outcome and closeout process may not need custom criteria each time.
Use both when a category of work repeats but each deliverable has meaningful requirements of its own. Campaigns, research packages, hiring decisions, and many operations requests fit this pattern.
Completion standards apply at the other end of the work from readiness checks. If you need to decide what must be clear before work begins, see Definition of Ready: What Work Needs Before It Starts.
Keep changing requirements with the item, and keep recurring finish conditions in the shared Definition of Done. If you want to keep that review context beside project work, you can try Notework or start with the related guides above.
See also how to hand off an active project.
See also turn decisions into owned work.
See also build a research repository.
See also what to include in a project overview.
See also Definition of Ready.