How to scale work with definition of done
One of the ways of creating leverage is to scale your work out to team members (and increasingly AI).
The problem is each of these team members has built in assumptions on how they think the work should best be done. If you simply ask someone to complete a piece of work, you will be surprised by what you get back. For example if you asked for a wall to be painted blue - you might naturally assume that it was obvious that it should be the same colour blue as all the other walls in the building. However it is much more likely you would find it painted a colour the painter thought was the nicest colour blue - not what you intended and a waste of time and effort.
Definition of done
One way to combat this is to be very specific about what done looks like. Writing it down in much more detail than you are comfortable with. For example, imagine you needed to install new computer monitors for all desks on a given floor. What does done really look like? There are specification details:
- Size of monitor
- Compatibility
- Quality
- Cost
These definitely need to be documented - but this is not what done looks like. You need to write down what is in your minds eye.
Done is:
When all old computer monitors have been removed and recycled, new monitors that meet the specification have been purchased, delivered, installed, and tested to ensure they work as expected. All excess packing should be recycled and warranty information saved into our system.
If you look at the description above it is a lot more than just the ordering of new equipment. It is more akin to acceptance criteria, treating everything as a job, then making a note of what has to be done for the job to be complete.
With AI becoming more capable it can be used to do ever more complex tasks. One thing people learn early on is how specific you need to be to get AI to do the exact thing you want it to. AI has a literal world of assumptions built in, some are what you implicitly meant and some not.
Getting into the habit of well written definitions of done help you leverage your team and prevent work from yo-yo-ing.