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If there are multiple Scrum Teams working on a product, they each need their own definition of "Done."

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Final answer:

Scrum Teams working on the same product should share a common definition of "Done" to ensure consistency and coherence. This aligns their efforts and helps to meet critical deadlines and quality standards, crucial in engineering projects like designing a new video game controller.

Step-by-step explanation:

When multiple Scrum Teams are working on the same product, it is not necessary for each team to have its own definition of "Done". Instead, all teams should share a common understanding of what "Done" means to ensure consistency and coherence across the product. This common definition is critical because it helps to align the teams' efforts and ensure that they are all working towards the same goals, especially when considering the complexity of engineering tasks, the need for collaboration, and the importance of meeting deadlines.

For instance, in the case of designing a new video game controller, if each Scrum Team had a different definition of "Done", one team might consider the design complete after prototyping, while another might not consider it complete until user testing is finished. This discrepancy could lead to integration issues, customer dissatisfaction, or even missing critical market opportunities if the controller is not ready for the holiday season. Similarly, early poor design decisions can hamper the entire project, so having a unified standard ensures that all teams work to the same quality and with the same objectives in mind.

Successful collaboration and meeting critical task deadlines are vital for the success of any engineering project. While it's understood that no collaboration is perfect, having a singular definition of "Done" is one of the best practices to mitigate risks associated with multitasking and inter-team dependencies.

User Jesse Dearing
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