Make “done” a process-derived condition — not an agent judgment.
An agent may be capable of completing a technical task while still leaving required process work unfinished. Definition-of-Done Engineering derives completion conditions from the effective process for that context.
A code change can compile and pass tests and still be unfinished.
It may still require impact analysis, updated traceability, review evidence, documentation, safety approval, or another context-specific condition. Those expectations come from the process, not from the agent's own judgment.
Ensure agent work is considered complete only when the process conditions for that context have been satisfied.
Five steps from effective process to enforced completion.
Resolve the effective process
Determine which activities, controls, work products, reviews, and approvals apply to the selected task context.
Derive completion conditions
Translate those expectations into a task-specific Definition of Done.
Classify the conditions
Separate machine-checkable, evidence-based, human-review, and human-only conditions.
Define enforcement
Specify how each condition is verified and what happens if it is not satisfied.
Integrate with execution
Expose the DoD to the agent and the surrounding workflow so completion can be blocked where mandatory criteria remain open.
- Machine-checkable
- Evidence-based
- Human review
- Human only
A coding agent fixes a defect in a safety-relevant component.
- Impact analysis completedtool-verified
- Tests passedtool-verified
- Traceability updatedevidence-verified
- Safety approval obtainedhuman approval
- Process-derived Definition-of-Done model
- Task and context criteria
- Checkability classification
- Enforcement design
- Human checkpoint relationships
- Implementation specification
- Stop work being called complete when process conditions remain open.
- Make completion criteria context-specific rather than generic.
- Enforce automatically what can be checked automatically.
- Keep the judgment-based conditions visibly with people.
Turns the machine-checkable conditions into gates the workflow actually enforces.
Defines who has to look at the conditions that are not delegable.