Definition of Done is not acceptance criteria
The Definition of Done is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product. It applies to the whole Increment. If it is an organisational standard, every Scrum Team must follow it as a minimum; if not, the Scrum Team must create one.
Why it is like this
A per-item checklist can be met while the product as a whole is unreleasable. Attaching the standard to the Increment is what makes "done" mean the same thing in every Sprint and prevents a backlog of invisible undone work.
Not to be confused with
Acceptance criteria. Those describe what one item must do to be right; the Definition of Done describes what the product must be for any work to count as finished at all — tested, reviewed, documented, deployable.
In practice
"The user can reset their password" is acceptance criteria. "Passes CI, reviewed by a second engineer, no new accessibility violations, deployed to staging" is a Definition of Done, and it applies to that item and every other.
Source: The Scrum Guide, November 2020 (Schwaber & Sutherland) — Commitment: Definition of Done. Read on .
The Scrum Guide is published by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland under CC BY-SA 4.0. These cards are independent commentary written in our own words, not a derivative of the Guide's text. ytyk.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by Scrum.org, Scrum Alliance or the Guide's authors.
Predict Check yourself
An organisation publishes a Definition of Done. A team believes it needs a stricter one for its own product. What does the Guide say?
Show the answer
The organisational Definition of Done is a minimum; the Scrum Team may apply a stricter one.
"As a minimum" is the operative phrase. It sets a floor, not a ceiling.