Definition of ready and done in an agile test environment (when test teams are not on site)

Question

details

In my current project I work with different test teams, some of which work in different time zones, and also in different projects. However, all projects work on a common main project.

Since we need a uniform definition of Ready and Done, which also applies to all test teams, I developed the following DoR and DoD with the PO and the developers.

Problems

But we see several problems at the same time:

• On the one hand, we want to make sure that we have the right definition of Ready, because we also have developers who work as a team in different time zones.
• On the other hand, we want to start the test early. Here we work with different test days and connections to WSO2, Salesforce and Magento. This is also how the corresponding test teams are set up. The test teams manage one area at a time.

Current planning of the Definition of Ready and Done:

Definition of Ready

• User story is defined in JIRA
• INVEST criteria are met (Story is Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small, Testable)
• User Story is estimated
• Acceptance criteria are defined (at least 1)
• All dependent UX/UI-Design are approved by client

Definition of Done

• Acceptance criteria are fullfilled
• No known Bugs
• Unit Tests are green
• Technical Documentation has been updated

Questions

• How can we secure our DoR and DoD planning so that different test teams can work in different time zones?
• How can we determine at an early stage that the quality of the external teams already has a high standard in development?

Answer 1

On the other hand, we want to start the test early

This is the key area to examine. If there is a requirement to start testing 'early' then the definition of done should include this. However I see the problem is that now you'll have two definitions of done :(

So in this case I think you might want to consider a 'definition of ready for testing' that is a new and separate step that does not replace the final definition of done.

Definition of Ready for Early Stage Data Testing
I'm not sure about the heading but something like that.

• Functionality is present for early stage data testing
• Interfaces to external services are working in the test environment

The off-site / timezone issue:

This is really a separate issue and I think that it would be best to remove it and address that in a separate question or even two (one for remote question, one for timezone question). For now, I would recommend considering:

• make sure all off-siters have equipment and training (camera, lighting etc) so they can participate fully. dev's peering into a laptop under bad lighting definitely contributes to them not being equal members.
• focusing on the extra communication needs of off-siters
• make sure to have frequent meetings at a mutual time

Answer 2

How can we secure our DoR and DoD planning so that different test teams can work in different time zones? : Ensure the following: -- All the engineers are updating the ticket status daily. -- Having daily scrum meetings with them to ensure their task status -- Having the QA Team send Individual Task Status Report. How can we determine at an early stage that the quality of the external teams already has a high standard in development? -- In case of Agile, discuss the issues in Sprint Retrospection meeting. -- Have the development manager review their code and code merge.