A Product Backlog item for a new firmware feature cannot be called Done until it passes an external hardware safety certification that can take several weeks and is outside the Developers' control. How should the Scrum Team handle this at Sprint Review?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Done means done, not done except for the part still pending. If a safety certification is still outstanding, the honest move is to say so out loud at Sprint Review, so everyone making decisions is working from what's actually true.
Full Explanation
The mechanism is that the Definition of Done exists precisely to prevent partial or externally-gated work from being presented as finished, and Sprint Review exists to give stakeholders an honest, current picture so they can inspect real progress and adapt real plans, including plans around a launch window affected by that certification. Marking the item Done anyway because the Developers' internal portion is finished breaks transparency and hides a real risk from the people who need to see it. Removing the item from the Product Backlog overreacts; a multi-week external gate doesn't make the work invalid, it just means it may span several Sprints before it's genuinely Done. Having the Scrum Master perform an internal certification invents an authority the Scrum Master doesn't have and doesn't substitute for a real external safety review. Caveat: this doesn't mean the work produced no value at all, since partially completed, not-yet-Done work still shouldn't be presented as shippable. Operational check: track the certification's real status as a visible line item so its progress, not just the internal coding work, is inspectable each Sprint.