The word "Done" should not be used in any context except when one is saying the functionality is ready for live. The other word that should be used is either "finished" or "ready"
Mike Cohn has commented on user stories in a very well structured and coherent fashion in his books. A "ready" user story should the follow several attributes known as INVEST:
- Independent – No dependencies between stories.
- Negotiable – User Story is negotiable between the team and the customer.
- Valuable to the user – The functionality dictated by the user story should have value to end users.
- Estimate-able – The scrum team should be able to estimate the user story story
- Small – User Stories should be completed in a single sprint/iteration
- Testable – Test should cover everything that will allow the features to be "Done". This means that the user story should be able to be completed.
