DoD : does it really help continuous delivery?

Short Answer: Yes if done right :).

Long Answer:
We are trying to come with DoD (Definition of Done) for my teams. We came up with our DoD, which is pretty much taking care of entire 9 yard, from code to validation.  It has checks for 

• meeting acceptance criteria
• making sure we are doing code review
• release check list 
• making sure automated test in written for code
• architectural review
• .....

This set looks almost identical with my previous teams (may be with 10-20% variance).  After the entire exercise, I am honestly challenging myself on how much DoD would help my team in delivery? Does anybody really cares for DoD in real day-to-day work? 

I thought of gathering some understanding on the true purpose and scope of DoD. For Teams who are doing continuous deployment and development, how is this artifact relevant? 

• Is it a reminder for us to do our engineering job i,e commit your code, write acceptance criteria or automated test cases
• we need DoD to have one understanding of Done
• Use to DoD to get Story Points in the same iteration vs. next
• Is it a big checklist for us to remember our mistakes
• It helps teams to be more disciplined
• Improves teams credibility amongst stakeholders
• it helps team find weakness in the system
• It reduces the risk of misunderstanding as well as the communication gaps between the teams and stakeholders.
• it is something else. 

Relevancy is dependent upon the context you are in... Here are some tips which worked very nice for our team in past: 

• Automate as many check as possible 
• Don't let it collect dust. it is not static document.
• Break checks across all columns vs. doing it at the end.
• Try making your DoR big, so only right stuff can entire the work pipeline. And try to keep DoD short and concise.  

Again, until DoD is part of daily ritual, I doubt, it would bring the desired result. For DoD to allow us to focus on delivery, it has to be part of our daily routine/discipline. 

Hope it helps

Manisha