The Importance of Having Clearly Defined Project Acceptance Criteria in Your Projects

My team and I have worked on SharePoint-based projects for the tax team from one of our clients. The last few months the project was a roller coaster ride for the entire team. There are several occasions when the project is delayed due to unexpected risks and challenges. Some problems include conflict with the Change Management Board, conflict with the server support team, and operational problems with the network and hardware support team. In this article, you will know about the Importance of Having Clearly Defined Project Acceptance Criteria in Your Projects.

However, regardless of CAPM Training challenges, we can successfully send projects on the planned schedule and budget. We apply some best practices in project management and software development, including document requirements that are well-defined and a series of acceptance criteria clearly defined, customer approved.

During the final approval of the solution, when we mark one that can be released after being released in our checklist, we are glad we have done a lot of effort to define the project acceptance criteria before we start the project. In this article, we will see what acceptance criteria are all about, and the importance of preparing a series of acceptance criteria clearly defined for project management.

However, regardless of these challenges, we can successfully send projects in planned schedules and budgets, by applying some of the best practices in project management and software development. In addition to other best practices, they include good-defined requirements document preparation and a series of clearly defined acceptance criteria approved by Mandy. During the final approval of the solution, such as Mandy struck one that can be released after another on the checklist, we are glad we have done a lot of effort to prepare a series of project revenue criteria specified before starting our project.

What is the project acceptance criteria?

Project acceptance criteria are criteria that include performance requirements and important conditions, which must be fulfilled before the project work received (PMBok® Guide). They set a specific state where the user will receive the final output of the project. They are the criteria that we can measure, reach, and prove to our clients that our work is finished.

Examples of project revenue criteria

Backup testing and recovery has been successfully completed.

User acceptance testing (UAT) has been completed, and the user / senior project executive has signed user acceptance testing.

All requirements have been formally approved.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is applied to be used in situations where IT systems are not available, for any reason.

How do you document project acceptance criteria?

According to the PMBOK® guide, the 4th edition, the acceptance criteria are documented in the document and project scope requirements and statements. Acceptance criteria are often regarded as an important part of contract agreements on external projects.

What is the clearly defined acceptance criteria for your project?

1. Set the client’s expectation level

The success or failure of your project depends on the team to meet the acceptance criteria documented by clients or perceptions. By having a series of reception criteria clearly defined, you will be able to set the client expectation level and lay the foundation for their perception of the products that have been filled. Inaccurate or lost acceptance criteria can cause a low level of customer satisfaction, the date of the passage, and the sustainability of development costs.

Business users also complained about different response times in various parts of the world, where clients have arranged their business operations. Therefore, it is very important for us to enter this as one of the acceptance criteria – and set client expectations regarding the application of application responses and give them various values ​​in seconds, such as 1 – 2 seconds to refresh the page and so on.

2. Make the difference between paid or not on the project where the client pays to produce

Acceptance criteria are usually used for projects where the client pays to produce or settle the project phase. You must ensure that the acceptance criteria developed are relevant to the results, binary (both acceptable or unacceptable), measurable or tangible (if possible), and bound by payment (whenever appropriate).

The client is known to refuse to sign shipping for two valid reasons: both the project results have not met their needs, or they themselves are not clear about their needs. By working towards a series of acceptance criteria clearly defined before you start working on your produce, you will protect yourself, your project team, and your company.

Because the project sponsor is the person responsible for approving the final product, they are also responsible for approving the acceptance criteria. All the same things, if the acceptance criteria are fulfilled, there should be no reason why sponsors do not have to agree and receive the final product.

3. Avoid miscommunication on internal projects

If an internal client, you will be able to avoid political maneuvers and miscommunication by developing a series of acceptance criteria clearly defined. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to manage application development projects for horizontal testing in our organization. Web applications are built to help clients and senior management, with a lot of relevant information about this special horizontal business. One of the biggest challenges in these projects is to manage communication with a geographically scattered team based in the development center in various cities.

Most stakeholders on this project (including myself) voluntarily for this project in addition to our regular responsibilities. As a result, many stakeholders find it difficult to contribute to the project in parallel with their daily work. Therefore, it is difficult to get a general, clear, and shared understanding of stakeholders on several problems in the project, including the requirements of the meeting.