User’s Quality Expectations and Acceptance Criteria
Quality Expectations and Acceptance Criteria in PRINCE2 7
The PRINCE2 user’s quality expectations and acceptance criteria are gathered during discussion with the customer in the Starting Up a Project process and further refined and included in the Project Product Description.
These PRINCE2 quality expectations must include the key quality requirements for the project product, standards and processes that will need to be applied, and any useful measurements to ensure the project product meets quality requirements.
Not every project needs ‘top quality’ as this can lead to unnecessary extra time and expense, so PRINCE2 states that quality expectations should be ‘appropriate quality’. A ‘quick and cheap’ project to fix a problem may agree that the minimum improvement is needed, or ‘just sufficient’. Consider a new owner of an apartment who wishes to lease it out.
They would fit the apartment with ‘utility’ furniture and kitchen fittings (sufficient for purpose) and not buy luxury items. This is an example of appropriate expectations (customer’s quality expectation) and an acceptable standard (acceptance criteria) if you and I were to lease the above apartment.
The project product description
This is a description of the project’s significant products or outcomes, including the user’s quality
expectations, together with the acceptance criteria and acceptance methods for the
project.
The project requirements are defined and analysed in two progressive levels of detail.
In the process of starting up a project, the major products or outcomes, along with key quality
requirements, are documented in the project product description.
This step aims to confirm that all the major products needed to achieve the user’s expected outcomes are identified. It is important to assess and confirm that no necessary products have been missed and no unnecessary products have been included.
user’s quality expectations
This is a statement about the quality expected from the project product, captured in the
project product description.
Quality specifications are stated in product descriptions. These are typically both derived from the
user’s quality expectations are determined by business or operational context aspects.
Operational context could include applicable regulatory requirements or requirements driven by
existing policies and practices.
Quality planning begins with documenting the user’s quality expectations in the process of starting
up a project. These expectations are described in the project product description, an
element of the project brief.
Although the project product description is often written at a high level, it should identify:
● all the major products to be delivered
● user quality expectations and acceptance criteria
● any standards and procedures that will need to be applied, including the extent to which the
business’, user’s, and supplier’s quality management systems should be used
● any measurements that may be useful to assess whether the project product is acceptable
● quality tolerances that may apply to the acceptance criteria.
This coverage is crucial to avoid the introduction of requirements outside the approved scope of the
project in developing product descriptions.
PRINCE2 uses a specific set of terms to characterize information about the needs of project stakeholders
and enable effective quality planning, quality control, and quality assurance.
These terms are:
● user’s quality expectations
● requirements
● acceptance criteria
● quality specifications.
Defining and analysing the products
Defining and analysing products comprises four steps:
For the project plan only, Write a project product description
Create a product breakdown structure
Write product descriptions
Create a product flow diagram
For all levels of plan
Writing the project product description
The project requirements are defined and analysed in two progressive levels of detail.
In the process of starting up a project, the major products or outcomes, along with key quality
requirements are documented in the project product description.
This step aims to confirm that all the major products needed to achieve the user’s expected outcomes are identified. It is important to assess and confirm that no necessary products have been missed and no unnecessary products have been included.
Definition: project product description
A description of the project’s major products or outcomes, including the user’s quality expectations, together with the acceptance criteria and acceptance methods for the project.
It is recommended that high-level acceptance criteria be stated in objectively measurable terms.
However, this may not always be feasible. Therefore, a set of descriptive statements may be used as
long as the project brief indicates that these statements will be translated into more precise
criteria as part of developing the product descriptions.
This is important not only for reaching a common understanding between the project manager and project board but also to enable an effective set of quality tolerances to be established.
Alternative solutions and project approaches may be considered to ensure the approach and
products most likely to satisfy the business case are included in the project scope. They are likely to
be described in high-level detail only.
PRINCE2 7 Quality Expectations explained
The PRINCE2 user’s quality expectations will have a huge impact on the Project Plan as they will influence the choice of solution leading to setting the project timeframe, the project budget, the scope of the project products, the amount of aggregated risk and ultimately the benefit performance targets. These are all eventually set based on quality expectations.
Project quality expectations are typically expressed in broad terms to garner a common understanding amongst the key stakeholders. Still, they are then refined and used to identify more detailed acceptance criteria that should be more specific.
These PRINCE2 quality expectations should be prioritised as this will assist in defining quality tolerances. They should also be reviewed at the end of each PRINCE2 management stage to check whether or not they need to be refined or modified due to external factors. Again, this is helpful when turning the customer’s quality expectations into acceptance criteria.
What is the purpose of PRINCE2 7 User’s Quality Expectations?
- Quality expectations represent the key quality requirements for the PRINCE2 project product
- Quality expectations refer to any standards or processes that must be followed and applied
- Quality expectations explain the use and application of either/or the customer’s or suppliers quality system
- Quality expectations describe any valuable measurements for the attainment of quality requirements (helpful when converting to acceptance criteria)
The PRINCE2 7 Users Quality Expectations:
- Drives the choice of the project solution
- Will influence the project plan time, cost, scope, risk and benefit targets
- User Quality Expectations should be prioritized
- User Quality Expectations should be expressed in broad terms (they are refined in the Acceptance Criteria)
- User quality Expectations should be reviewed at the end of each PRINCE2 management stage
PRINCE2 7 Acceptance Criteria.
The PRINCE2 project’s acceptance criteria should be a complete prioritised list of measurable definitions of the attributes that the PRINCE2 project’s products must have to be acceptable to the key stakeholders. These acceptance criteria may be measured in many aspects, ranging from ease of use, maintenance, significant functions, costs, reliability or even security.
The acceptance methods used to generate the acceptance criteria must be established and agreed upon because they will prove whether and when the PRINCE2 project product has been completed and is acceptable to the customer.
PRINCE2 7 Acceptance Criteria defined.
The customer and supplier must agree on these during the Starting Up a Project PRINCE2 process. During the initiation stage, the acceptance criteria will be refined and included within the project initiation documentation via the Project Product Description.
The acceptance criteria approved during the initiation stage may be new or additional criteria from those contained within the starting up a project version of the PRINCE2 Project Product Description.
Once the PID has been approved, the Acceptance Criteria are under change control, and any requests for change must first be authorized by the PRINCE2 project board.
At the end of the project, once the acceptance criteria have been met, the PRINCE2 project has met its obligations.
PRINCE2 suggests the MoSCoW method of prioritization, Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, or Won’t Have for now. Before the project can be closed, all acceptance criteria must be demonstrated to be met. The acceptance criteria may consist of relevant measurements, even timing (“it must be delivered by the end of 2024” as an example).
The acceptance criteria must be agreed between the customer and supplier during the PRINCE2 Starting Up a Project process and documented within the Project Product Description. The acceptance criteria will likely be further refined during the Initiating a Project process and be reviewed at the end of each management stage.
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