The PRINCE2 user’s quality expectations and acceptance criteria are gathered during a 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 critical quality requirements for the project product, standards and processes that will need to be applied, and any valuable 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 or ‘just sufficient’ is needed. 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 the purpose) and not buy luxury items. This would be an example of appropriate expectations (customer’s quality expectation) and an acceptable standard (acceptance criteria) if you and I were to take out a lease on the above apartment.
PRINCE2 7 Users Quality Expectations explained
The PRINCE2 user’s quality expectations will considerably impact the Project Plan as they will influence the choice of solution leading to setting the project timeframes, 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 usually expressed broadly to garner a common understanding among key stakeholders. Still, they are refined and used to identify more detailed acceptance criteria, which should be more precise.
These PRINCE2 quality expectations should be prioritized 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 User’s Quality Expectations?
- Quality expectations represent the critical quality requirements for the PRINCE2 project product.
- Quality expectations refer to standards or processes that must be followed and applied.
- Quality expectations explain the use and application of either/or the customer’s or supplier’s quality system.
- Quality expectations describe any valuable measurements for the attainment of quality requirements (helpful when converting to acceptance criteria)
The PRINCE2 User’s 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’s Quality Expectations should be expressed in broad terms (they are refined in the Acceptance Criteria)
- Users Quality Expectations should be reviewed at the end of each PRINCE2 management stage
PRINCE2 Acceptance Criteria
The PRINCE2 project’s acceptance criteria should be a complete prioritized list of measurable definitions of the attributes 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 Acceptance Criteria defined
These must be agreed upon between the customer and supplier 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 project version of the PRINCE2 Project Product Description.
Once the PID has been approved, the Acceptance Criteria are under change control, and the PRINCE2 project board must first authorize any change requests.
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 upon 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.
For more information on user’s quality expectations and acceptance criteria:
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