Friday 22 April 2022

Criteria for acceptance of the project

 



 

Result orientation is an important control of any project. A special role here is given to meeting the requirements of the customer or the final consumer of the product. That is why attention is focused on determining the needs of the client and developing ways to meet them.


Key indicators of project acceptance


List of problems to be solved; Identification of risks, exclusion of accidents; Resource consumption - no more than the established limit (not higher than 80% of the limit level); The system of indicators on the basis of which the project should be adopted, the establishment of threshold, critical values.
 

Rationale for the project


In parallel with the formation of criteria for the acceptance of the project, a feasibility study is being drawn up. Describes who the results of the new concept are intended for. Indicate the customer's problems and ways to solve them. Particular attention is paid to the assessment of the economic effect.
 

Criteria for acceptance of the project


Before the contractor proceeds to the development of the project, the customer forms a technical task (TK) and criteria for the acceptance of work. The Project Content also indicates ways to achieve the desired result.


Management and control over the development and implementation of design work is carried out at all stages of the life cycle. The more detailed the items of the Project Content, the easier it is to find out whether it is completed and to what extent it meets the requirements of the customer.


Key indicators of project acceptance


It is known that there are no exactly the same projects (each project is unique). But managers have developed internal principles that determine the success of any project.
 

Among them are:


•    formulation of the list of problems to be solved;
•    identification of risks, exclusion of accidents;
•    resource consumption - no more than the established limit (not higher than 80% of the limit level);
•    compliance of the qualifications of team members with the established;
•    selection of project participants taking into account their personal interest.
 

Before launching a project, make sure that the strategy developed corresponds to the allocated budget, deadlines and content. To do this, use PCTS-analysis, on the basis of which P (performance), C (cost), 

T (time), S (scope) are determined. In this case, costs are a function of the execution level P, time T and content S.
 
A system of indicators is being developed, on the basis of which the draft should be adopted. Managers define threshold, critical values.


How to understand that the result meets expectations?


The development of criteria for the acceptance of the project is a real art, because the task of the manager is to clearly indicate the expected results. The degree of uncertainty at this stage is too high.
The manager will have to negotiate here and now, before the work has begun. He should think over criteria that would be convenient to use and unambiguous (not cause discrepancies).
 
For example, for the element "Trained accountant working with debtors" as a criterion for acceptance, the ability to perform the following operations is determined: entering the reconciliation act, confirming the account, etc., independently within 1 minute.


Quantitative criteria for the acceptance of the project


Acceptance criteria should be indicated by numerical values. They are determined during the results of acceptance tests or testing of the system at the enterprise. The formed criteria should unambiguously correspond to the set goals.
 
Here is an example of the criteria obtained during the trial operation of the order processing system. The following quantitative indicators shall be established:


  • processing of one order – 4 people per hour;
  • The term of routine processing of the order is no more than 2 weeks;
  • Search and provision of additional information on request – 1 min.;
  • The time of providing information about the completed order and the processing history is a maximum of 2 minutes;
  • The indicator of the availability of the system that stores information about completed orders and the history of their processing is 98%.

 

If the finished product is a material object, for example, a bridge, the criterion for its acceptance is the carrying capacity and technical documentation.


Criteria for assessing the success of the project


Each manager should be aware that any project must be completed within the agreed time in accordance with the established requirements. An important role is played by the correspondence of the money spent to the allocated budget. What are the criteria for the success of the project? Let's look at the following examples.
 
Example 1. Conference project


The success of the project will be measured by the ratio of real conference attendees to the declared number of participants. If 300 delegates participate in the conference, and 285 have applied, then the success rate of the project will be 95%, which is regarded positively.
 

Example 2. New Product Release Project


The indicator of effectiveness in this case can be considered the profitability of sales of a new product. The company's revenue from the sale of a new product is 300 thousand dollars, net profit is 60 thousand dollars. 

Profitability of sales — 60*100%/300=20%.


During the project preparation phase, a dedicated planning team consults with the company's employees or working group. Project participants assist in the compilation of a list of success criteria against which performance measurements are made. During the project planning process, these criteria are likely to be revised.


Define project boundaries and deviations


In addition to setting goals and objectives at the planning stage of the project, its boundaries are determined - what the team should not do during implementation. All these points are designated and strictly documented. For example, in the project of promoting an online store, one of the tasks is to train the owner in an independent analytical study. Since the training will take place online, the project team's business trips are outside the project boundary.
 
In the project, sometimes there are deviations in 2 components:


•    The quality of the final product.
•    Deadlines.
 

It is unacceptable to reject the deadlines of the project. That is why the delay of individual stages is compensated by the time spent on performing other tasks.
 
The final result should correspond to the functionality prescribed in the TK. Since it is possible to adjust the methods of implementing a particular function, changes in quality occur.


Rationale for the project


In parallel with the formation of criteria for the acceptance of the project, a feasibility study is being drawn up. Describes who the results of the new concept are intended for. Indicate the customer's problems and ways to solve them. Particular attention is paid to the assessment of the economic effect.
For example, to promote an online store during the justification of the project, the expected conversion is determined (for example, an increase in the number of active actions on the site by 20%). They calculate the savings from the implementation of the program. If the income is more than 1.5 times higher than the expenses, then the financial value of the project is higher than the average.
 


Applicability of project acceptance criteria


Thus, the list of criteria for the acceptance of the project is developed at the planning stage. They form not only qualitative, but quantitative indicators of performance assessment. These include: savings from the introduction of innovations, profitability, % increase in conversion, reduction of time for processing one order, etc. In the process of acceptance of the project, it is determined whether the quantitative indicators meet the stated criteria.


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