Acceptance Criteria

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Acceptance Criteria define the conditions that a subject must satisfy for an authorized actor or process to accept it for a specified purpose.

The subject may include:

• An Artifact
• An Infrastructure Configuration
• An Infrastructure Environment
• A Machine Image
• A deployment
• A release
• A test result
• A service
• A transition between Lifecycle states

Acceptance Criteria may specify:

• Required characteristics
• Permitted values
• Prohibited conditions
• Quantitative thresholds
• Required test results
• Required evidence
• Applicable policy conditions
• Required approvals
• Required compliance outcomes

Acceptance Criteria differ from verification procedures:

• Acceptance Criteria define the conditions that must be satisfied
• Verification procedures define how an evaluator determines whether those conditions are satisfied

Acceptance Criteria also differ from requirements:

• A requirement states an obligation
• Acceptance Criteria define the conditions used to determine whether a result is acceptable for a specified purpose

A requirement may incorporate or reference Acceptance Criteria.

criteria that define the conditions a subject must satisfy for acceptance for a specified purpose

Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.

Acceptance Criteria should be:

• Specific
• Observable
• Measurable when measurement is applicable
• Testable
• Traceable to the applicable requirement, policy, or decision authority

Satisfaction of Acceptance Criteria establishes acceptance only for the specified purpose and context.

Acceptance does not necessarily establish that the subject is approved for release, authorized for deployment, compliant with every applicable policy, or suitable for another purpose.

Acceptance Criteria for an Infrastructure Environment require the environment to contain the specified compute, storage, and network resources, satisfy the applicable security settings, and pass the identified connectivity tests.