# Acceptance criteria: what "done" means > "Good lessons" is a wish nobody can accept. Write checks a named person can run, agree them before the work starts, and say what happens when one fails. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: Scope: what is in and what is out - Lesson 6/32, ~23 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/acceptance-criteria ## Done according to whom? **Alex Tutor:** The deliverable list is up, with owners and effort ranges. Each line still needs one thing: what "done" means, and who says so. **Leo:** For the curriculum, write "good lessons". We all know what good means. **Vira:** I know what I mean by good. The freelance authors don't, and neither will the person who checks their work in December. **Alex Tutor:** That's the deliverable nobody can accept. "Good lessons" is a wish: the authors can't aim at it, and nobody can say no to it without a fight. **Alex Tutor:** **Acceptance criteria** are checkable conditions, agreed before the work starts, that one deliverable must meet. And a named person runs the check. **Sofia:** Named by whom? The author knows the work best. **Alex Tutor:** Not the author. The person who will rely on it, or the expert who can judge it. For the curriculum and practice sets, that's Vira. > **Exercise:** Which line is an **acceptance criterion** for the mechanics unit, not a wish? **Alex Tutor:** Criteria need a name next to them. Whose? > **Exercise:** Danylo builds the physics landing page. Who is the best person to accept it? ## Turn each word into a check **Vira:** A good practice set is correct, at exam level and has answers. That's what I need. **Alex Tutor:** Then turn each word into a check. Take "correct": how would you check three hundred tasks? **Vira:** I can't solve them all. I can solve a random sample myself and compare with the authors' answers. **Alex Tutor:** Write exactly that: a set is accepted when Vira solves a random sample of 20 tasks and finds no factual errors, and every task has an answer and an exam topic. **Danylo:** And if she finds one error in twenty? **Alex Tutor:** Then one error is a sign of more. The set goes back, the author rechecks all of it, and Vira takes a new sample. Agree that now, too. > **Exercise:** Which conditions for accepting a practice set can Vira actually **check**? Select all that apply. **Alex Tutor:** Put Vira's steps in order, from the word to the rule. > **Exercise:** Put the steps in order to turn Vira's word “correct” into an acceptance criterion. ## A test that places learners **Danylo:** My diagnostic test then. Criterion: "works and is accurate". **Alex Tutor:** "Works" needs devices and a result you can see. "Accurate" needs something to compare with. Who knows a learner's real level? **Vira:** I do, after a twenty-minute talk with the learner. **Alex Tutor:** Then: the test places three pilot learners at the same level Vira finds on her own, it runs on a phone and a laptop, and every result is saved. **Sofia:** Three learners is hardly proof. **Alex Tutor:** It isn't, and it shouldn't pretend to be. It's a smoke check that catches a broken test before launch. Whether placement is right shows in the February data; write that limit down. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** if the diagnostic test places all three pilot learners at the level Vira finds, that proves the test places learners accurately. ## Criteria and the definition of done **Danylo:** My team already has a checklist for everything we ship: code reviewed, tested, released. Isn't that the same? **Alex Tutor:** That's a **definition of done**: one checklist for every piece of work. Acceptance criteria belong to one deliverable: what this landing page must do for families. **Sofia:** Then for the landing page: it shows the 8, 16 and 32-lesson packages with prices, it books a physics lesson end to end, and it works on a phone. I accept it. **Alex Tutor:** Good, and you're a fair acceptor because you didn't build it. Add how you'll check: a test purchase on a phone. > **Exercise:** Match each line with what it is. ## Agree before, decide when it fails **Alex Tutor:** When to agree criteria? Before the work starts. Criteria written after delivery tend to describe whatever was delivered. **Vira:** The authors may say a sample of 20 is too strict. **Alex Tutor:** Then let them argue now. Criteria agreed in October are a shared target; in January they are a fight. **Alex Tutor:** Timing matters as much as wording. Check it. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** it's safer to write acceptance criteria after a deliverable arrives, when you can see what it actually looks like. **Vira:** Let's try it on a bad day: practice set 2 arrives late, and my sample finds two errors. **Danylo:** Three days before launch, everyone will want to just fix those two. > **Exercise:** Three days before launch, Vira's sample of 20 tasks from practice set 2 finds two factual errors. What do you do? **Leo:** And if something fails a criterion a week before launch? **Alex Tutor:** Then you decide with the criterion in front of you: fix it, cut it, or accept it with a written exception Leo signs. What you don't do is quietly lower the bar. **Alex Tutor:** Now write criteria for one more deliverable: Roman's tutor onboarding. > **Exercise:** Write acceptance criteria for **tutor onboarding** (Roman's deliverable): two or three conditions someone can check, how each is checked, and who accepts. **Sofia:** So every line of the list gets two or three checks and one name. **Alex Tutor:** And a way to check: a sample, a test purchase, a pilot. A check without a way to run it is still a wish. > **Key ideas** > > - "Good lessons" is a wish. **Acceptance criteria** are checkable conditions for one deliverable, agreed before the work starts. > - A named person accepts: the expert or the user, not the author or builder. > - Turn each vague word into a check with a method: a sample of 20 tasks with no factual errors, three pilot learners placed as Vira places them, a test purchase on a phone. > - A small check is a smoke test, not proof; write its limit down. > - The **definition of done** applies to all work; acceptance criteria to one deliverable. > - When a criterion fails: fix, cut, or a signed exception. Never a quietly lowered bar. **Alex Tutor:** Next: the list is longer than the time. We sort it into must, should and could, and cut scope instead of the date. - Previous lesson: [Break the work down from deliverables](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/break-the-work-down.md) - Next lesson: [Must, should, could: cut scope, not the date](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/must-should-could.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.