Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
Acceptance Directive
5.1
Justification
From the discussion so far it is obvious that various interested parties take part in
test and acceptance procedures. The more important partners are:
Supplier (and his development department as well as his internal quality assur-
ance team)
Customer
Project management.
On the customer side:
Business units
IT organisation.
Regarding the overall project organisation IT quality management is the most
important sub-project, but other players include:
Request management
Change management
IT security and others.
It has proven useful not only to regularise the different interests and responsi-
bilities for software acceptance by contract but—based on practical experience—to
summarise them also in another common document: an Acceptance Directive. This
directive should be tailored to the specific acceptance scenario and can always be
referred to in cases of conflict. Its most important advantage is that right from the
beginning of the process the roles for all participants are clearly defined. These
preliminary clarifications and their successive codification in a directive will save
many frictional losses and later clarification discussions. The directive can serve
furthermore as a blueprint for future acceptance tests and can be adjusted
accordingly.
