TOPIC: Acceptance criteria Vs Success criteria of the project

I know that Project Charter will have the success criteria and approval requirements for the project. Project Scope Statement has the acceptance criteria for the project deliverables.

What is then the difference between acceptance criteria and success criteria? It is very confusing.

Hi Rahul,

success criteria refer to what makes your project successful with respect to a given set of (measurable) project objectives. Did the project meet them?
Acceptance criteria, instead, refer to the conditions a project deliverable has to meet in order to gain acceptance from the customer.

Gabriella

Hi Gabriella,

I understand. But aren't they mostly overlapping?

Rahul

I agree, Don't these two terms mean the same things.
Or can one of the explanation be, you need to have all the deliverables accepted, before you can call the project successful.
So Success criteria is a boarder phrase than acceptance criteria?

Hi Rahul and Jack,

for sure acceptance criteria and success criteria are related to a certain extent. However, the way I see it, they operate at different levels; i.e., deliverable vs. project. So they focus on different aspects; we may say performance vs. requirements.
A project can be successful because it reached a target goal; e.g., improve a given metrics by 50%. This is not something to measure to decide whether the customer will accept a specific deliverable for that project. Instead, you (as the customer) may accept or reject a project deliverable based on the degree it meets the requirements. This is why the "Validate Scope" process derives "Accepted deliverables" as an output from the Requirements Mgmt plan, documentation, and traceability matrix (among other inputs).

Hope this clarifies a bit better the difference between the two.

Gabriella

Thank you, Gabriella.