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Service Acceptance Criteria

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This blog was written in 2010. For the most up-to-date guidance, please read Service Acceptance Criteria published in 2017 and updated in 2025.

I have often been asked what value does the Service Acceptance Criteria (SAC) provide?

First let’s understand what the SAC is by definition.

Service Acceptance Criteria: A set of criteria used to ensure that an IT Service meets its functionality and quality requirements and that the IT Service Provider is ready to operate the new IT Service when it has been deployed. This set of criteria is in the form of a formal agreement that an IT Service, Process, Plan or other deliverable is complete, accurate, reliable and meets the specified requirements.

We must understand that all design activities are triggered by changes in business needs or service improvements. In order to design and deliver IT services that meet the changing needs of the customers and the business, we must ensure that the contents of the Service Acceptance Criteria are incorporated and the required achievements are planned into the initial design.

The Service Acceptance Criteria is the document that will ensure the Service Provider is ready to deliver the new service by answering the following criteria:
  • Has the go live date been agreed to with all parties?
  • Has the deployment project and schedule been agreed to and made public to all stakeholders?
  • Have all SLR/SLA’s been reviewed, revised and agreed to with all stakeholders?
  • Has the Service Catalogue/Portfolio been updated and all appropriate relationships established within the Configuration Management System?
  • Have all users been identified/approved and appropriate accounts created for them?
  • Can all SLR/SLA targets be monitored, measured, reported and reviewed?
  • Can performance and capacity targets be measured and incorporated into the Capacity Plan?
  • Have incident and problem categories and processes been reviewed and revised for the new service?
  • Has appropriate technical support documentation been provided and accepted by Incident, Problem and all IT support teams?
  • Have all users been trained and user documentation been supplied and accepted?
  • Have appropriate business managers signed off acceptance of the new service?
With this documented criteria in hand we can insure that the Service Provider will meet the agreed needs of the customer and the business. It will insure that availability, capacity, security and continuity can be assured and thereby deliver value to the business.




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Comments

Manuel said…
Who its responsible?
November 14, 2012 at 1:38 PM
Professor P. Ross S. Wise said…
The Service Design Manager or process owner for Design Coordination would be responsible.
March 28, 2013 at 8:21 PM
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