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Service Acceptance Criteria

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I have often been asked what value the Service Acceptance Criteria (SAC) provides. Along with other criteria and elements, the SAC forms part of what is described in ITIL as the Service Design Package. With so much emphasis on Design, Development, and Deployment, the SAC's importance grows as we seek to optimize service value. Do you want to increase value for your business and customers? First, let’s understand what the SAC is.

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 service once deployed. This is formalized in an agreement stating the service, process, or deliverable is complete, accurate, reliable, and meets specified requirements.

In the past, SAC has sometimes been considered only at the end of the value stream. High-performing service providers, however, apply methodologies like Lean, Agile, and ITIL improvements to define and evolve the SAC throughout the lifecycle. This aligns with ITIL’s intent.

All design activities are triggered by changes in business needs or service improvements. To deliver IT services that meet those evolving needs, SAC contents should be incorporated early in the design stage. What? Does that mean SAC starts during requirements gathering and evolves during delivery? Yes. This approach helps shift the organization to focus on value from the customer's perspective.

The SAC ensures the Service Provider is ready to deliver the new service by addressing:

  • Has the go-live date been agreed to with all parties?
  • Has the deployment project and schedule been finalized and shared with stakeholders?
  • Have all SLRs/SLAs been reviewed, revised, and agreed upon?
  • Is the Service Catalog/Portfolio updated, with appropriate relationships in the CMS?
  • Have users been identified and their accounts created?
  • Can all SLR/SLA targets be monitored, measured, reported, and reviewed?
  • Can performance and capacity targets be measured and included in the Capacity Plan?
  • Have incident and problem processes been revised for the new service?
  • Has technical documentation been provided to support teams?
  • Have all users been trained, and documentation accepted?
  • Have business managers approved the new service?

Consider how the flow of work, team velocity, and business value could improve by addressing the SAC early. With well-documented SAC in hand, the Service Provider can better meet customer needs, ensure availability, capacity, security, and continuity, and ultimately deliver real value.

For more information, visit ITSM Academy’s All About ITIL page.

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