Software Project Acceptance Checklist

Software project acceptance is the evidence that an agreed release is usable, secure enough for its scope, connected to the right systems, and ready for the business to own. It should be based on written outcomes and test cases rather than a final demo alone.

Confirm scope and acceptance criteria

Review the approved requirements, page or feature list, user roles, workflows, integrations, data, exclusions, and known limitations. For each requirement, identify the expected result and who accepts it.

New requests discovered during acceptance should be documented and estimated rather than silently folded into the release.

Test core user journeys

Run the workflows from the user's point of view: sign in, create a record, search, edit, approve, upload, pay, book, send, export, cancel, and recover. Test both normal and meaningful failure paths.

Check data and integrations

• Records have the correct identifiers and relationships.
• Required fields, statuses, and ownership behave as agreed.
• External systems receive and return the expected fields.
• Retries do not create duplicates.
• Failures are logged, visible, and recoverable.
• Reports use the agreed definitions.

See the API integration checklist for a field and failure review.

Test roles and security boundaries

Test each role's view, edit, approve, export, and administration rights. Try direct URLs, API requests, expired sessions, disabled users, changed roles, and unauthorized records.

Confirm secrets are not exposed, uploads are protected, logs do not contain unnecessary private data, and production access belongs to the business.

Review responsive and accessibility behavior

Test target screens, keyboard navigation, labels, focus, contrast, headings, errors, zoom, mobile actions, and screen-reader meaning where possible. A workflow is not accepted if a user cannot complete it with the supported access needs.

Check performance and reliability

Measure important pages and operations with realistic data, images, integrations, and concurrent use. Check slow queries, queues, timeouts, scheduled jobs, provider failures, backup, restore, and deployment rollback.

Review content and configuration

Verify names, labels, prices, policies, notifications, email templates, hours, help text, links, metadata, and business rules. A technically correct system can still be wrong for the customer if the configuration is outdated.

Complete handoff

Collect source access, deployment instructions, environment details, schema, field map, runbook, backups, monitoring, vendor contacts, support terms, training, and known limitations. Confirm the business owns or can access code, domain, accounts, and data.

Sign off with evidence

Record test, result, screenshot or reference, defect, owner, severity, fix, retest, and acceptance decision. Keep the list after launch as the regression suite for future changes.

Acceptance is not about claiming the software has no imperfections. It is about knowing what the release does, what remains, who owns it, and how the business can operate it safely.