Defining Acceptance Criteria and Sign-Off Gates

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Sign-off gate card

• Define "done" before testing: acceptance criteria approved by the process owner.
• Write criteria as given / when / then with an observable "then": document, status, posting, block, output.
• Cover happy path, key variants, negative cases, controls, integration and performance.
• Each phase has entry and exit criteria; make them numeric or binary and enforce entry.
• Agree one severity scale: critical, high, medium, low.
• Evidence standard: document flow + journal entries for financial scenarios; proof the control fired for controls.
• Every scenario: ID, tester, date, system, client, data, document numbers, expected vs actual.
• Open defects: classify by impact and likelihood; defer only with tested workaround, owners and a fix date.
• Never downgrade severity to pass a gate.
• One-page record: scope, criteria, results, open defects, conditions, evidence links, decision, signature.