Define acceptance criteria at the start and get the person who signs off to agree them in writing. Done means the deliverable meets those criteria, it has been handed to whoever owns it in production, documentation and training exist, and the support arrangement is live. Projects drag because acceptance is left to opinion, so name the tests and the approver up front.
Why interviewers ask this
The long tail at the end of a project is a classic failure, and this question checks whether you close things or let them fade out. Interviewers want acceptance criteria agreed early with a named approver, and a definition of done that includes handover and support rather than stopping at the build. Anyone who has been stuck in a six week drip of small requests after go live will mention it, and that story lands well.
How to structure your answer
- Agree acceptance criteria at the start, in writing.
- Name the single approver who signs off.
- Include handover, documentation, and live support in done.
- Put the criteria and the approver somewhere visible in the plan.
Example answer
I make acceptance criteria a deliverable in their own right at the start, and I get the person who will sign off to agree them in writing, because otherwise done is whatever their opinion is on the day. So we name the tests, the performance thresholds where there are any, the documentation, and the training. And done for me is broader than working software. It includes handover to whoever runs it, the support arrangement being live, and the sponsor formally accepting. On one project we shipped what everyone agreed was working, then spent six weeks in a slow drip of small requests because nobody had defined the end, and the team was never released to the next thing. After that I started putting the acceptance criteria and the name of the approver on the front page of the plan, so there was no ambiguity about who decides and against what.
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See how it worksFollow-up questions to expect
- What do you do when the approver keeps adding conditions at sign off?
- How do you handle known defects at go live?
- Who owns quality on your projects, you or the delivery team?
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