Stage 3 Exit Criteria

Notice: applying this to your agency.

The IT Project Resources are not meant to replace your agency’s internal project management practices or prescribe how you must operate. Instead, they offer concepts and tools that can strengthen delivery by providing a scalable framework for project level coordination. All project documentation should be maintained throughout each stage in alignment with agency policies and, where applicable, WaTech requirements and oversight expectations.

 

Advancing from Stage 3 into Stage 4 requires confirmation that all technical foundations, environments, and quality controls are fully established to support pre‑implementation planning and readiness activities. By the end of Stage 3, the initiative must demonstrate that the technical ecosystem is prepared, validated, and governed in a way that enables safe, coordinated configuration and testing in later stages.

To exit Stage 3, the project or program should be able to demonstrate:

  • Completed technical preparation, including development and configuration plans aligned with approved requirements and design.
  • Established and validated environments, including development, integration, and testing environments with appropriate access, data structures, and security controls.
  • Documented system and interface integration plans, with confirmed readiness for cross‑system connectivity and data exchange.
  • Approved Test Strategy and Test Quality Assurance Plan, defining test types, quality standards, entry/exit criteria, data needs, roles, and validation methods.
  • Configuration management plan in place, including version control, change tracking, and documentation standards.
  • IV&V, QA, TQR, or oversight partners engaged, with review cycles, checkpoints, and quality expectations established.
  • Executive project management oversight controls activated, ensuring visibility, risk monitoring, and governance alignment during upcoming build and testing activities.
  • Updated RAIDc logs reflecting all technical risks, issues, decisions, dependencies, and changes identified during preparation.
  • Cross‑agency technical alignment for programs with agency‑led sub‑projects, including environment readiness, integration expectations, and shared technical standards.

Completion of these criteria signals that the initiative is ready to enter Stage 4: Pre‑Implementation Planning & Readiness, where detailed planning for deployment, training, data migration, and operational readiness will begin.