Delivery confirms the promise, scope, acceptance, capacity, access and risks before project start.
Signed work can still start badly.
Sales knows the conversation, objections and promises. Delivery knows the effort, capacity and dependencies. Without joint acceptance, the project begins with questions.
What delivery must confirm
Delivery needs five details before work starts:
- promised outcome and scope
- acceptance criteria and decision maker
- capacity and target date
- technical and organisational dependencies
- risks and first review date
The responsible delivery role accepts the case or records a deviation. A signature alone does not replace this acceptance.
The one-page handoff
| Field | Question |
|---|---|
| Outcome | What should be demonstrably different? |
| Scope | What is included? |
| Exclusion | What is outside scope? |
| Acceptance | Who confirms against which criteria? |
| Inputs | Which access, data and people does the client provide? |
| Exception | What happens when an input is missing? |
Put capacity before the date
A delivery date depends on capacity, dependencies and client response time. Delivery confirms the start and date together. If access is missing, the impact is recorded before work begins.
What returns after completion
After completion, scope changes, missing inputs, recurring objections and recorded effort feed back into the offer, qualification and planning.
The two-week test
Assume the original contact is unavailable for two weeks. Can the team reconstruct promises, files, decisions and next steps without private messages?
If not, the handoff is missing documentation.
The Growth System Stress Test runs founder absence and missing data through the flow.