Milestone: Product Release

At the end of the transition phase is the fourth important project milestone, the Product Release Milestone. At this point, you decide if the objectives were met, and if you should start another development cycle. In some cases this milestone may coincide with the end of the inception phase for the next cycle. The Product Release Milestone is the result of successful completion of the Activity: Project Acceptance Review.

Evaluation Criteria

The primary evaluation criteria for the transition phase involve the answers to these questions:

At the Product Release Milestone, the product is in production and the post-release maintenance cycle begins. This may involve starting a new cycle, or some additional maintenance release.

Artifacts

Essential Artifacts (in order of importance)	State at milestone
The Product Build	Complete in accordance with the product requirements. The final product should be useable by the customer.
Release Notes	Complete.
Installation Artifacts	Complete.
Training Material	Complete to ensure that the customer can become self-sufficient in the use and maintenance of the product.
End-User Support Material	Complete to ensure that the customer can become self-sufficient in the use and maintenance of the product.
Optional Artifacts	State at milestone
Test Suite ("smoke test")	The test suite developed to validate the stability of each build may be provided in the situation where the customer wants to execute a basic level of on-site testing.
'Shrinkwrap' Product Packaging	In the case of creating a shrinkwrap product, the contractor will need the necessary packaging artifacts to help retail the product.