Acceptance of another person can refer to many things. For instance, it can mean accepting responsibility for another person. It can also mean acknowledging the existence or importance of another. However, accepting someone as a lover or as a friend would probably be the most common usage of the word. The definition of Acceptance in Love defines it as: "To agree with another and give him or her room to function as a person."
Acceptance can take many forms. For instance, in love, an individual or couple might choose to accept responsibility for another's feelings and actions. Another way to state Acceptance is "to accord (another) some measure of his or her uniqueness or personal worth." Acceptance in marriage could involve deciding whether or not each spouse is capable of understanding the needs, desires, or feelings of the other. It may also be a decision as to whether or not each spouse is capable of love.
Acceptance is often seen as a very individualistic concept. While some people have very high standards for who they will accept into their homes, some people have very low standards and prefer to hire only the most compatible people into their lives. There are even people who define acceptance in terms of specific actions, like writing acceptance criteria for potential employees or students. These people will evaluate applicants on various criteria that relate to suitability for employment. This is a rather vague definition, but it does represent what we generally understand by acceptance.
Acceptance also has a psychological component. When an individual decides to accept another, they feel a sense of integration. They feel that they have control over the situation and that their decisions will have ramifications for both people involved. In more scientific terms, acceptance can also be defined as the extent to which one sees an outcome or functionality from a relationship.
Acceptance can be defined as the ability to work with change. One of the primary goals of an agile development team is the ability to adopt change. The ability to work with change is necessary because no software product, even a well-written software product with excellent acceptance criteria, is ever going to please everyone. Everyone has something to say. Because everyone has something to say, those that enter a change process are going to be those that get the most benefit from the change and the strongest feelings about accepting it.
Change is inevitable in all endeavors. Change happens to every project in all organizations, not just software development teams. Each change will cause people to say and do things that will have long lasting consequences. Change is something that is always necessary. While developers can and should work within existing acceptance criteria, the development teams have a responsibility to the customer to actively encourage and accept changes so that the end product meets the needs and expectations of those that purchased it.
Acceptance is one of the most important aspects of project acceptance criteria. A successful team will have a high level of acceptance criteria so that they can be sure they are implementing the best practices for their projects. These criteria must make sure that every aspect of the development process is being covered and that the customer's expectations are being met. These requirements must be detailed enough so that the developers can explain them clearly and offer multiple examples of how each sub-area of the functionality is being handled. When the team is developing new functionality or improving on an existing one, these requirements must be considered in depth so that the functionality fits with the requirements and can continue to meet the goals of the project.
There are many things to consider when defining acceptance criteria. For information gathering purposes, I have always advised that the development teams go out and interview some of the end-users that will be using the software. By having these individuals on the team, the developers have a better chance of finding problems in the functionality that may not be immediately evident to the client. Additionally, this step allows the development teams to solicit questions from the clients and get input from these individuals on what they are looking for in their software. Through documentation, the development teams can show their clients exactly what they need to do and why to get those tasks done in order to meet the expectations of their customers.