How do you sign off on software project phases?

When dealing with Sign-off it is crucial to target the right stakeholders to Sign-off the project deliverables or phase, by doing so, you ensure that you're getting the right validation, from the right person, and this could prevent future discussions or conflicts. Identify your authorized client's approver since the beginning of the project, so the sign-off process can run smoothly.

The requirements should be as detailed and measurable as possible. And we should communicate directly with the relevant stakeholders and make sure they, especially the decision maker, understand the requirements.

Apart from the regular rigmarole of Project Charter tracking, documenting, multiple stakeholder meetings for sign offs, the confidence exuded by Dev, Testing, Infra & Architects. It comes down to the number of iterations the product has been put to various types of test, showcases to the client & successful MVP's delivered. Healthy reduction of Product backlogs over a period of time, average velocity, burn down/burn up comparisons to assimilate if the Scrum team(Agile Delivery) have deviated largely from the deliverable time lines. The Project Manager(Scrum Master) would greatly benefit from these data points & ensure the Client strategy objectives are being met for ROI. The cost to deliver & the subsequent revenue realization is vital too.

We've found it very helpful to remind stakeholders of where this sign off fits in the overall project at signing, whether it's a simple 3 of 6 or stating what the phase was before and after this milestone in more detail.

Sign-off meetings should be part of the project plan, not supplementary to it. In this way, clients know when to expect the sign-off meetings to take place, plan for them, and allow the time needed for feedback and deliberation. Don't try and make it all happen in a day.

Besides the agenda, one small thing that should be taken into consideration is the timely manner. In-time manner show your respect to the client and the project.

Sign-off can also be documented via email rather than keeping a separate document. Sometimes the stakeholder does not have that much time and becomes irritated because the sign-off document requires so much information from them. Simply put, the project manager can request an acknowledgement email stating that the customer is satisfied with the way the phase was shaped and is ready to move on to the next phase.

Agree with Ishtdeep here but want to add in that expectations are everything. Even if you have a very robust sign off document, it won't matter if the stakeholder is not expecting it. Often setting these expectations very early on, in SOW documents can afford a more lax (email) approval.

I've found it very helpful to try and better understand the stakeholders desired level of detail or technical abilities early on. Some have liked to get very technical, while others would not like to know "what's in the sausage". We try to tailor our language (to a degree) for them to make things smoother overall.

It's also important for clients to understand the impact of not signing off at a project stage i.e. delays further down the line. This is not to strong arm them into signing-off, but instead make sure they're prepared for and understand what to expect at each sign-off point, before it happens (if possible at the project outset).

Also pay attention to the outfits in meetings with the clients. It should simple but polite enough. The first impression is very important.