Want to make sure you complete your project as early as possible? Define release criteria. Release criteria are the few critically important objective criteria that define what “done” means for your project. Sometimes, it’s a combination of date, defects, and feature completion. Sometimes it’s just the date. The formula for defining release criteria is:

1. Define project success.
2. Define what’s critically important that this project accomplish.
3. Draft release criteria that are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Trackable.
4. Gain Consensus on the criteria from management and the project team.
5. Manage the project to the criteria.

Easy to describe, not always easy to do. Read more about release criteria here. For ideas about what to consider measuring, remember the six sides of the project.