Deliverable

A deliverable is any tangible, verifiable output the project is required to produce — a document, software system, physical structure, trained workforce, or any other result that can be handed over and accepted. Deliverables define what "done" looks like for a project or a phase, and they are the unit against which scope, schedule, and quality commitments are measured. A project without defined deliverables has no objective basis for determining whether its work is complete.

Internal vs. External Deliverables

External deliverables are handed to the customer, client, or sponsor — the products or results the project was contracted to produce. A completed bridge, an operational software platform, a regulatory submission — these are external deliverables.

Internal deliverables are produced and consumed within the project team — requirements specifications, design documents, test plans, status reports. They are necessary inputs to the work but are not themselves the contractual output. Both types need to be defined in the schedule, but only external deliverables trigger formal acceptance from the customer.

Deliverables and the WBS

The work breakdown structure is organized around deliverables. The highest levels of the WBS represent deliverables; the lower levels decompose those deliverables into the tasks and activities required to produce them. This structure ensures that every task in the project schedule can be traced back to a deliverable, and that every deliverable has tasks that will produce it.

Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance criteria specify how each deliverable will be evaluated and who has the authority to accept it. Without acceptance criteria, a deliverable can be disputed indefinitely — "this isn't what we asked for" — with no objective standard to resolve the disagreement. Defining acceptance criteria alongside deliverables, before work begins, is one of the most effective risk controls in project planning.

Deliverables in Maverick

In Maverick, each top-level WBS node typically represents a deliverable, with subtasks beneath it. Milestones mark the acceptance point — when the deliverable is complete and approved, the milestone is achieved and the next phase of work can begin. Maverick's AI chat can help structure deliverables from a project description, decompose them into tasks, and flag any tasks that cannot be traced back to a defined deliverable.

Related Terms

Project Scope  ·  Work Breakdown Structure  ·  Milestone  ·  Scope Creep  ·  Project Schedule