Developer Success Criteria

A developer quickstart is useful only when you can tell whether it actually succeeded.

Minimum success criteria

A walkthrough is successful when you can identify:

Input — the exact artifact, state, or source material used.
Boundary — what is and is not being verified.
Evidence — material retained for inspection or independent review.
Integrity identity — the hash, signature, or other explicit identity.
Reproduction method — the command, replay, reconstruction, or deterministic procedure used to repeat the check.
Outcome — an explicit verification result rather than implied success.
Failure behavior — failed or incomplete verification remains visible.

Stronger success criteria

A stronger workflow lets another person receive the artifact, inspect preserved inputs, repeat verification independently, compare the result, and determine why it passed, failed, or remained incomplete.

What does not count as verification by itself

a green UI indicator without inspectable evidence;
a log line that cannot be tied to the exact artifact;
an integrity hash without a defined verification boundary;
replay that depends on hidden or mutable inputs;
a generated report that overwrites the original result;
a successful exit code without an explicit result model.

Next: Choose Your Developer Path.