Acceptance Criteria Contracts

Acceptance Criteria
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Acceptance Criteria skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Acceptance Criteria over the 6 months to 2 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
2 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 240 220 210
Rank change year-on-year -20 -10 +43
Contract jobs citing Acceptance Criteria 421 661 1,204
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.98% 1.17% 1.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.14% 1.31% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 299 468 761
10th Percentile £363 £400 £380
25th Percentile £418 £456 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.18% +10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £605 £588
90th Percentile £625 £650 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £545 £475
% change year-on-year -10.09% +14.74% +7.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 7 27
10th Percentile £28.13 £49.15 £42.00
25th Percentile £31.71 £55.75 £45.00
Median hourly rate £33.00 £60.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.00% - +106.90%
75th Percentile £64.38 £67.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £65.40 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £55.25 £63.25
% change year-on-year +13.12% -12.65% +134.43%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Acceptance Criteria is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 36,816 50,571 79,556
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.44% 89.70% 90.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,638 35,025 55,934
10th Percentile £300 £325 £348
25th Percentile £413 £438 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £644
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.56% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,533 1,671 1,865
10th Percentile £12.75 £10.63 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.57 £15.63
Median hourly rate £36.50 £36.00 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +1.39% +40.19% +9.70%
75th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.12 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +8.91% +75.00% -4.88%

Acceptance Criteria
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Acceptance Criteria as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Acceptance Criteria.

Daily rate trend for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Acceptance Criteria over the 6 months to 2 June 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Acceptance Criteria.

Hourly rate trend for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Acceptance Criteria over the 6 months to 2 June 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Acceptance Criteria within the UK over the 6 months to 2 June 2024. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England 0 373 £510 -7.27% 119
London +43 229 £532 -5.30% 36
Work from Home -2 161 £500 -8.93% 43
UK excluding London -49 151 £490 -10.09% 95
South East -25 40 £475 -9.52% 17
North of England -1 38 £490 -3.92% 22
South West -3 35 £550 -2.65% 15
Yorkshire +31 30 £490 -12.89% 4
Scotland +31 17 £463 -11.90% 15
East of England +2 12 £375 -25.00% 12
Midlands -7 9 £466 -13.26% 12
North West -22 7 £481 -3.70% 14
West Midlands -16 6 £454 -19.33% 9
East Midlands +9 3 £500 +35.14% 3
North East +8 1 - - 4

Acceptance Criteria
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 31 (7.36%) Confluence
2 6 (1.43%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (0.71%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.71%) CMS
4 3 (0.71%) Drupal
5 2 (0.48%) LiveLink
5 2 (0.48%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.24%) Alfresco
6 1 (0.24%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.24%) Camunda
6 1 (0.24%) IIS
6 1 (0.24%) Joomla!
6 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.24%) WordPress
Applications
1 7 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
1 7 (1.66%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.71%) Trello
4 1 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (2.85%) Aligne
2 10 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (2.14%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (1.43%) SAP PM
5 5 (1.19%) SimCorp Dimension
6 4 (0.95%) Shopify
7 3 (0.71%) SAP Hybris
8 2 (0.48%) VisionPLUS
9 1 (0.24%) Advent Geneva
9 1 (0.24%) Endur
9 1 (0.24%) FIS Private Capital Suite
9 1 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
9 1 (0.24%) SAP APO
9 1 (0.24%) SAP IBP
9 1 (0.24%) SAP MM
9 1 (0.24%) Softmar
9 1 (0.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 71 (16.86%) Azure
2 40 (9.50%) Azure DevOps
3 25 (5.94%) Dynamics 365
4 23 (5.46%) Power Platform
5 18 (4.28%) AWS
6 13 (3.09%) Power Automate
7 7 (1.66%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (1.66%) Miro
7 7 (1.66%) SaaS
8 6 (1.43%) PowerApps
9 4 (0.95%) BigCommerce
9 4 (0.95%) PaaS
9 4 (0.95%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 3 (0.71%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (0.71%) Azure Service Bus
11 2 (0.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 2 (0.48%) Entra ID
11 2 (0.48%) Figma
11 2 (0.48%) GCP
11 2 (0.48%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.14%) SSH
2 3 (0.71%) DNS
3 2 (0.48%) DHCP
3 2 (0.48%) Firewall
3 2 (0.48%) HTTP
3 2 (0.48%) Network Security
3 2 (0.48%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.24%) FTP
4 1 (0.24%) PuTTY
4 1 (0.24%) SMS
4 1 (0.24%) SSL
4 1 (0.24%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (4.04%) Power BI
2 10 (2.38%) NoSQL
3 9 (2.14%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (1.90%) Data Lake
5 7 (1.66%) SQL Server
6 6 (1.43%) GIS
7 5 (1.19%) Geospatial Data
8 4 (0.95%) Apache Cassandra
8 4 (0.95%) MySQL
8 4 (0.95%) Redis
8 4 (0.95%) SAP HANA
8 4 (0.95%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 4 (0.95%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (0.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.48%) Big Data
9 2 (0.48%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.48%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.48%) SAP BW
9 2 (0.48%) Tableau
10 1 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 56 (13.30%) JIRA
2 18 (4.28%) Postman
3 17 (4.04%) Selenium
4 16 (3.80%) JUnit
5 12 (2.85%) SoapUI
6 10 (2.38%) Cucumber
7 9 (2.14%) JMeter
8 7 (1.66%) Visual Studio
8 7 (1.66%) WebDriver
9 6 (1.43%) Git
9 6 (1.43%) LoadRunner
10 5 (1.19%) Appium
10 5 (1.19%) Gatling
11 4 (0.95%) Mockito
11 4 (0.95%) Rational Performance Tester
11 4 (0.95%) ScalaTest
12 2 (0.48%) Jenkins
12 2 (0.48%) Rational DOORS
12 2 (0.48%) SpecFlow
12 2 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 146 (34.68%) Social Skills
2 99 (23.52%) Finance
3 75 (17.81%) Analytical Skills
4 44 (10.45%) Public Sector
5 30 (7.13%) Presentation Skills
6 21 (4.99%) Back Office
7 19 (4.51%) Banking
8 11 (2.61%) Telecoms
9 10 (2.38%) Retail
10 9 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (2.14%) Investment Banking
11 7 (1.66%) Front Office
11 7 (1.66%) Games
11 7 (1.66%) Marketing
12 6 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (1.19%) German Language
13 5 (1.19%) Legal
13 5 (1.19%) Manufacturing
13 5 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.71%) Law
Job Titles
1 177 (42.04%) Analyst
2 134 (31.83%) Business Analyst
3 70 (16.63%) Senior
4 37 (8.79%) Senior Analyst
5 33 (7.84%) Product Owner
6 30 (7.13%) Developer
7 28 (6.65%) Technical Analyst
8 23 (5.46%) Consultant
8 23 (5.46%) Project Manager
8 23 (5.46%) Senior Business Analyst
8 23 (5.46%) Service Manager
9 21 (4.99%) Service Transition Manager
9 21 (4.99%) Transition Manager
10 20 (4.75%) Technical Business Analyst
11 18 (4.28%) Tester
12 16 (3.80%) Test Analyst
13 15 (3.56%) Lead
14 12 (2.85%) Agile Business Analyst
14 12 (2.85%) Test Leader
15 10 (2.38%) Financial Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.51%) SOAP
2 16 (3.80%) Web Services
3 15 (3.56%) REST
3 15 (3.56%) XML
4 13 (3.09%) Hibernate
4 13 (3.09%) JPA
4 13 (3.09%) Spring
5 12 (2.85%) JSON
6 9 (2.14%) J2EE
7 8 (1.90%) Gherkin
8 7 (1.66%) RESTful
9 6 (1.43%) .NET
9 6 (1.43%) ADO
9 6 (1.43%) Swagger
10 5 (1.19%) Akka
10 5 (1.19%) OpenAPI
11 4 (0.95%) HTML
11 4 (0.95%) Play Framework
11 4 (0.95%) SAP PI
11 4 (0.95%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 93 (22.09%) Product Ownership
2 23 (5.46%) Management Information System
3 22 (5.23%) Mobile App
4 10 (2.38%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 9 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.14%) Linux Command Line
5 9 (2.14%) Renewable Energy
5 9 (2.14%) Solar Panel
6 8 (1.90%) Onboarding
7 7 (1.66%) Algorithms
8 5 (1.19%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.19%) Derivative
8 5 (1.19%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.19%) Security Posture
8 5 (1.19%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 4 (0.95%) Low-Code
10 3 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.71%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.48%) Freedom of Information Act
11 2 (0.48%) Online Banking
Operating Systems
1 22 (5.23%) Linux
2 13 (3.09%) Unix
3 9 (2.14%) Windows
4 7 (1.66%) Android
5 2 (0.48%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.24%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 260 (61.76%) Agile
2 223 (52.97%) User Stories
3 101 (23.99%) Scrum
4 96 (22.80%) Business Analysis
5 83 (19.71%) Problem-Solving
6 68 (16.15%) DevOps
7 62 (14.73%) User Acceptance Testing
8 57 (13.54%) Test Automation
9 45 (10.69%) Requirements Gathering
9 45 (10.69%) Workshop Facilitation
10 42 (9.98%) Epics
10 42 (9.98%) Project Management
11 41 (9.74%) Product Backlog
12 38 (9.03%) Test Scripting
13 37 (8.79%) SDLC
14 36 (8.55%) Sprint Planning
14 36 (8.55%) Stakeholder Management
14 36 (8.55%) Test Strategy
14 36 (8.55%) Translating Business Requirements
15 35 (8.31%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 38 (9.03%) SQL
2 34 (8.08%) Java
3 16 (3.80%) Python
4 11 (2.61%) C#
5 8 (1.90%) C
6 6 (1.43%) C++
6 6 (1.43%) JavaScript
6 6 (1.43%) Kotlin
6 6 (1.43%) Perl
6 6 (1.43%) Scala
6 6 (1.43%) VB
7 5 (1.19%) T-SQL
8 4 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (0.95%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.95%) PowerShell
9 3 (0.71%) R
10 2 (0.48%) Go
11 1 (0.24%) ABAP
11 1 (0.24%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 58 (13.78%) Security Cleared
2 44 (10.45%) SC Cleared
3 40 (9.50%) Degree
4 9 (2.14%) DV Cleared
5 8 (1.90%) CBAP
6 6 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (1.43%) CSPO
6 6 (1.43%) ISEB
6 6 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
7 4 (0.95%) Master's Degree
7 4 (0.95%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.71%) ISTQB
8 3 (0.71%) MBA
8 3 (0.71%) PMP
9 2 (0.48%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.48%) IIBA
9 2 (0.48%) ISEB Practitioner
10 1 (0.24%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.24%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (14.01%) QA
2 13 (3.09%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.61%) PCI DSS
4 8 (1.90%) PMO
4 8 (1.90%) WCAG
5 5 (1.19%) ISO 20022
6 3 (0.71%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.71%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.71%) ISO 9001
7 2 (0.48%) COBIT
7 2 (0.48%) GDPR
7 2 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.48%) PSD2
7 2 (0.48%) SLA
7 2 (0.48%) Software Quality Assurance
8 1 (0.24%) NCSC
8 1 (0.24%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 8 (1.90%) Docker
2 2 (0.48%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.24%) PowerHA
Systems Management
1 9 (2.14%) Kubernetes
2 6 (1.43%) Grafana
2 6 (1.43%) Prometheus
3 3 (0.71%) HP Quality Center
4 1 (0.24%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 52 (12.35%) Microsoft
2 30 (7.13%) SAP
3 10 (2.38%) Adobe
4 8 (1.90%) ServiceNow
5 7 (1.66%) IBM
5 7 (1.66%) Salesforce
6 5 (1.19%) Atlassian
6 5 (1.19%) CyberSource
6 5 (1.19%) HP
6 5 (1.19%) SimCorp
7 4 (0.95%) Sitecore
8 3 (0.71%) Dell
8 3 (0.71%) ESRI
8 3 (0.71%) Guidewire
8 3 (0.71%) Intel
8 3 (0.71%) Oracle
9 2 (0.48%) Ariba
9 2 (0.48%) Civica
9 2 (0.48%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.24%) Conga