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 12 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
12 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 244 225 216
Rank change year-on-year -19 -9 +45
Contract jobs citing Acceptance Criteria 417 689 1,200
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.97% 1.18% 1.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.12% 1.32% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 300 477 765
10th Percentile £363 £400 £381
25th Percentile £416 £456 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £605 £588
90th Percentile £625 £650 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £549 £475
% change year-on-year -10.75% +15.58% +8.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 8 21
10th Percentile £27.23 £50.50 -
25th Percentile £31.71 £55.19 £42.00
Median hourly rate £32.36 £58.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.93% -2.08% +106.90%
75th Percentile £57.00 £65.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £65.50 £73.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.25 £55.25 £61.63
% change year-on-year -19.91% -10.34% +128.41%

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 37,097 52,247 79,383
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.26% 89.81% 90.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,888 36,212 55,718
10th Percentile £300 £325 £343
25th Percentile £413 £438 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +3.77% +8.48%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,438 1,719 1,895
10th Percentile £12.75 £11.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.23 £15.58
Median hourly rate £36.50 £36.00 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +1.39% +40.19% +4.82%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £49.50
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.06 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +8.74% +75.00% -6.98%

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 12 May 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 12 May 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 12 May 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 -15 369 £510 -7.27% 150
London +27 222 £525 -6.67% 61
Work from Home +5 159 £500 -8.93% 66
UK excluding London -43 154 £490 -10.75% 96
South East -17 45 £488 -7.58% 27
North of England -7 35 £485 -7.18% 17
South West -10 33 £550 -2.65% 12
Yorkshire +26 27 £485 -11.82% 6
Scotland +40 19 £463 -11.90% 10
East of England +2 13 £375 -25.00% 13
Midlands -4 10 £475 -9.52% 17
North West -11 7 £481 -3.70% 9
West Midlands -14 6 £450 -21.74% 12
East Midlands +19 4 £500 +35.14% 5
North East +11 1 - - 2

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 30 (7.19%) Confluence
2 6 (1.44%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (0.72%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.72%) CMS
4 3 (0.72%) Drupal
5 2 (0.48%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.24%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.24%) IIS
6 1 (0.24%) Joomla!
6 1 (0.24%) LiveLink
6 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.24%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (1.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (1.44%) Microsoft Office
1 6 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 6 (1.44%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.48%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.48%) InVision
2 2 (0.48%) Sketch
2 2 (0.48%) Trello
2 2 (0.48%) Zeplin
3 1 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (2.88%) Aligne
2 11 (2.64%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (2.40%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (1.68%) SAP PM
5 5 (1.20%) SimCorp Dimension
6 4 (0.96%) Shopify
7 3 (0.72%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.72%) SAP Hybris
8 2 (0.48%) VisionPLUS
9 1 (0.24%) Endur
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 72 (17.27%) Azure
2 40 (9.59%) Azure DevOps
3 23 (5.52%) Dynamics 365
4 22 (5.28%) Power Platform
5 21 (5.04%) AWS
6 13 (3.12%) Power Automate
7 7 (1.68%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (1.68%) Miro
7 7 (1.68%) SaaS
8 6 (1.44%) PowerApps
9 4 (0.96%) BigCommerce
9 4 (0.96%) Figma
9 4 (0.96%) PaaS
9 4 (0.96%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 3 (0.72%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (0.72%) Azure Service Bus
11 2 (0.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 2 (0.48%) Entra ID
11 2 (0.48%) Serverless
11 2 (0.48%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.68%) SSH
2 3 (0.72%) DNS
2 3 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (0.48%) DHCP
3 2 (0.48%) Firewall
3 2 (0.48%) HTTP
4 1 (0.24%) 3GPP
4 1 (0.24%) 4G
4 1 (0.24%) 5G
4 1 (0.24%) Bluetooth
4 1 (0.24%) GSM
4 1 (0.24%) LAN
4 1 (0.24%) LTE
4 1 (0.24%) PuTTY
4 1 (0.24%) SMS
4 1 (0.24%) SSL
4 1 (0.24%) TETRA
4 1 (0.24%) UMTS
4 1 (0.24%) VPN
4 1 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.84%) Power BI
2 10 (2.40%) NoSQL
3 9 (2.16%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (1.92%) Data Lake
5 6 (1.44%) GIS
5 6 (1.44%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.20%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.96%) Apache Cassandra
7 4 (0.96%) MySQL
7 4 (0.96%) Redis
7 4 (0.96%) SAP HANA
7 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.48%) Big Data
8 2 (0.48%) Data Mart
8 2 (0.48%) Delta Lake
8 2 (0.48%) SAP BW
8 2 (0.48%) Tableau
9 1 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 52 (12.47%) JIRA
2 18 (4.32%) Postman
2 18 (4.32%) Selenium
3 11 (2.64%) JMeter
3 11 (2.64%) JUnit
3 11 (2.64%) SoapUI
4 9 (2.16%) Cucumber
5 7 (1.68%) Appium
5 7 (1.68%) LoadRunner
5 7 (1.68%) Visual Studio
5 7 (1.68%) WebDriver
6 6 (1.44%) Git
7 5 (1.20%) Gatling
7 5 (1.20%) Rational Performance Tester
8 4 (0.96%) Mockito
8 4 (0.96%) ScalaTest
9 3 (0.72%) SpecFlow
10 2 (0.48%) Axure RP
10 2 (0.48%) Jenkins
10 2 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 144 (34.53%) Social Skills
2 89 (21.34%) Finance
3 78 (18.71%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (10.31%) Public Sector
5 27 (6.47%) Presentation Skills
6 21 (5.04%) Back Office
7 16 (3.84%) Banking
8 12 (2.88%) Retail
9 11 (2.64%) Telecoms
10 9 (2.16%) Games
10 9 (2.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
11 8 (1.92%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.68%) Marketing
13 5 (1.20%) Front Office
13 5 (1.20%) German Language
13 5 (1.20%) Manufacturing
13 5 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
14 3 (0.72%) Law
Job Titles
1 175 (41.97%) Analyst
2 133 (31.89%) Business Analyst
3 74 (17.75%) Senior
4 39 (9.35%) Senior Analyst
5 35 (8.39%) Product Owner
6 30 (7.19%) Developer
7 27 (6.47%) Project Manager
8 26 (6.24%) Technical Analyst
9 24 (5.76%) Senior Business Analyst
10 21 (5.04%) Service Manager
11 20 (4.80%) Consultant
12 19 (4.56%) Service Transition Manager
12 19 (4.56%) Technical Business Analyst
12 19 (4.56%) Transition Manager
13 18 (4.32%) Tester
14 16 (3.84%) Test Analyst
15 15 (3.60%) Lead
16 13 (3.12%) Agile Business Analyst
17 12 (2.88%) Test Leader
18 11 (2.64%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.56%) SOAP
2 16 (3.84%) REST
3 15 (3.60%) XML
4 14 (3.36%) Web Services
5 13 (3.12%) JSON
6 11 (2.64%) Hibernate
6 11 (2.64%) JPA
6 11 (2.64%) Spring
7 8 (1.92%) RESTful
8 7 (1.68%) .NET
8 7 (1.68%) J2EE
8 7 (1.68%) Swagger
9 6 (1.44%) ADO
9 6 (1.44%) Gherkin
9 6 (1.44%) OpenAPI
10 5 (1.20%) Akka
11 4 (0.96%) HTML
11 4 (0.96%) Play Framework
11 4 (0.96%) SAP PI
11 4 (0.96%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 92 (22.06%) Product Ownership
2 27 (6.47%) Management Information System
3 22 (5.28%) Mobile App
4 11 (2.64%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 9 (2.16%) Renewable Energy
5 9 (2.16%) Solar Panel
6 7 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (1.68%) Linux Command Line
6 7 (1.68%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.44%) Algorithms
8 5 (1.20%) Derivative
8 5 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.20%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 4 (0.96%) Data Structures
10 3 (0.72%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.72%) Low-Code
10 3 (0.72%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.48%) Freedom of Information Act
11 2 (0.48%) Mainframe
11 2 (0.48%) Online Banking
Operating Systems
1 20 (4.80%) Linux
2 11 (2.64%) Unix
3 10 (2.40%) Windows
4 8 (1.92%) Android
5 3 (0.72%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.24%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (61.87%) Agile
2 217 (52.04%) User Stories
3 100 (23.98%) Scrum
4 94 (22.54%) Business Analysis
5 92 (22.06%) Problem-Solving
6 69 (16.55%) DevOps
7 59 (14.15%) User Acceptance Testing
8 56 (13.43%) Test Automation
9 45 (10.79%) Project Management
10 43 (10.31%) Epics
10 43 (10.31%) Product Backlog
10 43 (10.31%) Requirements Gathering
10 43 (10.31%) Workshop Facilitation
11 37 (8.87%) Project Delivery
12 36 (8.63%) SDLC
13 35 (8.39%) Scenario Testing
13 35 (8.39%) Stakeholder Management
13 35 (8.39%) Translating Business Requirements
14 34 (8.15%) Service Design
14 34 (8.15%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 37 (8.87%) SQL
2 31 (7.43%) Java
3 16 (3.84%) Python
4 13 (3.12%) C#
5 8 (1.92%) C
5 8 (1.92%) JavaScript
6 7 (1.68%) Kotlin
7 6 (1.44%) C++
7 6 (1.44%) Scala
7 6 (1.44%) VB
8 5 (1.20%) Perl
8 5 (1.20%) T-SQL
9 4 (0.96%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (0.96%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.96%) PowerShell
10 3 (0.72%) R
11 2 (0.48%) Go
11 2 (0.48%) Swift
12 1 (0.24%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 56 (13.43%) Security Cleared
2 46 (11.03%) Degree
3 41 (9.83%) SC Cleared
4 9 (2.16%) DV Cleared
5 8 (1.92%) CBAP
6 7 (1.68%) CSPO
7 6 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (1.44%) ISEB
8 4 (0.96%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (0.96%) ISTQB
8 4 (0.96%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (0.96%) Master's Degree
8 4 (0.96%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.72%) MBA
9 3 (0.72%) PMP
10 2 (0.48%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.48%) IIBA
10 2 (0.48%) ISEB Practitioner
11 1 (0.24%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.24%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (13.91%) QA
2 18 (4.32%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.64%) PCI DSS
3 11 (2.64%) WCAG
4 8 (1.92%) PMO
5 5 (1.20%) ISO 20022
6 3 (0.72%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.72%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.72%) 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 (1.92%) Docker
2 2 (0.48%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.24%) PowerHA
Systems Management
1 8 (1.92%) Kubernetes
2 6 (1.44%) Grafana
2 6 (1.44%) Prometheus
3 3 (0.72%) HP Quality Center
4 1 (0.24%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 49 (11.75%) Microsoft
2 31 (7.43%) SAP
3 12 (2.88%) Adobe
4 8 (1.92%) IBM
4 8 (1.92%) Salesforce
4 8 (1.92%) ServiceNow
5 6 (1.44%) HP
6 5 (1.20%) Atlassian
6 5 (1.20%) CyberSource
6 5 (1.20%) SimCorp
7 4 (0.96%) Sitecore
8 3 (0.72%) Dell
8 3 (0.72%) ESRI
8 3 (0.72%) Intel
8 3 (0.72%) Oracle
9 2 (0.48%) Ariba
9 2 (0.48%) Civica
9 2 (0.48%) Guidewire
9 2 (0.48%) Murex
10 1 (0.24%) Xamarin