Monitoring and Controlling: Scope
Scope verification involves the use of a scope baseline from the project management plan and the requirements documentation to formalize acceptance of deliverables by the customer. The outputs of scope verification include accepted deliverables and change requests for issues that need to be resolved prior to delivery and acceptance. Scope control involves monitoring the status of the project to ensure all deliverables are prepared in accordance with project scope baseline and requirements.
5.5 Validate Scope
Process Definition
Scope validation formalizes the acceptance of the final project deliverables. It ensures that the deliverables have been completed according to the plan and meet all the requirements set forth throughout the project. Unlike quality control, scope validation is primarily concerned with customer acceptance.Process Assessment
This process should be started earlier in a project than most people consider. Waiting until the last minute to validate the scope can result in very expensive changes after much of the work is completed, and lead to very large schedule slips.
Figure 38. Validate Scope: Inputs, Tools and Techniques, and Outputs. Reprinted from "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5th Edition" by Project Management Institute, 2013, p. 133. Copyright 2013 by Project Management Institute, Inc. Reprinted without permission.
- Verified Deliverables: An exercise from PMGT 614 on verified deliverables, an input for this process.
- Work Performance Information: A homework assignment from PMGT 501 describing Earned Value Management work performance information, an output for this process.
- Acceptance Package: This document is an output of this process that acknowledges formally accepted deliverables for the project.
5.6 Control Scope
Process Definition
Controlling scope ensues that changes to the scope baseline are properly captured in the project plan or that changes and corrective actions are taken to bring scope activities into compliance with the plan. Variance analysis is a key tool for this process, and integrated change requests one of the primary outputs.Process Assessment
Controlling scope is important from two perspectives. It's important to keep the sponsor/customer from changing scope objectives after the project has been initiated and planned. It's also important to keep the design team from "over designing" the products. This is know as "shooting the engineer." Sometimes you just have to pull the trigger.
Figure 39. Control Scope: Inputs, Tools and Techniques, and Outputs. Reprinted from "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5th Edition" by Project Management Institute, 2013, p. 136. Copyright 2013 by Project Management Institute, Inc. Reprinted without permission.
- Work Performance Data: Homework problem from PMGT 501 to develop a work performance data by calculating earned value variances. This is an important input for scope control
- Work Performance Information: This artifact is a brief overview of earned value management, a performance report that supports project document updates as an output of the integrated change control process.
- Accepted Deliverables: This document is an output of this process that acknowledges formally accepted deliverables for the project.