What is a deliverable in the project?

All projects accomplish something. The "something" that they accomplish can be either a good or a service and is usually a combination of both. The individual items of goods or services that are accomplished are called the project deliverables.

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It is reasonable to say that all projects must accomplish something, although those of us who have been involved in some projects may not have felt that way at the time. If projects do not accomplish something, we have no reason for doing them. The items that we call the project accomplishments are generally referred to as the project deliverables.

There are internal and external deliverables. The internal deliverables are those that are delivered to the other operating parts of the project. The external deliverables are those that are delivered to some stakeholder outside of the project team. Internal deliverables are the outputs of the project tasks that serve as inputs to other project tasks. The external deliverables serve as inputs to making the stakeholder's deliverables complete.

The external deliverables must be clearly and completely defined to each of the project stakeholders, who must understand that the list of deliverables they agree to comprises the items that will be delivered as a result of the project's completion. They must realize that they will receive all of these deliverables but that they will not receive any other deliverables. Making this clear to the stakeholders will go a long way in controlling changes in the project, especially changes that the stakeholders do not wish to pay for.