Scope Verification

Scope verification is "the process of obtaining the stakeholder's formal acceptance of the project scope and associated deliverables" (PMBOK). This is the process of verifying that the Scope Statement you have is the baseline for the upcoming project and getting agreement from all the stakeholders involved in the project that the scope is correct, and it is also the process where you look at the various deliverables in the project and match them up with work results as the execution of the project goes on.

The scope verification process means that all stakeholders have seen and formally accepted a version of the scope that becomes the scope baseline for the project and is put under scope change control so that no changes to the scope of the project can be done without going through the scope change control process. After this is done, and all throughout the project, scope verification means that work results and deliverables are reviewed to make sure that they meet with the scope definition that was accepted at the beginning of the project.

Quality control, which will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 12, "Project Quality Management," deals with the correctness of the scope, whereas scope verification deals with the acceptance of the scope. Quality control is mentioned here because it deals with work results as matched against deliverables, as does scope verification. However, the major difference is that quality control looks at how well the deliverables were done from the view of correctly finishing a deliverable, whereas during scope verification, the stakeholders formally accept the work result. These two definitions will certainly be a part of the examination.

Q.	Scope verification deals with the ________ of the scope, whereas quality control deals with the ________ of the scope.
		A.	Acceptance, correctness
		B.	Correctness, acceptance
		C.	Acceptance, quality
		D.	Quality, correctness

The answer is A. The stakeholders accept what is being done during scope verification, and the correctness of the results is determined during the quality control process.

The inputs to scope verification include the project Scope Statement, the WBS dictionary, the project scope management plan, and the deliverables (PMBOK).

It is important to have the various documents that describe the output of the overall project (or the project's product) available for review. These are described in total as the product documentation. There are many different types of documents to be used in this process, including specifications of the product, technical documentation, any drawings or blueprints, and other documentation that is used in defining the final project product.

The Work Breakdown Structure also functions as a major input into scope verification because it shows various tasks that go into delivering the final product and also shows the tasks that, when executed, will serve to deliver the deliverables.

The Scope Statement has been described in detail earlier. As an input into scope verification, it is the baseline for all later execution of the project, and all decisions on the project that concern deliverables should be determined by decomposing the Scope Statement into tasks that are tangible and verifiable.

Q.	The project Scope Statement, the WBS dictionary, the project scope management plan, and the deliverables are all ________ of scope verification.
		A.	Tools
		B.	Techniques
		C.	Outputs
		D.	Inputs

The answer is D. These are all inputs into scope verification.

Q.	Specifications and technical documentation are part of ________.
		A.	Product documentation
		B.	Process documentation
		C.	Scope definition
		D.	Formal planning

The answer is A. This question is, once again, an example of a question where there is more than one feasible answer. You need to know the definition according to PMBOK, which makes A the correct answer.

The tools and techniques of scope verification consist of one process: Inspection. This is the act of measuring, testing, reviewing, auditing, or any of the various ways that you determine whether what has actually occurred during the execution of the project matches the requirements and other planning for the project.

The output from scope verification is formal acceptance of the project or the deliverable within a given phase, the requested changes, and recommended corrective actions. When you are doing a long project, the actual acceptance may be conditional. When the project is over, there should be a formal acceptance when the final deliverable is done. Getting formal acceptance of the work in the project is one of the major tasks of a project manager. The better the project is documented and planned, the better the chance that you will get acceptance during and at the end of the project because all people involved will have the same understanding of why the project was undertaken.

Q.	You can determine whether requirements have been met by using ________.
		A.	Templates
		B.	Inspection
		C.	WBS
		D.	Scope Statement

The answer is B. Inspection tells you whether the requirements have been met or whether there is compliance with other planning documents.