Verifying the Project Scope

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Imagine a project to create a full-color, slick catalog for an electronics manufacturer. The project manager has completed the initiation processes, moved through planning, and is now executing the project work. The only trouble is the project manager and the experts on the project team aren't sharing the work progress with the customer. The work they are completing is not in alignment with the product description or the customer requirements.

The project team has created a trendy 1950s style catalog with funky green and orange colors, lots of beehive hairdo models, horn-rimmed glasses, and tongue-in-cheek jokes about 'the future' of electronics. The manufacturer wants to demonstrate a professional, accessible, current look for its publications. What do you think will happen if the project manager presents the catalog with his spin rather than following the request of the customer?

Scope verification is the process of the project customer accepting the project deliverables. Scope verification happens at the end of each project phase-or as major deliverables are created. Scope verification is ensuring that the deliverables the project creates are in alignment with the project scope. Scope verification is concerned with the acceptance of the work. A related activity, quality control, is concerned with the correctness of the work. Scope verification and quality control happen in tandem as the quality of the work contributes to scope verification. Poor quality will typically result in scope verification failure.

Should a project get cancelled before it has completed the scope, scope verification is measured against the deliverables to the point of the project cancellation. In other words, scope verification measures the completeness of the work up to the cancellation, not the work that was to be completed after project termination.

The inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs of scope verification are shown in the Table 5-2.

Table 5-2: The Inputs, Outputs, and Tools and Techniques of Scope Verification.

Inputs

Tools and Techniques

Outputs

Work results

Inspection

Formal acceptance

Product documentation

  

WBS

  

Scope statement

  

Project plan

  

Examining the Inputs to Scope Verification

To verify the project scope, which is accomplished through inspection, there must be something to inspect-namely work results. The work results are compared against the project plan to check for their completeness and against the quality control measure to check their correctness of the work.

One of the biggest inputs of scope verification is the product documentation. This information describes the requirements and expectations of the product, its features, and attributes. The product documentation may go by many different names depending on the industry. A few project documentation names include:

  • Plans

  • Specifications

  • Technical documentation

  • Drawings

  • Blueprints

As you know, the WBS is a collection of deliverables-orientated components. This collection of components can be used to ensure that the defined project work has been completed to obtain all of the components of the product. The WBS allows the project manager, the project team, and the customer to verify the necessary work was completed to create the deliverable.

The scope statement and the project plan serve as input to the project plan since they provide details on the project work, the product, and the expectations of the customer. A reference to these documents may be needed to clarify any issues during scope verification.

Inspecting the Project Work

To complete scope verification, the work must be inspected. Inspection may require measuring, examining, and testing the product to prove that it meets the customer requirements. Inspection usually requires the project manager and the customer to inspect the project work for verification, which in turn results in acceptance. Depending on the industry, inspections may also be known as:

  • Reviews

  • Product reviews

  • Audits

  • Walk-throughs

Formally Accepting the Project Deliverables

Assuming the scope has been verified, the customer accepts the deliverable. This is a formal process that requires signed documentation of the acceptance by the sponsor or customer. Scope verification can also happen at the end of each project phase or at major deliverables within the project. In these instances, scope verification may be conditional based on the work results. When the scope is not verified, the project may undergo one of several actions. It may be cancelled and deemed a failure, sent through corrective actions, or put on hold while a decision is made based on the project or phase results.

Exam Watch

If a project scope has been completed, the project is complete. Resist the urge to do additional work once the project scope has been fulfilled. Also be cautious of instances where the scope is fulfilled, the product description is exact, but the customer is not happy with the product. Technically, for the exam, the project is complete even if the customer is not happy.



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PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide
PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide, Third Edition (Certification Press)
ISBN: 0071626735
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 209

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