Chapter 26: Scope Management during Monitoring & Controlling the Project

Aim: To understand the following two processes related to Project Scope Management Knowledge Area in Monitoring & Controlling Phase.

• Verify Scope
• Control Scope

Verifying and Controlling Project Scope

The scope management knowledge area defines two processes in the monitoring and controlling process group. The first process, verify scope, is the formal process of accepting project deliverables. It provides a mechanism to verify that deliverables meet or exceed project requirements. The second process, control scope, is the process of managing the project’s status and any changes to the scope baseline. Let’s look at each of the processes individually.

The verify scope process provides the project manager with the formal process to classify deliverables as acceptable or unacceptable.

The table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the verify scope process.

Verify Scope
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project management plan Requirements documentation Requirements traceability matrix Validated deliverables	Inspection	Accepted deliverables Change requests Project document updates

One output of the verify scope process is the collection of change requests. These requests are individually addressed through the “Perform integrated change control” process and might result in approved change requests.

Exam Trivia:

Pay close attention to how the outputs of processes are used as inputs to other processes. When I took the exam, the questions were not only about identifying inputs/tools/outputs of a single process but about entities that were a common input/tool/output of multiple processes. I do understand that memorizing all these inputs, tools & outputs is difficult, but, if you understand what they are and how they are related to one another, it will be easy to crack these questions.

To know more about the Verify Scope process Click Here

The next process in the monitoring and controlling process group is the control scope process. This process monitors and controls all changes to the scope baseline to ensure the changes are being handled in a structured manner.

The table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the control scope process.

Control Scope
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project management plan Work performance information Requirements documentation Requirements traceability matrix Organizational process assets	Variance analysis	Work performance measurements Organizational process assets updates Change requests Project management plan updates Project document updates

A primary component of the project management plan is the scope baseline. The scope baseline defines the project scope and its associated deliverables, and documents the acceptance parameters of the final product. This baseline helps in clarifying any details that might have been left in a to-be-determined (TBD) mode during the project initiation phase or items that require further clarification with the project sponsor or its stakeholders. The project process indicators in this process are
• The work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Work package progress reports

Exam Trivia:

Do you remember what a work breakdown structure is? A work breakdown structure (WBS) decomposes the project work into manageable chunks or work packages.

The idea behind effectively defining the WBS is to create the roadmap that defines all the activities that will be executed to accomplish the project goal.

The WBS is one of those elements that changes as time and resource utilization passes. Why? As you perform the tasks outlined in your baseline, the recorded changes accommodate any differences between the planned theory and the actual execution.
An effective WBS assists the stakeholders to understand the activities and events that help in delivering the project promise, as well as outlining internal and external resource use. The entire project execution team looks at the WBS to inquire about present, past, and future deliverables and their effectiveness.

Due to its nature and importance, the creation of the WBS should not be taken lightly. It must be considered as the one element that all project participants might want to be considered when formulating an opinion.

To know more about the Control Scope Process Click Here

Prev: Chapter 25

Next: Chapter 27