Chapter 90: Verifying the Scope of Project Deliverables

Before we begin closing the project, we need to ensure that all the project deliverables have been successfully delivered to the customer. This is done by the Verifying Scope process.
Verifying scope is the process of formally accepting the completed project deliverables. Before you hand over the project deliverables to the appropriate party mentioned in the project management plan, such as the customer or the sponsor, you need to verify that these deliverables actually meet the planned scope. So, verifying the scope of the project deliverables includes reviewing deliverables to ensure that all of them are completed as planned and therefore as expected.

Trivia:
We should perform the scope verification process even if the project is terminated or ended before completion. In that case we would verify and document the level and extent of the project and product scope that was completed.

The process used to verify the scope is called Verify Scope and is illustrated in the picture below:

To verify the scope of deliverables, you need to pull out the project management plan and look at the sections related to the planned scope: the project scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary. The project scope statement includes the list of deliverables, the product scope description, and the product acceptance criteria. More scope-related details can be found in the WBS, which defines the decomposition of each deliverable into work packages. Further details, such as a description of each WBS component, the related statement of work, and technical requirements, can be found in the WBS dictionary.

The product requirements should be considered part of the scope and can be found in two documents: the stakeholder requirements document and the requirements traceability matrix that you prepared in the process of collecting requirements during the planning stage of the project. Finally, before you go through the process of scope verification, you should get all the deliverables validated through the quality control process. You can use inspection or auditing on the deliverables if necessary, even in the Verify Scope process.

The actual scope verification activity has different names in different organizations, such as audits, inspection, product review, and walkthrough. Nevertheless, the output of this activity is documentation of two kinds:

• Documentation of which deliverables have been accepted i.e., verified.
• Documentation of those deliverables that have not passed verification and therefore are not accepted.
• Also, documentation of the reasons why they failed the verification.

The scope verification process may also give rise to change requests, such as requests for defect repairs.

Trivia:
Don’t confuse scope verification with quality control. Quality control is primarily focused on checking the correctness of the deliverables and other quality requirements, whereas scope verification is primarily concerned with overall acceptance of the project deliverables. Quality control is usually performed before the project delivery while verification is done after the delivery is complete.

The project deliverables that have been accepted through the scope verification process still need to go through final acceptance by the appropriate party, such as the customer or the sponsor.

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