Scope Verification In Project Management

When you manage a project, the project scope is one of the 3 major constraints that you have to contend with during the project life cycle. The other 2 constraints are the project schedule and cost.

Scope verification in project management is a process you will need to know and understand as a project manager, or if you are preparing for certification in project management such as the Project Management Professional (PMP) examination.

What is Project Scope?

Before you can successfully plan a project, you have to first of all fully understand what the project is to achieve and document it. That is the concept of the project scope.

The scope of a project is the specific project goals, tasks, and deliverables that entail what the project is to achieve. It establishes the boundaries of the project, what will be done, and what will not be done on the project.

This scope is one of the core responsibilities of a project manager, and it has to be documented and approved by stakeholders before initiating the project. The documented scope is the scope statement.

Project scope and the scope statement help the project team stay focused on the tasks at hand and expectations.

Read Also: Top 5 Ways to Avoid Gold Plating in Project Management

What is Scope Verification in Project Management?

According to the PMBOK, scope verification in project management is the process of evaluating whether the project product or service meets the requirements or specifications of the project scope and deliverables.

The scope statement is the baseline for the project once the stakeholders have agreed that it represents what the project is expected to deliver. All stakeholders need to formally accept this scope statement.

Once the scope statement has been formally accepted by the stakeholders, no change can be made to the project scope unless through the scope change control process.

This process entails looking at the various project deliverables and ensuring that they meet preset requirements, are on the right track according to agreed processes, and meet agreed specifications.

This is an internal process done by the project team. While it may meet the project requirements, it does not however necessarily mean it will meet customers’ requirements.

Projects especially large ones have phases. At the end of each phase, scope verification should be done by the project team to ensure the project is on track according to the scope statement.

What is the Objective of the Scope Verification Process?

The main objective of scope verification in project management is to monitor and control the project in order not to go off track. It is important in project planning and execution as it is very easy to go out of scope.

When the product specifications and requirements have been detailed and documented, as the project progresses through phases, it is important to stay on track.

The project team needs to at every phase end, check project specifications against the agreed specifications in the scope statement.

If there is a variance, then they need to correct it according to the agreed requirements, deliverables, and specifications.

Read Also: Agile Project Management 101. A Definitive Guide

Scope Verification vs Scope Validation

Scope verification in project management and scope validation are two processes or concepts that can be confusing for a project manager. While both of them involve ensuring deliverables are met, they involve different parties.

Scope validation is an external process done by the identified stakeholders and customers to check and ensure that the product or service meets their requirements and needs.

While the project team or product development team verifies the scope to ensure specifications are met, validation is done by stakeholders and customers to ensure the product actually solves their needs.

Scope verification takes place before scope validation. While scope verification by the project team focuses on whether the product was built right, the emphasis in scope validation is to check whether the right product was built.

Also read: Project integration management

Inputs to the Scope Verification Process

For every process in project management, we have inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs (ITTOs).  If you want to take the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam, it is important you know the ITTOs for each process.

The inputs are the project things we require in order to execute a process. For the verify scope process, the major input required is the project management plan.

The project management plan is the blueprint for the project. It consists of the performance measurement baselines and the subsidiary management plans.

The project management plan contains the scope baseline. And the scope baseline is made up of the project scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and the WBS dictionary.

One facet of scope verification is ensuring that each item in the scope statement is included in the WBS, and each item in the WBS is included in the scope statement.

Also read: Project management resource breakdown structure

Scope Verification Tools

The main tool used for scope verification is inspection. A detailed view of the scope and the actual deliverable is required to make a comparison.

The project or development team will inspect what is being built and what the scope is. Since the scope contains expected requirements and functionalities, an inspection of the deliverable will indicate to the team if these requirements and functionalities have been satisfied.

Scope Verification Outputs

These are the assets or deliverables expected as a result of the scope verification process. The major output in this process is project document changes.

When verifying the scope, there may arise the need for some changes and updates to project documents.

Since the scope statement is already a part of the performance measurement baseline, changes to it will require change requests through the integrated change control.

What is the Difference between Scope Verification and Scope Change Control?

Scope verification is the process of formally confirming that project deliverables meet the defined requirements and are completed satisfactorily.

It entails comparing deliverables to the agreed-upon scope to ensure they align with the project’s objectives.

Scope change control, on the other hand, refers to the process of evaluating, approving, and managing changes to the project’s scope.

This involves evaluating proposed changes, determining their potential impact on the project, and making informed decisions about whether to approve or reject them.

What is the Difference between Scope Verification and Quality Control?

Scope verification ensures that project deliverables meet defined requirements and are within the agreed-upon scope by reviewing completed work to ensure that it adheres to the intended scope.

Quality control, on the other hand, is the process of monitoring and inspecting project deliverables to ensure they meet the specified quality standards.

It involves checking for flaws, errors, and variations from quality requirements.

Conclusion

The core of project management and product development is to create value for the stakeholders and the end-users.

When deliverables and products are handed over to these stakeholders, they will validate the scope that it meets their requirements and idea of value.

It is therefore essential that the project team verify that what has been developed meets the requirements and conforms to the scope before handing it over to the stakeholders.

This will help to adjust if needed and it also helps save the reputation of the project or development team.

FAQs

Who Performs Scope Verification?

Scope verification is done by the project team or product development team to ensure that specifications are met and that the product or project deliverable was built right.

What is the Difference Between Scope Verification and Scope Validation?

Scope verification is an internal process by the team to ensure that the product was built right. While scope validation is an external process to check that the right product was built.