TOPIC: question about "define scope" and "req. doc."

Hi
"Acceptance Criteria" is part of both "project scope statement" and "requirement documentation". Per my understanding
requirement documentation: collection of all requirements from all stakeholders
project scope statement: shortlisted from requirement documentation

Now if customer rejects the deliverable by saying it doesn't meet the requirement and project manager wants to check/verify whether the reason is valid or not then should PM consult "requirement documentation" or "project scope statement"?

Can you please help me to understand which one should be consulted in which scenario? Thank you.

Regards,
Saeed

Saeed,

Here is what the PMBOK Guide says:

Requirements Documentation: A description of how individual requirements meet the business need for the project
Project Scope Statement: The description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions and constraints

To simplify... one describes the requirement -- for example "we want to entertain our customers" -- and the other describes the scope of how we are going to achieve this requirement -- for example "we are going to hire The Rolling Stones to play music". As you can see, the requirement of entertaining someone could be achieved through different solutions/scope. We could show them a movie or put on a theater performance.

Therefore, if your customer says "it doesn't meet the requirements" then you compare this against the acceptance criteria defined in the requirements documentation, and if the customer says "this doesn't meet the scope definition" then you compare it against the acceptance criteria from the scope.

Hi Saeed,

In my experience the Project Scope statement is created very early in the project life cycle and only contains a high level vision of what the project will try to accomplish. The requirements documentation should be the document that is consulted to verify whether the deliverable does or does not meet the agreed upon requirements.

Hope that helps.

Think of the project scope as your road towards creating the requirement. It guides you in the direction and width of freedom. Along the way you follow the customer driven requirement. It has the specific details about the anticipated deliverable. You will want to compare the deliverable to the requirements document.