Build a Scope Baseline and Handle Change Requests
Define a scope baseline, assess change requests, and document decisions without losing track of acceptance criteria or the original business outcome.
Agree what completion means
A scope baseline describes the approved work and the conditions under which its outputs will be accepted. It is more useful than a long feature list when it connects deliverables to testable criteria. For an internal reporting tool, “finance can reconcile last month's totals to the approved source within the agreed tolerance” is stronger than “dashboard complete.” Keep exclusions nearby so readers do not infer promises from silence.
Break down outputs rather than departments
Decompose the scope into manageable deliverables: validated source data, calculation logic, access controls, and a supported report. Assign ownership and acceptance evidence to each. A department-based list such as “engineering work” or “finance work” conceals the handoffs between them. Check the breakdown with the people who will support the result, and trace each major deliverable to the objective in the project charter.
Assess a request before accepting it
Suppose a sponsor asks for daily refreshes after weekly reporting has been agreed. Capture the business reason, not only the requested solution. Estimate changes to hosting, reconciliation effort, testing, and operational support. Present alternatives: keep weekly refreshes, refresh only a small dataset daily, or fund the full change. Record uncertainty in each estimate. A change request is a decision document; it should help the approver understand tradeoffs rather than merely collect a signature.
Update connected plans together
After approval, update the scope, schedule, budget, acceptance criteria, and affected communications. Leaving the old date on the status report while expanding the deliverable creates an artificial failure later. If the request is rejected, retain its rationale and any condition that would justify reconsideration. Link the decision to the relevant issue and tell affected teams. The dependency mapping guide helps identify indirect impacts that a single workstream might miss.
Published by AgilePro.info under our Editorial Policy. Guidance is based on established delivery practice and is general information, not professional advice for a specific project.