5.6 Control Scope
Watch for scope drifting from what was agreed, and correct it.
Monitoring and Controlling / Scope · ← PMBOK reference · See it on the map
Why it matters
Unmanaged scope drift is one of the most common ways a project quietly runs over budget and over schedule without anyone deciding that it should.
What done looks like
Actual scope is being compared to the baseline, and any drift routes through change control.
First time tip
Say no to a small favor as readily as a big one. Small unapproved additions add up to the same overrun a single big one would cause.
What you need (Inputs)
- Project Management Plan
- Requirements Documentation
How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: backlog items (driftless/models/agile.py:BacklogItem) — a backlog item's description IS its requirement statement; present once any item has one, healthy once every item does - Requirements Traceability Matrix
- Work Performance Data
- Organizational Process Assets
How you do it (Tools & Techniques)
What you get (Outputs)
- Work Performance Information
How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: sprints under way (driftless/models/delivery.py:Sprint) for an agile project, or service levels and incidents (driftless/models/operations.py) for an operations-cadence one — a sprint under way is the work performance data an agile team reads instead of a baseline-and-actuals pair; an operations-cadence project reads the same question off its service levels and the incidents raised against them - Change Requests
Worked example
A volunteer asks the contractor to also repaint the hallway "while they're at it." The project manager checks it against the scope statement, sees it is excluded, and routes it through change control instead of letting it happen quietly.
Common pitfalls
- Saying yes to a small request because it seems too minor to bother with change control.
- Only checking for scope drift when the budget already looks wrong.
- Letting an unapproved addition become the new normal because nobody said no.
How driftless helps
Driftless does not yet help run this process — no technique here is runnable and no output is producible in the wizard.