PM-02 · our practice ref · series-structure

Define scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria

Practice PM-02 in the Project Management group. The basis is series-structure, and the row asks for 3 pieces of evidence.

At a glance

Ref: PM-02
Process: Project Management
Basis: series-structure
Source: Public abstract, process list
Evidence: 3 items
Gaps: 2 common

Evidence to keep

Project ManagementA deliverables table with descriptions and owners
Project ManagementThe acceptance criteria for each deliverable
Project ManagementThe acquirer's written agreement to the scope

Questions before you sign

What exactly will be handed over?
How will the acquirer test each one?
What have we agreed is out of scope?

The practice, in our words

Write the scope as a boundary with exclusions, list the deliverables as things that can be handed over, and state the criteria by which each will be accepted. Acceptance criteria that cannot be tested are wishes.

What it means in a VSE

Put the deliverables in a table with a description, a format, an owner and an acceptance test. The acquirer should be able to read the table and say yes or no. If they cannot, the scope is not finished.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, define scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria has to earn its time. The test for PM-02 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.

How to evidence it

Attach the artefacts above to the Define scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for PM-02 is A deliverables table with descriptions and owners. A named person must produce it on request.

For PM-02, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The acceptance criteria for each deliverable. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for define scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the define scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For PM-02, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for PM-02 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

Scope described only as a paragraph of intent
Acceptance left to the end, when the budget is gone

What changes from the 2019 report. For PM-02, project management is the spine the other practices hang from. The transition work is to make the plan, the progress reading and the closure exist as records rather than as habits.

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places define scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For PM-02, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for PM-02 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.

Related practices

Source for this page: Public abstract, process list. Open the record and compare it with the PM-02 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.