Scope Verification

Scope verification is defined in the PMBOK as "the process of obtaining the stakeholders’ formal acceptance of the completed project scope and associated deliverables."

I've been thinking about this process recently, and would like to share a few thoughts on the matter. When you start thinking about the details for how this will work on a project, some questions arise.

What is scope verification anyway? Are we only making sure that specified deliverables have been completed? Often, the related but seperate activity of quality control is confused with scope verification. Quality control should be a check before scope is signed off as complete, but that process should measure quality against the quality baseline established at the onset.

Scope verification has to be written. Otherwise, it's not really scope verification. A status meeting where you talk about the state of the project is a status meeting, not scope verification. Even if you list accomplishments, there needs to be a formal sign-off. Otherwise, what's to stop the stakeholder from coming back in 6 months to revisit something and say they didn't like it?