According to the PMBOK® Guide, the process described—formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables—is Validate Scope. It is critical to distinguish between the internal quality check and the external customer acceptance.
Verified Deliverables (The Input): These are project deliverables that have been completed and checked for correctness through the Control Quality process. Before you can ask the customer to formally accept a deliverable, the project team must first verify internally that it meets the technical specifications. Therefore, " Verified Deliverables " are a primary input to Validate Scope.
Accepted Deliverables (The Output): These are deliverables that meet the acceptance criteria and are formally signed off by the customer or sponsor. This is the output of the Validate Scope process.
Analysis of the process flow:
Control Quality: Internal check. Input: Deliverables. Output: Verified Deliverables.
Validate Scope: External check. Input: Verified Deliverables. Output: Accepted Deliverables.
Analysis of other options:
B. Validated deliverables: This term is often used interchangeably with " Accepted Deliverables " in general conversation, but in PMI terminology, the process is called " Validate Scope, " and the result is " Accepted. "
D. Completed change requests: While change requests are processed throughout the project, they are not the specific object being formalized for acceptance in this process; the physical or functional deliverable is.
Per PMI standards, the Validate Scope process is primarily concerned with receptivity (the customer ' s acceptance), whereas Control Quality is concerned with correctness (meeting technical requirements). Therefore, you must have a " Verified " deliverable before it can become an " Accepted " one.
