PMP Practice: Obtain Stakeholder Agreement on Scope

When a stakeholder requests work that falls outside the approved scope baseline, the project manager must use the formal change control process, regardless of who supports the request. This ensures proper evaluation of impacts, maintains baseline integrity, and provides governance oversight. The technical lead has already assessed significant schedule and budget impacts, which means this is a substantial change requiring formal review and authorization. The change control board exists specifically to evaluate such trade-offs and make informed decisions about whether to approve changes, adjust baselines, or reject requests. Even though the sponsor is enthusiastic, the project manager's responsibility is to follow established processes and ensure all impacts are transparently evaluated before proceeding.

**Why not A:** Negotiating a scaled-down version of route optimization without going through change control bypasses the formal governance process. Regardless of the size of the addition, any work outside the approved scope baseline must be evaluated through the established change control process to maintain project integrity and governance oversight.

**Why not B:** Proceeding with the feature because the sponsor supports it and the project has reserves ignores the formal change control process. Even with sponsor enthusiasm, the project manager's responsibility is to follow established governance. The technical lead's estimate of four additional months and 35% of remaining budget represents a major scope change requiring formal evaluation.

**Why not C:** Simply explaining that the feature cannot be added without sacrificing deliverables is too rigid and dismissive. While it correctly identifies the request as out of scope, it does not offer a constructive path forward. The change control process exists precisely to evaluate such requests on their merits, and the PM should use it rather than unilaterally rejecting the request.