• Make requirements accessible: It's almost impossible to not have scope misunderstandings if everyone doesn't have access to current requirements at all times. Making requirements accessible eliminates ignorance as an excuse.


• Require stakeholder approval: Require stakeholders to approve each requirement. When stakeholders have formally approved every requirement, it greatly reduces their ability to say they did or did not want something after the project is completed.


• Specify out-of-scope items: Specifying items that are out-of-scope adds to project clarity. Like approved requirements, items specified to be out-of-scope should be approved by stakeholders and the project team.


• Send alerts when changes are made: Set automated alerts to notify stakeholders and team members whenever a requirement is changed. This will help people track the evolution of requirements and ensure that approved requirements are not changed without everyone knowing.


• Lock down approved requirements: Once all requirements are approved, lock them down so they cannot change after the project begins.


• Use formal change requests: If a change is required, make sure that no changes are made to project scope without a formal change request.


• Formally estimate all change requests: Include the overall impact on cost and schedule on every change request. Take adavantage of traceability reporting to make sure that the full impact of a change request is captured.


• Require formal approval of all change requests: Make sure that the change request and corresponding changes to cost and schedule are approved by both the stakeholders and project team.


• Gain approval to estimate: Investigating and documenting the impact of change can sometimes require significant effort. Before expanding scope to include investigation of potential changes, make sure a formal change request to capture the effort is approved.


• Track Scope: Link tasks and time to requirements and use traceability reporting to make sure that actuals are not exceeding estimates and that time is not being wasted on unapproved requirements.

These steps will not eliminatate post-completion claims that something should or should not have been included in a project. However, they will provide an auditable trail of changes and approvals that will document project scope and hold both stakeholders and team members accountable.