You are managing a project to develop a new wireless product with ease of use features that will evolve based on customer and focus group feedback. Many stakeholders, including engineers, quality, and a focus group, are authorized to suggest changes. What will help you most to minimize the impact of these inevitable scope changes on the project?

Introduction / Context:
In innovative product development projects, requirements and features often evolve as customers and focus groups provide feedback. While this adaptability can improve the final product, it also introduces the risk of uncontrolled scope changes and scope creep. PMI emphasizes the importance of a scope management plan to guide how scope is defined, documented, validated, and controlled. This plan is especially critical when many stakeholders are authorized to suggest changes.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The project involves developing a new wireless product with ease of use features that are not yet fully defined.
• Customer and focus group feedback will influence which features are included and to what extent.
• Multiple stakeholders, including engineers, quality, and the focus group, are authorized to propose changes.
• The project manager wants to minimize negative impacts of inevitable changes on scope, schedule, and cost.

Concept / Approach:
A well developed scope management plan explains how the project scope statement, work breakdown structure, and scope baseline will be created and maintained. It also defines how scope validation will be performed with the customer and how scope change requests will be processed through integrated change control. By having clear procedures and criteria for evaluating and approving changes, the project can accommodate beneficial changes while protecting against uncontrolled scope creep. Without such a plan, change may be ad hoc, leading to confusion, delays, and budget overruns.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recognize that frequent and legitimate scope changes are expected due to evolving customer and focus group input. Step 2: Recall that the scope management plan defines how scope is defined, validated, and controlled, including change handling procedures. Step 3: Consider that stopping the project until all features are fixed is unrealistic in an iterative, feedback driven environment. Step 4: Understand that communication alone, without formal scope control, will not prevent scope creep. Step 5: Select option B, which correctly identifies a robust scope management plan as the key tool for minimizing the negative impact of changes.

Verification / Alternative check:
PMI's Scope Management knowledge area includes processes such as Plan Scope Management, Collect Requirements, Define Scope, Create WBS, Validate Scope, and Control Scope. The Plan Scope Management process produces the scope management plan, which guides how all the other processes will be carried out. Control Scope, in particular, relies on the plan to determine how variances will be handled, how change requests are evaluated, and how the scope baseline will be updated. This direct link between the scope management plan and scope change control confirms that it is the primary tool for managing change impact.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A describes a change management plan but incorrectly limits its role to updating organizational policies after the project is finished, which does not help control scope during execution. Option C suggests freezing all features before proceeding, which is impractical for a feature evolving project and ignores the value of iterative feedback. Option D relies only on communication, which is necessary but not sufficient for controlling changes. Option E eliminates stakeholder input entirely, which would undermine the very purpose of the project to incorporate customer driven ease of use features. Only option B provides a structured mechanism to manage scope and changes effectively.

Common Pitfalls:
A common pitfall is to assume that good communication alone will control scope; without formal procedures, people may still add features informally. Another mistake is to treat evolving requirements as a sign of poor planning rather than an expected characteristic of certain types of projects. A strong scope management plan, integrated with change control and communication plans, helps you embrace beneficial changes while managing their impact on schedule and cost, avoiding the chaos of uncontrolled scope creep.

Final Answer:
To minimize the impact of these inevitable changes, the project manager should rely on a scope management plan that defines how scope will be defined, validated, and controlled, including how changes will be evaluated and approved.