Subject matter experts (SMEs) are critical resources for the success of many projects, especially when the project manager is not a technical expert in the application area. The project manager often relies on SMEs for expert judgment and for defining the initial product description. In the project scope management processes, during which process are subject matter experts first formally involved?

Introduction / Context:
Project managers are often generalists who coordinate work across many disciplines. They frequently depend on subject matter experts for advice about technical feasibility, solution options and realistic high level estimates. The Project Management Body of Knowledge describes several processes in the project scope management area and also the initiating processes for the overall project. This question asks you to identify when subject matter experts first become formally involved in helping define the project and product.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- Subject matter experts are important for project success in specialised domains.
- The project manager is not necessarily a technical expert in the application area.
- SMEs are used for expert judgment and for describing the product early in the project.
- The options reference scope related processes plus initiation and scope control.

Concept / Approach:
In the initiating process group, the project manager and sponsor work together, often with the support of subject matter experts, to develop the project charter and preliminary product description. Expert judgment is a key tool and technique for this work. Although SMEs are also used in later scope planning and scope definition, the first formal use usually occurs during initiation when the organisation decides whether the project should go forward. Therefore, the correct answer is the initiation process, which introduces the project and lays the foundation for detailed scope management later.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that initiation includes development of the project charter and preliminary scope description. Step 2: Remember that expert judgment is listed in the Project Management Body of Knowledge as a tool for project initiation. Step 3: Understand that subject matter experts are a primary source of such expert judgment. Step 4: Compare the answer options and identify which process first uses expert judgment from SMEs in a formal way. Step 5: Select initiation as the process where SMEs are first formally engaged to define the project at a high level.
Verification / Alternative check:
You can verify this by reviewing the sequence of processes. Scope planning and scope definition occur after the project has been formally authorised. For the project charter to exist, some early description of the product and high level requirements must be created, and this typically requires expert input. Therefore the initial contact with SMEs logically happens before detailed scope planning and definition, that is, in the initiating processes.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Scope planning and scope definition absolutely benefit from SME input, but they happen after the project is authorised, not at the very beginning. Scope verification relates to reviewing completed deliverables, which is much later in the life cycle. Scope control focuses on managing changes to the scope baseline; by that time the project has long been underway. None of these are the first point of formal SME involvement.

Common Pitfalls:
A common mistake is to assume that because a process is in the scope management knowledge area, it must come before initiation in terms of technical involvement. Another pitfall is to confuse informal discussions before a project is proposed with formal project management processes. The exam expects you to think in terms of the structured process groups, where initiation precedes all other scope related processes.

Final Answer:
Subject matter experts are first formally used during initiation, when the project charter and preliminary product description are developed.