PMP Exam Tip: Validated Deliverables and Accepted Deliverables Are NOT the Same!

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Students often confuse validated and accepted deliverables, so if you’re struggling here, you’re not alone. At first glance, they do seem to be rather the same, but once you get the idea, you’ll never confuse them again. The most important thing you need to understand is in which process from the PMBOK® Guide these deliverables are created as outputs. The PMBOK® Guide defines each as follows:

• Validated Deliverables: Validated deliverables have been completed and checked for correctness by the Perform Quality Control process.
• Accepted Deliverables: Accepted Deliverables have been accepted through the Verify Scope process.

So, validated deliverables are an input to the Verify Scope process, while accepted deliverables, where formal sign-off is obtained, are the key output of the Verify Scope process.

Let’s walk through it: First, you create a deliverable. The deliverable then goes through the perform Quality Control process where it is checked for correctness. In essence, you’re making sure that the deliverable meets the quality criteria that were defined during the project set up. You answer the question: Did we build it the way we said that we should.

Once the deliverable passes the Quality Control inspection, it is considered validated. Essentially, Quality Control has given you the nod to take the deliverable to the customer or stakeholder for approval, or acceptance. The customer or stakeholder then reviews the deliverable. Only when the customer or stakeholder gives the deliverable a “thumbs up” does the deliverable become accepted.