construction managers and project managers, would you share with me some rules or practices that you use on every project to keep it within scope?

There is one and only one rule that works: following a Change Management Process. In the case of projects, you will follow a Project Change Management Process that is a subset of the organization´s change management process. That´s all you need to keep the project scope.

Hi Sergio,

Thanks for your reply. Are you speaking of a formal change management process? For an example, lets say some construction materials(IE different quality of steel) are requested to be changed shortly after the project begins. Where would you start?

Thank you

Watch out for casual conversations between team members and stakeholders. Team members, eager to please, may agree to "minor" changes because they "make sense." If the formal change control process is not followed, ramifications of that "minor" change will not be analyzed. While you may not be able to keep your team members from interacting directly with your customer (or major stakeholders), you should be sure you are involved or aware of these interactions. You, as project manager, should own the relationship with your customer. Make Change Control an agenda at each team meeting to be sure you've caught all requests no matter how minor or casually made.