A construction company is carrying out a building contract with fixed milestones to replace certain components. During execution, the client complains the new components do not meet the requirements. What should the project manager have done to prevent this?

The correct answer is defining acceptance criteria in a quality checklist agreed upon before the build phase began. This proactive step ensures that both the project team and the client have a clear, shared understanding of what constitutes an acceptable deliverable. By establishing these criteria upfront, the project manager sets clear expectations and provides a measurable standard against which the components can be evaluated, thereby preventing disputes about requirements later. Continuously communicating changes to the work plan and contract, while important for transparency, would not prevent the initial misunderstanding of requirements. Providing compensation for defects is a reactive measure, not a preventive one. Approving a detailed change control process is crucial for managing changes, but it doesn't address the fundamental issue of poorly defined initial acceptance criteria.