What should a program manager do when a scope change has been approved that will drastically affect the program costs assuming that the costs will be added to the program budget?

An approved scope change that affects costs requires updating the cost baseline, which is the approved time-phased budget used to measure and monitor cost performance. Failing to adjust the baseline makes all future cost performance measurements inaccurate and misleading. This is a required step in integrated change control under program management standards.

Communicating only the cost of the change is insufficient - the baseline itself must be adjusted to reflect the formally approved budget increase.

A scope change affecting costs does not require adjusting the quality baseline, as quality parameters are managed separately from budget parameters.

Communicating the change to stakeholders is important but secondary to updating the baseline and does not fulfill the specific financial management obligation.