Project Scope Management

Project Scope Management

• Project scope management involves defining and controlling what is, and is not, included in a project.
• This ensures that the project team and stakeholders have a shared understanding of project deliverables and processes.
• Scope refers to the work required to create project products and the processes involved.
• A deliverable is a product produced, such as hardware, software, documents, or minutes.

Project Scope Management Processes

• Planning scope management is determining how the project's scope and requirements will be managed.
• Collecting requirements involves defining and documenting product features and functions and the processes for creating them.
• Defining scope includes reviewing the project charter, requirements documents, and organizational assets to create a scope statement.
• Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) involves subdividing major project deliverables into smaller, manageable components.
• Validating scope is the formal acceptance of project deliverables.
• Controlling scope involves managing changes to the project scope throughout its life cycle.

Planning Scope Management

• The project team develops two outputs using expert judgment, data analysis, and meetings:
  • Scope management plan
  • Requirements management plan.
• The scope management plan is a subsidiary part of the overall project management plan.
• Scope management plan contents include:
  • Preparing a detailed project scope statement.
  • Creating a WBS.
  • Maintaining and approving the WBS.
  • Obtaining formal acceptance of deliverables.
  • Controlling change requests.

Requirements Management Plan

• The PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition, defines a requirement as a necessary condition or capability in a product, service, or result to satisfy a business need.
• The requirements management plan documents how project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
• It outlines how to plan, track, and report requirements activities.
• It specifies how to perform configuration management and prioritize requirements.
• Also details how to use product metrics and trace/capture requirement attributes.

Collecting Requirements

• Ways to collect project requirements include:
  • Interviewing stakeholders.
  • Holding focus groups and workshops.
  • Using group creativity and decision-making techniques.
  • Utilizing questionnaires and surveys.
  • Conducting observation studies.
  • Benchmarking.

Requirements Traceability Matrix

• Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) is a table listing requirements, their attributes, and status, ensuring all are addressed.
• An sample RTM entry is a laptop memory, categorized as hardware, sourced from the project charter and corporate laptop specifications.
• A sample Status: laptops ordered meet memory requirement.

Defining Scope

• Key elements of a project scope statement:
  • Product scope description.
  • Product user acceptance criteria.
  • Detailed information on all project deliverables.
• Helpful to document other information such as:
  • Project boundaries.
  • Constraints.
  • Assumptions.
  • Supporting document references.
• The project scope should become clearer and more specific as time progresses.

Media Snapshot: Inaccurate Requirements

• Inaccurate gathering of project requirements remains a primary cause of project failure.
• Poor requirements management leads to 5.1% waste of every dollar on projects and programs.
• Organizations need to improve people, processes, and culture to enhance requirements management.

Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented grouping of project work that defines the total scope.
• It serves as a foundation document for planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources, and changes.
• Decomposition, subdividing project deliverables into smaller pieces, is the main tool for creating a WBS.
• A work package is a task at the lowest level of the WBS.
• Outputs of creating the WBS are:
  • The scope baseline
  • Project documents updates.
• The scope baseline includes the approved project scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary.

Approaches to Developing Work Breakdown Structures

• Using Guidelines
  • Some organizations, like the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), provide guidelines for preparing WBSs.
• Analogy Approach
  • Review WBSs of similar projects and tailor to your project.
• Top-Down Approach
  • Start with the largest items of the project and break them down.
• Bottom-Up Approach
  • Begin with the specific tasks.
• Mind Mapping
  • Uses branches radiating from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas.

WBS Dictionary

• Addresses vague WBS tasks by describing detailed information about each item.
• The format can vary based on project needs.
• Advice for creating includes:
  • Each unit of work should appear in only one place
  • The content of the work should be the sum of the items below it.
  • The single individual responsible is defined, though many people may work on it.
  • Consistency with actual process is key, the dictionary should serve the project team first.
  • Project team involvement will ensure consistency.
  • Flexibility and accurate understanding is important.

Validating Scope

• Creating a good project scope statement and WBS can be difficult.
• Especially on IT projects, verifying project scope and minimizing changes is even more challenging.
• Even with a well-defined scope, IT projects often experience scope creep, with the scope expanding.
• Scope validation involves formal acceptance of completed deliverables, often via customer inspection and sign-off.

What Went Wrong?

• A broad and grandiose project scope can lead to severe problems.
• Scope creep and an overemphasis on technology for its own sake led to a large pharmaceutical firm's bankruptcy.
• McDonald's once initiated a project to connect its headquarters with restaurants for real-time data, but stopped it due to difficulty.
• The McDonald's project ceased after spending $170 million.

Global Issues

• Many countries face difficulties controlling the scope of large projects, especially with advanced technologies and many users.
• The state government of Victoria, Australia had issues with its website for a public transportation smart card due to problems in developing and implementing it.

Controlling Scope

• Involves managing changes to the project scope while considering project goals and business strategy.
• Goals of scope control:
  • Influence factors causing scope changes.
  • Ensure changes are processed per integrated change control.
  • Manage changes effectively.
• Variance is the difference between planned and actual performance.

Suggestions for Improving User Input

• Establish a strong project selection process with sponsors from the user organization.
• Integrate users into the project team.
• Hold regular meetings with defined agendas.
• Provide regular deliveries to users and sponsors.
• Only promise achievable deliveries.
• Locate users with developers.

Suggestions for Reducing Incomplete and Changing Requirements

• Develop and adhere to a requirements management process:
• Employ techniques for user involvement, such as
  • Prototyping
  • Use case modeling
  • JAD.
• Document requirements in writing and keep them current.
• Create a requirements management database.
• Provide adequate testing throughout the project.
• Review changes from a systems perspective.
• Focus on completion dates.
• Allocate change request resources.

Using Software

• Word processors aid in creating scope-related documents.
• Spreadsheets and presentation software are good for charts and graphs.
• Mind-mapping software assists in WBS development.
• Communication platforms facilitate project scope information sharing.
• Project management software is vital for WBS and Gantt chart creation.
• There is specialized scope management software.

Agile and Adaptive Environments

• Stakeholders define and approve scope before each iteration, with detailed scope evolving over time.
• An agile approach results in multiple usable products throughout the project.

Chapter Summary

• Project scope management ensures the project includes all and only the necessary work.
• Main processes include defining scope management, collecting requirements, defining scope, creating WBS, validating scope, and controlling scope.