Project Scope Management

Technology and Project Management

Learning Objectives
At the end of the module the student is expected to:

Understand the concept of project scope management

Enumerate and discuss the process involved in project scope
management.
Define project scope.
Discuss the Work breakdown structure in relation to project scope
management.
Define validation scope.
Introduction
• According to the 2009 Standish Group Chaos report only 32% of IT
projects are delivered on time, on budget and have the required features
and functions asked for. In addition, 44% of projects were late, over budget
and were delivered with incomplete features or functionality. The final 24%
remaining were complete failures dues to cancellation prior to completion
or were delivered and never used. These failures have cost numerous
companies millions of dollars and countless reputation points as a result.
Introduction
• For a project to be a successful one, project managers must be able to
define the scope of the project. Project scope defines the boundaries of
the project, what to include and what not to include, this process must be
clear from start so that the project can be delivered on time and on budget.

• Here is the definition of Scope, it refers to all the work involved in creating
the products of the project and the processes used to create them, its also
refers to the detailed set of deliverables or features of a project.
Deliverables can be product related, such as a piece of hardware or
software, or process-related, such as a planning document or meeting
minutes.
• Project Scope Management is the management of the process that is
required to ensure that a project includes all the work necessary to
complete the project successfully. It is concerned primarily with controlling
what is and what is not in the scope.
Collecting requirements
• It is the process of defining and documenting stakeholders need to meet
the project activities. The document for collecting requirements is developed
in the project planning phase.

• Ways on how to gather / collect requirements

Interview
Holding of focus group workshops
Giving of Questionnaire and surveys
Benchmarking
Defining scope
This is the process of developing a detailed description of the Project and product. So while
Collecting requirement list, all the different requirements of the Project and the resulting
product or service are defined.
Defining scope
• The main purpose of the scope definition is to clearly describe the
boundaries of your project. Clearly describing the boundaries is not
enough when it comes to project. You need to get the client's agreement
as well.
• The main purpose of the scope definition is to clearly describe the
boundaries of your project. Clearly describing the boundaries is not
enough when it comes to project. You need to get the client's agreement
as well.
• In the project scope definition, the elements within the scope and out of the
scope are well defined in order to clearly understand what will be the area
under the project control. Therefore, you should identify more elements in
detailed manner and divide them among the scope and out of scope.
Scope Creep
• Scope creep is something common with every project. This refers to the
incremental expansion of the project scope. Most of the time, the client
may come back to the service provider during the project execution and
add more requirements.
• Most of such requirements haven't been in the initial requirements. As a
result, change requests need to be raised in order to cover the increasing
costs of the service provider.
• Due to business cope creep, there can be technological scope creep as
well. The project team may require new technologies in order to address
some of the new requirements in the scope.
Creating the Work breakdown structure
• A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a deliverable oriented grouping of
the work involved in a project that defines its total scope.
• Creating work breakdown structure is done using a technique called
decomposition. It is basically the process of subdividing project
deliverables and project work into smaller and more manageable
components.
Work Breakdown Structure
• A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a decomposition of all the work
necessary to complete a project. A WBS is arranged in a hierarchy and
constructed to allow for clear and logical groupings, either by activities or
deliverables. The WBS should represent the work identified in the
approved Project Scope Statement and serves as an early foundation for
effective schedule development and cost estimating. Project managers
typically will develop a WBS as a precursor to a detailed project schedule.
The WBS should be accompanied by a WBS Dictionary, which lists and
defines WBS elements.
Work Breakdown Structure
• The goals of developing a WBS and WBS Dictionary are 1) for the project
team to proactively and logically plan out the project to completion, 2) to
collect the information about work that needs to be done for a project, and
3) to organize activities into manageable components that will achieve
project objectives. The WBS and WBS Dictionary are not the schedule,
but rather the building blocks to it.
Work Breakdown Structure
• The WBS and WBS Dictionary should not be static documents. WBS
construction is subject to project management progressive elaboration,
and as new information becomes known, the WBS should be revised to
reflect that information. A Project Team that has substantial changes to its
WBS should reference the project’s Change Management Plan for
guidance on management of changes to project scope.
Validating the scope
• This is the process which is a part of project monitoring and control
process group. This process includes reviewing deliverables with the
customer or sponsor to ensure that they are completed satisfactorily and
obtaining formal acceptance of deliverables by the customer or sponsor.
Validating Scope
• Validate Scope is the process of formalizing acceptance of the completed
project deliverables. Validating project and product scope takes place with
the project sponsor and/or customer. It should take place as each
deliverable is completed. It signifies that the customer or sponsor approves
and accepts the deliverable.
Validating Scope
Controlling the scope
• Control Scope is the last process group of project scope management. It
is again a part of project monitoring and control process group. Control
scope is the process of monitoring the status of the project and Product
scope and managing changes to the scope baseline. This process ensures
that all requested changes and recommended corrective or preventive
actions are processed through the integrated change control process.
Controlling the scope
• The goal of scope control is to influence the factors that cause scope
changes, to ensure that changes are processed according to procedures
developed as part of integrated change control, and to manage changes
when they occur. You cannot do a good job of controlling scope if you do
not first do a good job of collecting requirements, defining scope, and
validating scope.
Best practices
• Keep the scope realistic. Don’t make projects so large that they can’t be
completed. Break large projects down into a series of smaller ones.
• Involve users in project scope management. Assign key users to the
project team and give them ownership of requirements definition and
scope validation.
Best practices
• Use off-the-shelf hardware and software whenever possible. Many IT
people enjoy using the latest and greatest technology, but newer
technologies often introduce risks into the project. If a new technology’s
features and functions do not adequately balance these risks, it is better to
avoid the risks and use technologies that are trusted from prior experience.
• Follow good project management processes. others, there are well-
defined processes for managing project scope and other aspects of
projects.
Suggestions for Improving User Input
• Develop a good project selection process for IT projects.
• Have users on the project team
• Have regular meetings with defined agendas.
• Deliver something to project users and sponsors on a regular basis.
• Do not promise to deliver what the team cannot deliver in a particular time
frame.
• Locate users with the developers.