Project Scope

Project scope management is the process of determining what work is required to meet the project’s objectives, together with the process of controlling the scope of the project

Five project management scope process groups:

• Scope planning (Planning)

• Scope definition (Planning)

• Create WBS (Planning)

• Scope Verification (Monitoring and Controlling)

• Scope Control (Monitoring and Controlling)

-> ensure that only the agreed work is done

-> doing unnecessary work in the project is sometimes called “gold plating” and creates waste and unnecessary risk

-> Product scope is measured against the product requirements, and used to describe the product’s features and functions

-> Project scope is measured against the project management plan, project scope statement and WBS, and used to specify the work required to deliver a product or service with the stated features and functions

• The main aspect to determine during scope planning is how the scope will be specified and verified for the project’s objectives.

• The conclusions of this work should produce a scope management plan that is able to detail how the scope will be planned, verified and controlled for the project

The reasons for having to define the scope of a project are:

• To identify the business objectives

• To identify the requirements

• To identify the broad areas of work required.

The two factors to consider under the scope control process include controlling the impact of scope changes, together with the need to control scope creep.

First stage of evaluation:

• a requested change is thoroughly reviewed against the product scope and project scope before passing on to the next process

After first evaluation:

• a requested change or corrective action can only be considered once it has been through the integrated change control process

  —> If successfully approved, return to scope control and update the project management plan and components of the scope baseline

  
  

The process of scope verification is to confirm that the work being completed matches the details stated in the WBS, project scope management plan and project management plan.

The final stage of verification involves obtaining formal acceptance of the delivered product or service by the stakeholder

—> The key aspect for any acceptance is to ensure the requirements are met

Def.: Adding features and functionalities (to project scope) without addressing the effects on time, costs and resources, or without customer approval

-> Main risk you face in your project is from scope creep.

-> Problems arise because accepting the suggestion implies changing something about the project objectives, and so the plan and the resources and all the other things that were so carefully matched to the original objectives and suddenly incompatible with the new objectives

When the project scope statement is authorized, the scope of the project is frozen

WBS - Work Breakdown Structure

• WBS is a key output from project scope management because it determines what work must be completed to deliver the objectives of the project

• The WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the work to be completed in order to achieve the project’s deliverables, although it should not be confused with an organizational breakdown chart

• The output of this work produces a graphical representation of the work specified in the project scope statement

The reasons for creating a WBS for a project are that it:

• Ensures better control of the work definition

• Allows the work to be delegated in coherent packages

• Allows the work to be defined at the right level for estimating and control

• Allows the containment of risk.

• Ensure that team members assist the drafting of the WBS in a systematic manner

• Comply with is to make sure that only the work required to meet the project’s deliverables is included

• Continue breaking down the work until an appropriate level for the project to be managed is reached.