Project Scope Management

•          Project Scope Management
–        Processes required to ensure that the project includes all, and only, work required
–        Defining what “is/is not” included in the project
–        Project scope – work that must be done – measured against project plan
–        Product scope – features and functions included in the product or service – measured against requirements



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•          Initiation – process of formally recognizing that a new project exists, or an existing project continue to next phase
•          Involves feasibility study, preliminary plan, or equivalent analysis
•          Authorized as a result of:
–        Market Demand
–        Business Need
–        Customer Request
–        Technological Advance
–        Legal Requirement
•          Initiation Inputs:
–        Product Description – characteristics of the product/service that the project was to create
•          Less detail in early phases, more comprehensive in latter
•          Relationship between product/service and business need
•          Should support later project planning
•          Initial product description is usually provided by the buyer
–        Strategic Plan – supportive of the organization's goals
–        Project Selection Criteria – defined in terms of the product and covers range of management concerns (finance, market)
–        Historical Information – results of previous project decisions and performance should be considered
•          Tools & Techniques for Initiation
–        Project Selection Methods:
•          Benefit measurement models – comparative approaches, scoring models, economic models
•          Murder Boards
•          Peer Review
•          Scoring Models
•          Economic Models
•          Benefits compared to costs
•          Constrained operation models – programming mathematical
•          Linear Programming
•          Integer Programming
•          Dynamic Programming
•          Multi-objective programming
•          Tools & Techniques for Initiation
–        Project Selection Methods:
•          Decision models – generalized and sophisticated techniques
–        Expert judgment
•          Business Units with specialized skills
•          Consultant
•          Professional and Technical Associations
•          Industry Groups
•          Delphi Technique – obtain expert opinions on technical issues, scope of work and risks
•          Keep expert’s identities anonymous
•          Build consensus
•          Outputs from Initiation:
–        Project Charter – formally recognizes project, created by senior manager, includes:
•          Business need/Business Case
•          Product description & title
•          Signed contract
•          Project Manager Identification & Authority level
•          Senior Management approval
•          Project’s Goals and Objectives -
•          Constraints – factors that limit project management team’s options
•          Assumptions – factors that are considered true for planning purposes.  Involve a degree of risk
•          Scope Planning – process of developing  a written statement as basis for future decisions
–        Criteria to determine if the project or phase is successful
•          Scope Planning Inputs:
–        Product description
–        Project Charter
–        Constraints
–        Assumptions
•          Scope Planning Tools & Techniques
–        Product Analysis - - developing a better understanding of the product of the project
–        Cost/Benefit Analysis – estimating tangible/intangible costs and returns of various project alternatives and using financial measures (R.O.I.) to assess desirability
–        Alternatives Identification – generate different approaches to the project; “brainstorming”
–        Expert Judgment
•          Scope Planning Outputs
–        Scope Statement – documented basis for making project decisions and confirming understanding among stakeholders.  Includes:
•          Project justification – business need, evaluating future trade-offs
•          Project Product – summary of project description
•          Project Deliverables – list of summary of delivery items marking completion of the project
•          Project Objectives – quantifiable criteria met for success. Addresses cost, schedule and metrics – unqualified objectives indicate high risk (customer satisfaction)
–        Supporting detail – includes documentation of all assumptions and constraints
–        Scope Management Plan – how project scope is managed, change control procedure, expected stability, change identification and classification
•          Control what is/is not in the project; prevents delivering “extra” benefits to the customer that were not specified/required
•          Scope Definition – subdividing major deliverables into smaller, manageable components
–        Improve accuracy of cost, time, and resource estimates
–        Define a baseline for performance measurement
–        Clear responsibility assignments
–        Critical to project success – reduces risk of higher cost, redundancy, time delays, and poor productivity
–        Defines “what” you are doing; WBS is the tool
•          Scope Definition Inputs:
–        Scope Statement
–        Constraints – consider contractual provisions
–        Assumptions
–        Other Planning Outputs
–        Historical Information
•          Scope Definition Tools & Techniques
–        Work Breakdown Structure – templates from previous projects
–        Decomposition – subdividing major deliverables into manageable components:
•          Major elements – project deliverables and project management approach
•          Decide cost and duration estimates are appropriate at level of detail
•          Constituent elements – tangible verifiable results to enable performance management, how the work will be accomplished
•          Verify correctness of decomposition
•          All items necessary and sufficient?
•          Clearly and completely defined?
•          Appropriately scheduled, budgeted, assigned?
•          Scope Definition Outputs
–        Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) – a deliverable-oriented grouping of project assignments that organizes and defines the scope of the project
•          Each descending level represents further detail; smaller and more manageable pieces
•          Each item is assigned a unique identifier collectively known as “code of accounts”
•          Work element descriptions included in a WBS dictionary (work, schedule and planning information)
•          Other formats:
•          Contractual WBS – seller provides the buyer
•          Organizational (OBS) – work elements to specific org. units
•          Resource (RBS) – work elements to individuals
•          Bill of Materials (BOM) – hierarchical view of physical resources
•          Project (PBS) – similar to WBS
•          Scope Definition Outputs
–        Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
•          First Level is commonly the same at the Project Life Cycle (requirements, design, coding, testing, conversion and operation)
•          First level is completed before the project is broken down further
•          Each level of the WBS is a smaller segment of level above
•          Work toward the project deliverables
•          Break down project into tasks that
•          Are realistically and confidently estimable
•          Cannot be logically divided further
•          Can be completed quickly (under 80 hours rule of thumb)
•          Have a meaningful conclusion and deliverable
•          Can be completed without interruption
•          Provides foundation for all project planning and control
•          Scope Definition Outputs
–        Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - Benefits
•          Prevent work slippage
•          Project team understands how their tasks fit into the overall project and their impact upon the project
•          Facilitates communication and cooperation between project team and stakeholders
•          Helps prevent changes
•          Focuses team experience into what needs to be done – results in higher quality
•          Basis and proof for estimating staff, cost and time
•          Gets team buy-in, role identification
•          Graphical picture of the project hierarchy
•          Identifies all tasks, project foundation
•          WBS phrases
–        Graphical hierarchy of the project
–        Identifies all tasks
–        Foundation of the project
–        Very important
–        Forces thought of all aspects of the project
–        Can be re-used for other projects
•          Scope Definition Outputs
–        Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) – Dictionary
•          Designed to control what work is done and when
•          Also known as a task description
•          Puts boundary on what is included in a task and what is not included
•          Scope Verification Inputs
–        Work results – partially/completed deliverables, costs to date
–        Product documentation – description available for review (requirements)
•          Scope Verification Tools & Techniques
–        Inspection – measuring, examining, testing to determine if results conform to requirements
•          Scope Verification Outputs
–        Formal acceptance – documentation identifying client and stakeholder approval, customer acceptance of efforts
•          Scope Change Control:
–        Influencing factors to ensure that changes are beneficial
–        Determining scope change has occurred
–        Managing changes when they occur
–        Thoroughly integrated with other control processes
•          Scope Change Control Inputs:
–        Work Breakdown Structure
–        Performance Reports- issues reported
–        Change Requests – expansion/shrink of scope derived from :
•          External events (government regulations)
•          Scope definition errors of product or project
•          Value adding change – new technology
–        Scope Management Plan
•          Scope Change Control Tools & Techniques
–        Scope Change Control System – defines procedures how scope change can occur
•          All paperwork, tracking systems, approval levels
•          Integrated with overall change control procedures
–        Performance Measurement – determine what is causing variances and corrective actions
–        Additional Planning
•          Scope Change Control Outputs:
–        Scope Changes – fed back through planning processes, revised WBS
–        Corrective Actions
–        Lessons Learned – cause and reasoning for variances documented for historical purposes
•          Management By Objectives (MBO)
–        Philosophy that has 3 steps:
•          Establish unambiguous and realistic objectives
•          Periodically evaluate if objectives are being met
•          Take corrective action
•          Project Manager must know that if project is not aligned or support corporate objectives, the project is likely to lose resources, assistance and attention.
•          MBO only works if management supports it