Project Scope Management

Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

• List key reasons why good project scope management is important

• Describe the process of planning scope management
• Discuss methods for collecting and documenting requirements to
meet stakeholder needs and expectations
• Explain the scope definition process and describe the contents of a
project scope statement
• Discuss the process for creating a work breakdown structure using
the analogy, top-down, bottom-up, and mind-mapping approaches
• Explain the importance of validating scope and how it relates to
defining and controlling scope
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

• Given an information technology (IT) project situation, show how

recommended approaches for controlling scope can improve the
potential for project success
• Describe how software can assist in project scope management
• Discuss considerations for agile/adaptive environments
What is Project Scope Management?

• Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the
project and the processes used to create them
• A deliverable is a product produced as part of a project, such as hardware or
software, planning documents, or meeting minutes
• Project scope management includes the processes involved in
defining and controlling what is or is not included In a project
• Ensures that the project team and stakeholders have the same
understanding of what products the project will produce and what processes
the project team will use to produce them
 Project Scope Management
Processes
• Main processes
• Planning scope management: determining how the project’s scope
and requirements will be managed
• Collecting requirements: defining and documenting the features and
functions of the products produced during the project as well as the
processes used for creating them
• Defining scope: reviewing the project charter, requirements
documents, and organizational process assets to create a scope
statement
• Creating the WBS: subdividing the major project deliverables into
smaller, more manageable components
• Validating scope: formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables
• Controlling scope: controlling changes to project scope throughout
the life of the project
Planning Scope Management (1 of 2)

• The project team uses expert judgment, data analysis, and meetings
to develop two important outputs
• Scope management plan (subsidiary part of the project management plan)
• Requirements management plan
• Scope management plan contents
• Prepare a detailed project scope statement
• Create a WBS
• Maintain and approve the WBS
• Obtain formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables
• Control requests for changes to the project scope
Planning Scope Management (2 of 2)

• Requirements Management Plan

• The PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition, describes a requirement as ““a condition or
capability that is necessary to be present 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
• How to plan, track, and report requirements activities
• How to perform configuration management activities
• How to prioritize requirements
• How to use product metrics
• How to trace and capture attributes of requirements
Collecting Requirements (1 of 3)

• Several ways to collect requirements

• Interviewing stakeholders
• Holding focus groups and facilitated workshops
• Using group creativity and decision-making techniques
• Utilizing questionnaires and surveys
• Conducting observation studies
• Generating ideas by comparing specific project practices or product
characteristics (i.e., benchmarking)
Collecting Requirements (2 of 3)
 Collecting Requirements (3 of 3)

• Requirements traceability matrix (RTM): a table that lists

requirements, various attributes of each requirement, and the status
of the requirements to ensure that all requirements are addressed

Requirement Name Category Source Status

No.

R32 Laptop Hardware Project charter and Complete. Laptops

memory corporate laptop ordered meet memory
specifications requirement.

Table: Sample entry in a requirements traceability

matrix
Defining Scope (1 of 2)

• Important elements of a project scope statement

• Product scope description
• Product user acceptance criteria
• Detailed information on all project deliverables
• It is also helpful to document other scope-related information
• Project boundaries, constraints, and assumptions
• Supporting document references (e.g., product specifications)
• As time progresses, the scope of a project should become more clear
and specific
Defining Scope (2 of 2)
Project Charter:
Upgrades may affect servers . . . (listed under Project Objectives)
Project Scope Statement, Version 1:
Servers: If additional servers are required to support this project, they must be compatible with existing
servers. If it is more economical to enhance existing servers, a detailed description of enhancements must be
submitted to the CIO for approval. See current server specifications provided in Attachment 6. The CEO must
approve a detailed plan describing the servers and their location at least two weeks before
installation.
Project Scope Statement, Version 2:
Servers: This project will require purchasing 10 new servers to support Web, network, database, application,
and printing functions. Virtualization will be used to maximize efficiency. Detailed descriptions of the servers
are provided in a product brochure in Attachment 8, along with a plan describing where they will be located.

Table: Further defining project scope

Media Snapshot

• Inaccurate requirements gathering continues to be one of the main

causes of project failure
• For every dollar spent on projects and programs, 5.1 percent is wasted due
to poor requirements management
• Organizations need to develop people, processes, and culture to
improve requirements management
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (1 of
9)
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented grouping
of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the
project
• Foundation document that provides the basis for planning and managing
project schedules, costs, resources, and changes
• Decomposition is the main tool or technique for creating a WBS
• Subdividing project deliverables into smaller pieces
• A work package is a task at the lowest level of the WBS
• Outputs of creating the WBS are the scope baseline and project
documents updates
• Scope baseline includes the approved project scope statement and its
associated WBS and WBS dictionary
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (2 of
9)
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (3 of
9)
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (4 of
9)
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (5 of
9)
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (6 of 9)
1.0 Software Product Release 5.0

1.1 Project Management

1.1.1 Planning

1.1.2 Meetings

1.1.3 Administration

1.2 Product Requirements

1.2.1 Software

1.2.2 User Documentation Table 5-4

1.2.3 Training Program Materials
Tabular
form of
1.3 Detail Design

1.3.1 Software

1.3.2 User Documentation WBS

1.3.2 User Documentation

1.4 Construct

1.4.1 Software

1.4.2 User Documentation

1.4.3 Training Program Materials

1.5 Integration and Test

1.5.1 Software

1.5.2 User Documentation

1.5.3 Training Program Materials

Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (7 of
9)
• 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: start with the specific tasks
• Mind mapping: uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure
thoughts and ideas
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (8 of
9)
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (9 of
9)
Advice for Young Professionals

• It is very difficult to create a good WBS

• Attend meetings in your organization where teams work together
• Ask to see WBSs for projects that have been completed or are in process
Conduct your own research to find examples of different WBSs
The WBS Dictionary (1 of 3)

• Many WBS tasks are vague

• WBS dictionary is a document that describes detailed information about
each WBS item
• Format of the WBS dictionary can vary based on project needs
The WBS Dictionary (2 of 3)
WBS Dictionary Entry March 20
Project Title: Information Technology (IT) Upgrade Project

WBS Item Number: 2.2

WBS Item Name: Database Update

Description: The IT department maintains an online database of hardware and software on the corporate
intranet. We need to make sure that we know exactly what hardware and software employees are currently
using and if they have any unique needs before we decide what to order for the upgrade. This task will involve
reviewing information from the current database, producing reports that list each department’s employees
and location, and updating the data after performing the physical inventory and receiving inputs from
department managers. Our project sponsor will send a notice to all department managers to communicate the
importance of this project and this particular task. In addition to general hardware and software upgrades, the
project sponsors will ask the department managers to provide information for any unique requirements they
might have that could affect the upgrades. This task also includes updating the inventory data for network
hardware and software. After updating the inventory database, we will send an e-mail to each department
manager to verify the information and make changes online as needed. Department managers will be
responsible for ensuring that their people are available and cooperative during the physical inventory.
Completing this task is dependent on WBS Item Number 2.1, Physical Inventory, and must precede WBS Item
Number 3.0, Hardware and Software Acquisition.

Table: Sample WBS dictionary entry

The WBS Dictionary (3 of 3)

• Advice for creating a WBS and WBS dictionary

• Unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS
• Work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS items below it
• WBS item is the responsibility of only one individual, even though many
people may be working on it
• WBS must be consistent with the way in which work is actually going to be
performed; it should serve the project team first, and other purposes only if
practical
• Project team members should be involved in developing the WBS to ensure
consistency and buy-in
• Each WBS item must be documented in a WBS dictionary to ensure accurate
understanding of the scope of work included and not included
• WBS must be a flexible tool to accommodate inevitable changes while
properly maintaining control of the work content in the project according to
the scope statement
Validating Scope

• It is difficult to create a good project scope statement and WBS for a

project
• Even more difficult, especially on IT projects, to verify the project scope and
minimize scope changes
• Even when the project scope is fairly well defined, many IT projects
suffer from scope creep
• Tendency for project scope to keep getting bigger and bigger
• Scope validation involves formal acceptance of the completed project
deliverables
• Acceptance is often achieved by a customer inspection and then sign-off on
key deliverables
What Went Wrong?

• A project scope that is too broad and grandiose can cause severe
problems
• Scope creep and an overemphasis on technology for technology’s sake
resulted in the bankruptcy of a large pharmaceutical firm, Texas-based
FoxMeyer Drug
• In 2001, McDonald’s fast-food chain initiated a project to create an intranet
that would connect its headquarters with all of its restaurants to provide
detailed operational information in real time
• After spending $170 million on consultants and initial implementation planning,
McDonald’s realized that the project was too much to handle and terminated it
Global Issues

• Many countries have had difficulties controlling the scope of large

projects
• Especially those that involve advanced technologies and many different users
• For example, the state government of Victoria, Australia, has a website for its public
transportation smart card; there were many problems in developing and implementing
the smart card
Controlling Scope (1 of 3)

• Scope control involves controlling changes to the project scope

• Keeping project goals and business strategy in mind
• Goals of scope control
• Influence the factors that cause scope changes
• Ensure changes are processed according to procedures developed as part of
integrated change control
• Manage changes when they occur
• Variance is the difference between planned and actual performance
Controlling Scope (2 of 3)

• Suggestions for improving user input

• Develop a good project selection process and insist that sponsors are from
the user organization
• Place users on the project team
• Conduct regular meetings with defined agendas
• Deliver something to 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
Controlling Scope (3 of 3)

• Suggestions for reducing incomplete and changing requirements

• Develop and follow a requirements management process
• Employ techniques such as prototyping, use case modeling, and JAD to get
more user involvement
• Put requirements in writing and keep them current
• Create a requirements management database for documenting and
controlling requirements
• Provide adequate testing and conduct it throughout the project life cycle
• Review changes from a systems perspective
• Emphasize completion dates to help focus on what’s most important
• Allocate resources specifically for handling change requests
Using Software to Assist in Project Scope
Management
• Word-processing software helps create several scope-related
documents
• Spreadsheets or presentation software to develop various charts,
graphs, and matrixes related to scope management
• Mind-mapping software can be useful in developing a WBS
• Communication software like e-mail and web-based applications can
transmit project scope management information
• Project management software helps in creating a WBS; basis for
creating a Gantt chart
• Specialized software is available to assist in project scope
management
Considerations for Agile/Adaptive
Environments
• Stakeholders define and approve the detailed scope before the start
of an iteration with an adaptive or agile product life cycle, producing
a usable product at the end of each iteration
• Detailed scope develops over time
• Agile approach provides several usable products during the project
Chapter Summary

• Project scope management includes the processes required to ensure

that the project addresses all the work required, and only the work
required, to complete the project successfully
• Main processes
• Define scope management
• Collect requirements
• Define scope
• Create WBS
• Validate scope
• Control scope