ITPM ch5 project scope management notes<

• 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

• Main processes
1. • Planning scope management: determining how the project’s scope and requirements will be
managed
2. • 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
3. • Defining scope: reviewing the project charter, requirements documents, and organizational process
assets to create a scope statement
4. • Creating the WBS: subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable
components
5. • Validating scope: formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables
6. • Controlling scope: controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of the project

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

• 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
1. • How to plan, track, and report requirements activities
2. • How to perform configuration management activities
3. • How to prioritize requirements
4. • How to use product metrics
5. • How to trace and capture attributes of requirements

Several ways to collect requirements
1. • Interviewing stakeholders
2. • Holding focus groups and facilitated workshops
3. • Using group creativity and decision-making techniques
4. • Utilizing questionnaires and surveys
5. • Conducting observation studies
6. • Generating ideas by comparing specific project practices or product
characteristics (i.e., benchmarking)

• Requirements traceability matrix (RTM): a table that lists:
1. requirements,
2. various attributes of each requirement, and
3. the status of the requirements to ensure that all requirements are addressed

• 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

1. • Inaccurate requirements gathering continues to be one of the main
causes of project failure
2. • For every dollar spent on projects and programs, 5.1 percent is
wasted due to poor requirements management
3. • Organizations need to develop people, processes, and culture to
improve requirements management

1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the
work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project
2. Foundation document that provides the basis for planning and
managing project schedules, costs, resources, and changes
3. Decomposition is the main tool or technique for creating a WBS
• Sub-dividing project deliverables into smaller pieces
• A work package is a task at the lowest level of the WBS
4. 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

• 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
arity
branching out

• 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

• 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

• Advice for creating a WBS and WBS dictionary
1. • Unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS
2. • Work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS items below it
3. • WBS item is the responsibility of only one individual, even though many people may be
working on it
4. • 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
5. • Project team members should be involved in developing the WBS to ensure consistency
and buy-in
6. • Each WBS item must be documented in a WBS dictionary to ensure accurate
understanding of the scope of work included and not included
7. • WBS must be a flexible tool to accommodate inevitable changes while properly

1. • It is difficult to create a good project scope statement and WBS for a project
2. • Even more difficult, to verify the project scope and minimize scope changes especially on IT
projects
3. • Even when the project scope is fairly well defined, many IT projects suffer from scope
creep
o 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 signoff on key
review

• 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

• 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

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

• Suggestions for improving user input
1. • Develop a good project selection process and insist that sponsors are from the user
organization
2. • Place users on the project team
3. • Conduct regular meetings with defined agendas
4. • Deliver something to users and sponsors on a regular basis
5. • Do not promise to deliver what the team cannot deliver in a particular time
frame
6. • Locate users with the developers

• Suggestions for reducing incomplete and changing requirements
1. • Develop and follow a requirements management process
2. • Employ techniques such as prototyping, use case modeling, and JAD to get more user
involvement
3. • Put requirements in writing and keep them current
4. • Create a requirements management database for documenting and controlling
requirements
5. • Provide adequate testing and conduct it throughout the project life cycle
6. • Review changes from a systems perspective
7. • Emphasize completion dates to help focus on what’s most important

1. • Word-processing software helps create several scope-related documents
2. • Spreadsheets or presentation software to develop various charts, graphs,
and matrixes related to scope management
3. • Mind-mapping software can be useful in developing a WBS
4. • Communication software like e-mail and web-based applications can
transmit project scope management information
5. • Project management software helps in creating a WBS; basis for creating a
Gantt chart
6. • Specialized software is available to assist in project scope management

• 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

ITPM ch5 project scope management notes<

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