Steps to Project Scope Management Process

Project scope management contains the processes that are employed to recognize all the work needed to successfully finish the project. Here sometime people confused with product scope and project scope. Product scope covers the functions & features, which included in a product or service. Effective finishing of product scope is evaluated against the requirements. On the other hand in the project scope management process, project scope covers the work that should be accomplished to provide the product with particular features and functions. Effective finishing of the project scope is evaluated against the plan.

Project Scope Management Process

Following steps included in the project scope management process.

1. Initiation
2. Scope Planning
3. Scope Definition
4. Scope Verification
5. Scope Change Control

 

1. Scope Initiation

The existence & recognition of the project regarding its continuity to the next phase is represented by formal authority.

• Introduction
• Appointment of Project Team
• Market Research
• Needs Identification
• Political Input
• Opportunity Studies
• Tendering
• Characteristics of Objectives
• Constraints
• Strategic Plan & Objectives
• Performance Measures
• Project Cost Limit
• Constraints
• Additional Input to Project Selection & Initiation

Project Charter

The existence of a project is formally recognized by a document which is called project charter. The business need which is addressed by the project is included in this. It specifies the projects that should be provided. The project manager is able to utilize the organizational resources for the project activities through the authority provided by project charter.

2. Scope Planning

Scope planning is a written statement that contains

• Project Justification
• Project Objectives
• Major Deliverables

The criteria used to ascertain if the phase or project has been successfully finished, is referred to as scope planning.

Scope planning is the specification and management of the project scope impacting the overall success of the project. Every project needs a careful balance of data sources, tools, processes & procedures, methodologies and other factors to guarantee that the efforts exerted on scoping activities is in accordance with the complexity, size and importance of the project.

Scope Management Plan

Certain guidelines are provided by the project scope management plan regarding how project scope will be specified, documented, verified, controlled and managed by the project management team.

Scope management plan specifies

• How scope changes will be integrated into the project
• How scope changes will be pointed out & classified
• Expected stability of the project

3. Scope Definition

The detailed information for the scope plan is provided by the scope definition and it is mostly referred to as Scope Definition Document. It is helpful in estimating time, cost & resources, responsibilities and performance measurement.

Usually the scope definition document is shown in the list format but some potential activities are required for the development of the document which can be effectively performed by the project team involved and with the key stakeholders.

Scope definition further includes the following

• Developing Preliminary and Detailed Project Scope Statement
• Inputs to Defining Project Scope
• Outputs to Defining Project Scope

Developing Preliminary and Detailed Project Scope Statement

The definition of the project is the project scope statement which means what requirements should be achieved.

The information provided by the initiator or sponsor is used to develop the preliminary project scope statement. The preliminary project scope statement is further refined into the project scope statement by the project management team in the scope definition process. On the basis of the complexity and application area of the project, the project scope statement content will change. The preliminary project scope statement process formalizes and refines, if needed, the project scope specified for that particular phase during subsequent phases of multi-phased projects.

The construction of a detailed project scope statement is important to the success of the project and is developed upon major assumptions, deliverables and constraints that are documented in the preliminary project scope statement during project initiation.

The needs, wants and expectations of the stakeholders are examined and converted into requirements. The constraints & assumptions are examined for completeness, with further complaints and assumptions added as essential. The project management team and other stakeholders can conduct and organize the analyses, because of their additional comprehension of the preliminary project scope statement.

Value of Sound Scope Statement

One can clearly recognize the project details, deliverables and boundaries of the project with a sound scope statement. Product description assists to describe and comprehend the details for achieving objectives. It is important to be responsive to the assumptions, constraints and budgetary restrictions of the customers as well as definite limitations.

Inputs to Defining Project Scope

Following are the five inputs for specifying project scope

• Organizational Process Assets
• Project Charter
• Preliminary Project Scope Statement
• Project Scope Management Plan
• Approved Change Requests

Organizational Process Assets

Information about the standards is provided by the organizational process assets regarding those which are already established in the place like standards which are probable to be used in each project. When preparing the project scope statement, this information is re-used.

Project Charter

The existence of the project is authorized by the project charter. It specifies the goals of the project which are required by the project manager to detail further in the project scope statement.

Preliminary Project Scope Statement

The description of the project objectives, major project deliverables, project constraints, project assumptions and statement of work is provided by the preliminary project scope statement.

Project Scope Management Plan

A description is provided by the project scope management plan regarding how the mentioned project goals will be built within the detailed project scope statement.

Approved Change Requests

Change request refers to the documented modifications to project scope which are agreed upon by all relevant parties. Approved change requests will finally be combined with the project scope statement.

Outputs to Defining Project Scope

The deliverables and the work needed to develop those deliverables are specified in detail in the project scope statement. A common comprehension of the project scope among all project stakeholders is provided by the project scope statement along with the specification of the major objectives of the project. It also supports the project team to conduct more detailed planning, lead the work of the project team during execution and offers the standard for assessing whether requests for alteration or additional work are included inside or outside the boundaries of the project.

Following are included in the outputs to defining project scope.

• Scope Statement
• Request Changes
• Project Scope Management Plan (Updates)

Scope Statement

The performance of the project management team in controlling the entire project scope can be ascertained by the level & degree of detail to which project scope statement specifies what work will be done and what work is excluded. The planning, managing and controlling the execution of the project by the management team can in turn determined by managing the project scope.

Following are further contained in the detailed project scope statement either by reference to other documents or directly.

• Project Objectives

The measurable success criteria of the project are mentioned in the project objectives. Projects may include a wide variety of business, schedule, cost, quality and technical objectives. Project objectives may also contain schedule, cost and quality objectives.

• Product Scope Description

It specifies the features of the product, service or consequence that the project was guaranteed to develop. As the product features are progressively elaborated, these features will usually have less detail in early phases and more detail in later phases. While the substance and form of the features will change, sufficient detail should always be provided by the scope description for supporting later project scope planning.

• Project Requirements

It specifies the capabilities or conditions that should be possessed or fulfilled by the deliverables of the project to satisfy a specification, contract, standard or other formally imposed documents. All needs, wants and expectations of stakeholders are translated into prioritized requirements through the stakeholder analyses.

• Project Boundaries

What is mentioned within the project is generally identified in this head. It clearly specifies what is excluded from the project, if a stakeholder can assume that a certain product, service or consequence could be an element of the project.

• Project Deliverables

Deliverables contain both the outputs that constitute the product or service of the project as well as ancillary consequence like project management documentation & reports. The deliverables can be specified at a summary level or in great detail on the basis of the project scope statement.

• Product Acceptance Criteria

It specifies the criteria and process for accepting finished products.

• Project Constraints

All the specific constraints of the project linked with the project scope are listed and specified that limits the options of the team.

• Project Assumptions

Particular assumptions of the project linked with the project scope are listed and described in the project assumptions along with their potential affect if they prove to be false. Project teams often recognize, document and formalize assumptions as component of their planning process. The assumptions mentioned in the detailed project scope statement are generally more detailed and more numerous than the assumptions mentioned in the project charter.

• Initial Project Organization

The project team members as well as the stakeholders are recognized. Documentation is made regarding the organization of the project.

• Initial Defined Risks

It specifies the familiar risks.

• Schedule Milestones

Identification of the milestones can be made by the customer or performing organization along with the placing of imposed dates on those mentioned milestones. These dates may be stated as schedule constraints.

• Fund Limitation

Any limitation placed upon funding for the project are specified, whether over particular time frames or in total value.

• Cost Estimate

The project expected entire cost is considered in the project cost estimate and is generally preceded by a modifier that supplies symptoms of accuracy like definitive or conceptual.

• Project Configuration Management Requirement

The level of the change control and configuration management is described which should be implemented on the project.

• Project Specifications

The specification documents with which the project should follow are specified.

• Approval Requirements

Approval requirements are specified that can be utilized to items like project objectives, documents, deliverables and work.

Request Changes

During the scope definition process request changes to the project management plan and its subordinate plans may be built. Through the Integrated Change Control Process, request changes are refined for review and disposition.

Project Scope Management Plan (Updates)

Updating is required in the project scope management plan which is element of project scope management plan in order to include approved change requests which results from the scope definition process of the project.

4. Scope Verification

Whenever one or more deliverables are ready to be delivered, process of scope verification is accomplished. It includes the acquisition of the formal acceptance of the stakeholders regarding the finished work.

Project scope verification contains reviewing variables to guarantee that everyone is finished successfully. The project scope verification process must develop and document the extent & level of completion if the project is terminated early. Scope verification is quite changed from the quality control in that scope verification is basically associated with fulfilling the quality requirements specified for the deliverables. Though quality control is usually conducted before scope verification, but these two processes can be conducted together.

5. Scope Changes Control

The scope changes that generally create problems are those where the thinking of what was in and out of scope was varied among different parities. Only four or five reports are assumed by the project manager on the other hand ten to twenty are assumed by the business.

The processes for handling scope changes are captured in a formalized document which is the scope management section of the project plan. Scope control is considered as the last output of the scope management. A process should be implemented by the project manager for guaranteeing that the goals & objectives of the will be monitored throughput the project.

Any discrepancies of project activities or potential risks should be aware by the project manager promptly that divert from the work breakdown schedule or baseline so that any delays to the schedule will be minimized which can finally cause project failure.

The guidance for any corrective action should be provided by the project manager along with the communication means to all members of the team that are concerned with particular level of project.

When sufficient scope control mechanism is accomplish, the progress of team & performance can be evaluated. Any potential issues to the schedule are resolved and resource conflicts are decreased.

Project scope control is associated with affecting the elements that develop the project scope changes and controlling the influence of those changes. All requested changes and recommended corrective actions are assured by the scope control for processing through the project Integrated Change Control Process.

Actual changes are also managed by using the project scope control during their occurrence and these are connected with other control processes. Project scope creep is mostly referred to uncontrolled changes.  Mandating some kind of change control process is performed because change is essential.

A term named “scope creep” is used to creeping forward of the project scope. Cost overrun is sometimes caused by it. Usually the incremental expansion of the scope of the project is referred by this term which may contain and introduce more requirements that was not component of the primary planning of project.

When decisions are made in accordance with the project designed to meet or solve the needs and requirements of the business, Business Scope Creep Management occurs. Business scope creep changes can be result of failure to contain the users of the project until the later stage of the system development life cycle or poor requirement definition early in the development.

The people who develop the changes provide the basis for the kind of scope creep management.

All around the world, scope creep management is important in many organizations. For example project scope is included for many projects that an organization will set out. As rigid deadlines with time, budget and quality restrains are expected to have from many projects along with the effect of a change in scope that finally influence the success of the project.

If the project scope has effects of the approved change requests then the project then the approved changes are reflected by the reissuing & revision of the project scope statement. For future changes the updated project scope statement converted into new project scope baseline.

Scope Approval

A formal document that describes how the project scope will be managed is the scope management plan. It further describes how the scope changes covered into the project plan.

 The project team, stakeholders, sponsors and customers thoroughly discussed and agreed on the elements, once the scope is developed. There is formal signing off the scope definition and the project manager thoroughly discussed the changes. The completion & monitoring of processing is ensured by the respond of the project manager with “acceptance/signed scope approval”. Also project creep and risks are avoided by making customer noticed for every change.