Project Scope Management: Definition and Techniques

This assignment delves into the critical aspect of project scope management. It defines scope management, highlighting its significance in ensuring project success. The document explores various techniques used to define, manage, and control project scope effectively. Furthermore, it discusses common challenges encountered in scope management and provides strategies for overcoming them. Understanding these concepts is crucial for project managers to deliver projects on time, within budget, and according to stakeholder expectations.

Project Scope Management
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Project Scope Management
Table of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Scope Management..........................................................................................................................4
Planning of the Scope Management Procedure...........................................................................4
Identify the requirements.............................................................................................................5
Define Scope of the Project.........................................................................................................7
Develop the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).........................................................................8
Verify the Scope of Work............................................................................................................9
Control the Scope of Work........................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
List of Figures
Figure 1: Plan Scope Management..................................................................................................4
Figure 2: Identify the requirement...................................................................................................5
Figure 3: Define Scope....................................................................................................................7
Figure 4: Develop Work breakdown Structure (WBS)...................................................................8
Figure 5: Verify the Scope.............................................................................................................10
Figure 6: Verify the Scope.............................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Project Management is the knowledge base which we can use in the practical life to complete the
project on time, cost, and quality. To complete any project successfully, all the steps and stages
of the project management needs to be done properly. The main knowledge areas which we
always need to perform during the project management process are ‘Integration management’,
‘Scope management’, ‘Time management’, ‘Quality management’, ‘Human resource
management’, ‘Procurement Management’, ‘Communication management’ and ‘Risk
management’ (Project Management Institute, 2013). But now in this report, we shall study in
detail the benefits, features, and application of all the subgroups of the Scope Management plan
only.
Scope management is one of the phases in Project Management. Extension Management gives
data with respect to the extent of the task and the main extent of the venture, which is the out of
degree things are additionally distinguished however not itemized out. For the effective finish of
the venture, this stage is exceptionally significant, in light of the fact that it keeps the task from
going past the extent of work which isn't required to finish the undertaking and thus keeps from
bringing about more consumption then important to finish the task. The extension administration
additionally helps in decreasing the firefighting movement which by and large Project Manager
does if there should arise an occurrence of the aimless arranging of the venture scope. The best
possible degree administration dependably helps in characterizing the extent of work or the
limits of the work with the goal that no one of the venture group ever ponders the work which
isn't required to be improved the situation the undertaking and it naturally enhances the
profitability and decreases the cost of building up the task.
Independent of the nature, measure, area, many-sided quality, sort and target of the task, the
Scope Management process is required to be directed for every one of the activities. The degree
administration process essentially covers two out of five process gatherings of the venture
administration. Two process groups being covered by the scope management are ‘Planning
Process Group’ and ‘Monitoring and Controlling Process Group’ (Burshan, 2016). In further
readings, the more detailed analysis of these groups shall be discussed.
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Scope Management
This stage of project management covers the scope-related issues and justifications; the scope is
developed on the basis of the project’s aim, objectives and stakeholder’s requirement list. This is
to just brief the whole process of scope management, it first identifies the requirement, then on
the basis of requirement finalizes the scope and then monitor and control it to prevent from
getting increased during the total project lifecycle. Now we shall discuss various categories and
subgroups of the scope management which as a whole develops the project scope and how it can
be managed through the project duration (PM PrepCast, 2016). The subgroups are:
Planning of the Scope Management Procedure
The main ever venture of the scope administration arrange is to design the means or the way
toward arranging and dealing with the extent of the task. This progression or the archive should
give the data with respect to the techniques for building up the scope and then how to verify it
during the project execution and monitoring stage to control and prevent from getting
unnecessary increment. To develop any process we always need something as raw material and
the few tools to resolve them so that we can get the best and desired output. The figure below
Figure 1: Plan Scope Management
Source: (CertChamp, 2017)
represents the process of the project scope management. In planning scope management or
developing the scope management plans the inputs for the process are the previously developed
‘Overall Project Management Plan’ and ‘Project Charter’ to take the inputs of the projects
requirement and the overall aim and objective of the project. By considering the overall aim and
objective, the scope management plan can be developed, but we need to also consider the project
environment and the SWOT analysis of the organization are also required to be done to
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understand the ‘Enterprise Environmental Factors’ and ‘Organizational Process Assets’. The
environmental factors are important to assess the weakness and strength of the enterprise so that
the weaknesses can be offloaded to some third party, and the strength of the enterprise can be
enhanced to increase the quality of the product and at the same time control the project duration
too. So the type of project, its type of requirement and the return on the invested fund for the
project can become the important factors to decide the type of the scope management planning or
the stages we shall consider for the planning (Ogunber et al., 2016). Likewise, according to the
business area of operation, the anticipating the extension administration process which we can
embrace for the task exclusively relies upon the kind of the undertaking and the item result or the
goal of the venture. Then we can use various tools like ‘Expert Judgment’ and the ‘Meetings’ to
finalize the process of developing the scope and it’s controlling processed and document them to
develop the scope and requirement management plan. The document shall be used as a baseline
for the further stages of project scope management.
Identify the requirements
The identification of requirements and fixing the traceability matrix are the outputs of this
process (refer figure below). During this stage, the inputs like scope management plan developed
Figure 2: Identify the requirement
Source: (CertChamp, 2017)
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in the earlier stage furthermore, the prerequisite administration design alongside partner enlist
and the administration design is utilized to infer the necessities of the task. The ID of the
prerequisites is the piece of ‘Planning Process Group’ of the task administration forms. This is
one of the underlying works of the venture where the requirements are first identified by the
stakeholders. The stakeholders are being approached and the requirements are documented
according to the stakeholder management plan. Stakeholder management plans provide the
stakeholder analysis report where it is clearly defined that which stakeholders we need to manage
up to how much stretch (Fageha & Aibinu, 2013). For example, if the requirement is coming
from the sponsor and the other requirement received from the lowermost level of the
organization that does not have much involvement in the project, then we need to always capture
the requirements provided by the sponsor.
This process captures the stakeholder’s expectations and then further categorizing them in
various categories to plan define them properly for the further developing of scope and the way
to carry forward during the execution stage. The requirement developed from the process can be
further categorized as the ‘Business requirements’, ‘Stakeholder’s requirements’, ‘product
requirements’, and the ‘Temporary requirement’ which are required to fulfill the overall
requirements or the job (Jainendrakumar, 2015). The business requirements are the very high
level and are mainly the aim and objective of the project along with the MOV metrics.
Stakeholder’s requirements are their expectation; product requirement is the activities which are
required to be executed to have some features of the product or the services. Finally, the
temporary requirements are required to be documented to complete the overall project activities
like the ordering and receiving of consumables in case of construction projects.
There are various tools used to gather information and documenting the requirements, but which
tools to choose totally depends on the type of the project and the level of detailing is required to
be done before finalizing the scope. Normally for any kind of project, we can always use
‘Interview’ and ‘Facilitated Workshops’ can be conducted between the subject experts or by
recruiting some external expert and document the overall requirement from the project objective
and aim. Tools like ‘Prototyping’ and ‘Questionnaires and surveys’ can be used for developing
the requirement of typical automation or IT related projects. Few other tools are ‘Focus group’,
‘group creativity techniques’, ‘Decision making techniques’, ‘observations’, ‘Benchmarking’,
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‘Context diagram’, and ‘document analysis’, which can be used for such different categories of
projects and develop the requirements along with its traceability matrix (Wich, 2009).
Define Scope of the Project
This is the third step of the undertaking degree administration process where we characterize the
extension and finish it from the prior created necessity records and the ‘Scope management plan’
and ‘project charter’ along with the ‘Organizational process assets’ to gather some historical data
or information regarding similar projects. The scope can be defined properly, once the previously
discussed phases of the scope administration plan is developed along with few details of other
process groups like ‘formation of project team’, ‘high-level budget is almost finalized’ and ‘even
the bid is almost on the verge of finalization’ (Khan, 2006). The below figure listed some of the
Figure 3: Define Scope
Source: (CertChamp, 2017)
tools and techniques which help to characterize the extent of the task and build up the
'Undertaking extension articulation' and the updates of the degree report. The updates to the
record are required to be done if there should be an occurrence of any adjustment in scope, which
has happened and is required to be executed during the execution stage, which we shall discuss
in upcoming topics.
Various tools and techniques which are used to define the scope from the requirements finalized
are ‘Expert judgment’, where we can gather the experts under a roof and get the scope defined by
using their experience. The experts can be internal or external. The internal experts are the
stakeholders or the employees of the organization itself, whereas the external experts are the
consultants hired for the job. Another tool is ‘Product Analysis’ where some of the value
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Project Scope Management
engineering is done to minimize or optimize the requirements to have control on the expenditures
by developing some smart solutions to the requirements and fulfill the requirement with some
common facility itself and prevent from duplicating the features to prevent from developing the
exhaustive project cost. Then the next tool which can also be used is ‘Alternative identification’,
as the name suggests by using this tool, the other alternatives of executing the project can be
defined. Various techniques like ‘brainstorming’ and ‘apple to apple comparison’ can be used to
define the scope by adopting some other alternative and gathering the information regarding the
project success from some historical document or information available and then do some
brainstorming before finalizing and defining the scope statement.
Develop the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Developing up an appropriate Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the need of the venture to
get a fruitful conclusion, and to describe the extent of work with the goal that they can be
effectively appointed to enterprise units (Devi & Reddy, 2012). The WBS might be viewed as
the scientific classification of any project. A few conceivable examples of WBS can be created,
regardless of the way that every one of them portrays a similar project. In any case, unique WBS
designs call for various hierarchical structures and administration styles amid project execution
(Lee et al., 2010). Subsequently, the WBS creator as of now significantly affects how any project
is to be overseen at the beginning period. In some cases, the bungle between the task WBS, the
structure of the organization, and the management style of the project supervisor negatively
affects the probability of the task being finished effectively. The figure below is showing the
Figure 4: Develop Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Source: (CertChamp, 2017)
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various inputs, tools and techniques, and the outputs of the process involved in developing the
WBS of any project.
Developing the WBS is still in the ‘Planning Process Group’ of the project administration an
after we build up the WBS, the degree administration should reach to the observing and
controlling procedure gathering of the venture administration. With all the common inputs as we
discussed in previous steps, the new input is ‘Project Scope Statement’ developed in the earlier
stage. Various tools which are used to develop the WBS are ‘Expert Judgment’ and
‘Decomposition’ of the overall scope of work into manageable subgroups up to various levels.
The last level of the WBS is called the ‘Work Package’ which consists of many activities.
Developing the WBS exactly as per the scope requirement and the way the organization wants to
execute the undertaking is imperative to give the unmistakable comprehension of the task scope.
WBS additionally helps in giving a reasonable perspective of the cost heads as well and screens
the cost of the task appropriately (Polonski, 2015). The general cost or the financial plan of the
task can be additionally isolated as WBS and the progress or the expenditures can be monitored
properly especially by the top management or executive level officials of the organization. WBS
is the establishment of the general venture, it should be produced circumspectly and shrewdly to
cover the general extent of work as per the execution rationality (Brotherton et al., 2008).
Verify the Scope of Work
Now we entered the ‘Monitoring and Controlling Process group’ of the project, where the
defined scope of work is being verified at every stage and after the completion of execution of
each and every step of the project. All the inputs of the process are the documents developed and
discussed so far and the deliverables being developed during each execution stages. The
verification of scope at every stage is very much required to prevent the project from getting
scope creep and reducing the rework or undoing the work which is already done and that too in
the wrong direction (Hans, 2013). The figure below has shown the inputs and the tool &
techniques which can be used for verifying the scope of work are the ‘Inspection’ and ‘Decision
making’. Under this stage or process of work, the scope is being verified against the scope
baseline or the scope statement developed to compare the result and move to the next level of the
scope management that is the ‘Scope Control’, where the required changes can be done using the
change management process. So, the scope verification will just provide the justification that
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Figure 5: Verify the Scope
Source: (CertChamp, 2017)
whether the deliverable developed during the execution is acceptable or not. Since the scope
verification is concerned with the acceptance of the deliverable, so it also related with the other
process group and knowledge area that is ‘Quality Control’. In QC, the deliverable is getting
passed through the quality checks and then the verification against the baseline is done and
confirmed for the completion of the deliverable. The deliverable once accepted can directly be
moved to the ‘Project Close-out process group’ for closing the project or the part of the project.
Control the Scope of Work
This is the last phase of the task scope administration, where the benchmark of the undertaking is
being controlled using the variance analysis mathematical technique (refer figure below) and the
outcome of the process is the ‘Change Request’ shutting the venture or the piece of the
undertaking. This is the last phase of the task scope administration, where the benchmark of the
undertaking is being, the probability of getting scope changes also increases (Léger et al., 2013).
Because of the inability to view or finalize the project requirement from the early stage and it
gets clarified along with the progressive elaboration (which is a characteristic of the project).
This step is required to control the scope and prevent the scope from getting gold plated. ‘Gold
plating’ is the process by which the project scope is being refined at every step to develop the
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Figure 6: Verify the Scope
Source: (CertChamp, 2017)
product with more features, so to manage the most elevated amount of the element in the item
the extent of the venture continues expanding (Najjar & Jarbi, 2016). the most elevated amount
of the element in the item the extent of the venture continues expanding resource overrun, the
resource gets frustrated due to excessive pressure on them to complete the job in the defined time
frame or the schedule of the job and then it may raise the concern of high risk in health, safety,
and environment of the workers.
The change request which gets generated by this proves is then passed through a strict path or the
procedure as defined in the scope management plan regarding the control of scope in case of any
overshooting due to whatever reason and whoever’s responsible. The impacts of these changes
are calculated by the Project Control Department to assess the overall impact on the project time
and cost.
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Conclusion
Scope being one of the triple constraints of the project, is a very crucial factor which is required
to be planned and executed well by the Project Team to deliver a successful project and remain
within the budgeted time and cost and quality and results in developing the satisfaction level of
the customers (TIMO - Time Management Office GmbH, 2014).
So this is to conclude, that the scope of a project, can be defined after the proper finalization of
requirement which is received and refined by the Project Team from the listed stakeholders as
per the stakeholder register. Now once the scope is defined, WBS is developed to decompose the
overall scope of work to lower levels of proper management of the scope during execution stage
and help to monitor the progress at different hierarchical levels of the project. WBS has many
advantages, but it is required to be developed very smartly by the Project Manager to follow the
execution-style and philosophy, else it can cause the project to fail. The WBS should cover the
overall scope of work, and nothing should be missed out, else the particular scope item can be
missed from the project and shall become a problem at the later stage.
After the WBS is developed, the output goes to different knowledge area ‘Time management’ for
further development of project schedule. In scope management, the next stage is Verification and
Controlling, where the scope of work is being verified by conducting the inspection of the
deliverables and if found acceptable the deliverable can be moved to the project close-out stage.
Finally, the scope control is the process where the change management is executed. The
additional scope required to complete the project is assessed by the Project Manager and
approved by the Project Sponsor.
The project scope management process is very much helpful for my professional life and will
definitely help me in developing the skill of properly developing and managing the scope of the
project.
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References
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the Project Management Lifecycle. In PMI Global Congress Proceedings. Denver, Colorado,
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PM PrepCast, 2016. PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition Knowledge Areas for Project Management -
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