A couple of months ago, a renowned online platform for project managers—Project-Management. com—published a story about the top 10 causes of project failure. Just scanning this text, you won’t find anything about project scope management. Yet when you read it thoroughly, you’ll see that the factors described by the author are very much connected to defining and controlling the project’s scope.
What will you get thanks to this article:
Poor preparation was deemed the number 1 cause of failure, followed by inadequate documentation and tracking. The list is closed by disregarding project warning signs. We’re mentioning these because this blog post is meant to help you reduce or eliminate these dangers by means of effectively managing the scope of the project.
Read on to see that scope management starts with preparation and is inextricably linked to proper documentation and monitoring of the project’s progress. What about project warning signs? You’ll see that one of the more ominous signs is scope creep. Fortunately, successful scope management can help you avoid it.
Let’s start by defining the most important terms we’ll use in this guide:
What’s the scope?
As philosophers used to say, without an understanding of terms we use there is no understanding at all. So, what does the “scope” mean?
Let’s begin with the definition given by institutions from outside of the project management circle – by Oxford Dictionary. Thanks to them we can read about two meanings of the scope term. First, the scope is just a potential, an opportunity, a resource capacity, a possibility to change, to achieve, to do something. But the second meaning is close enough to project management society which makes it worth quoting. Scope is:
(...) the range of things that a subject, an organization, an activity, etc. deals with
(Oxford Dictionary)
When we compare the definition from above with that represented by well-recognizable among project managers institution you will see the connection.
Thanks to the Association for Project Management we get to know that “scope” refers to the entirety of the results, outcomes, and benefits and the work needed to deliver projects. It can be said, it’s the work and/or appropriately skilled employees required to output all of that project’s requirements (i.e., to successfully deliver a product).
Worth to mention to avoid misunderstanding. This meaning is slightly wider than sounding similar – the product scope. Product scope – generally speaking – details the features and functions of a product or service. While:
Project scope is the work that must be done in order to deliver a product according to the product’s scope (required functions and features)
(Wrike.com)
Having this in mind, what’s project scope management? For the Association for Project Management:
Scope management is the process whereby the outputs, outcomes, and benefits are identified, defined, and controlled. ‘Scope’ is the term used in the management of projects to refer to the totality of the outputs, outcomes, and benefits and the work required to produce them.
(APM Body of Knowledge, 7th edition)
But in the older version, from PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition perspective, project scope management is the process that allows you to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required.
To put it simply, project scope management thanks to the 7th edition can be interpreted as time and steps (a process) of acquiring and documenting knowledge about all aspects of the project. And the result of the project scope management process is the list of everything the project plan should contain (tasks and subtasks, budgets, responsibilities, etc).
But the 6th edition emphasizes necessary work (and/or right experienced employee), work required by the project. From the last perspective, a project manager should be focused on people or – as should say – resources that are able (thanks to their skills and experience) to deliver the project with expected requirements in the expected time.
At the on of this chapter, let’s summarize with a quote from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
Managing project scope is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project.
(PMBOK® Guide, 7th Edition)
Our competitor and also well-known project resource management software provider informs on their website what’s the result and goal of the project scope management process.
Project scope management is a process that helps in determining and documenting the list of all the project goals, tasks, deliverables, deadlines, and budgets(...).
(Kissflow.com)
As we see, It’s the inventory of everything the project plan should include. And the main benefit of project scope management is that it helps you to deliver the project successfully. Thanks to this process you know what needs to be done (and what doesn’t), so you can manage your team with more confidence.
Other benefits of this process include:
The steps listed below are based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®). Make sure to check out their instruction if you’re looking for a comprehensive scope management plan. Below, you’ll find a scope management process that should enable you to implement it for your upcoming project.
Planning scope management should start with you preparing upfront. Even before you collect requirements, and draft the scope for your project, plan how you’re going to go about it. Identify the main but better all the stakeholders and people who will have something to say about this project’s scope.
Meet with your team and establish what the process of creating the scope will look like. It would help if you also thought about possible changes to your project’s scope. Of course, at this point, you’re not likely to know what can change, but you can determine what happens if changes occur.
Collect all of the decisions you make here in the scope management plan. It will be your guiding document for conducting the rest of the process.
It’s time to collect project requirements: things that have to be done in order to achieve your project goals. It’s not as simple as just going to your client and asking how do you want the end-product to look and behave? Gathering requirements is a discovery process, as the stakeholders might not even know at this point which particular features should be included in their product (especially if you’re tasked with managing a software development-related project. )
Granted, your clients may not have the exact vision of the end product, but they are probably aware of the business objectives that this project should achieve. You can create a series of workshops and interviews to uncover users’ needs and, as a result, establish the requirements.
Yet another way of gathering data-driven requirements is conducting a series of tests with prototypes in order to see which features and functions receive the most positive reaction from the target audience.
You can also do some benchmarking to compare your potential requirements with the industry’s best practices.
Once you end up with a list of different requirements (features and functions, business objectives, processes needed to deliver a product, acceptance criteria), you can try to define the scope. Keep in mind that usually, not all of the elements you initially gather end up in the final project scope.
Defining project scope means creating the so-called scope statement document. A scope statement is where you document the scope of the project consisting of:
This step will help you to visualize the scope better and break it down into smaller elements. The work breakdown structure is a hierarchical framework of deliverables that correspond with the project’s output.
Traditionally, the WBS is describing what and not how, so you should focus on deliverables instead of activities (e.g., payment rather than design/develop/test the payment path). Another way to think about it is that WBS describes “what the client will receive,” not “what actions will be done by the project team.” Some project managers, however, treat it more like a breakdown of tasks and subtasks, which also is a helpful document.
Why should you bother with creating a WBS in the first place? First of all, it’s easier to create a schedule when you see the deliverables broken down into smaller bits. You can also create and allocate tasks more comfortably, having the WBS on which you can rely.
Finally, such a hierarchical structure makes it faster to grasp the project scope, especially if one’s a visual thinker. Not sure if you identify as such? Check our guide Sketchnoting for Project Managers to see how you can benefit from visual thinking in project management.
You have the project scope statement and the WBS, so you know what should be included in the project. Now, you need the stakeholders to validate and sign off the scope. Review it to see if there are any ambiguities and try to finalize it before the project work begins. This way, you can reduce the chances of the scope creep.
When the project is going on, you have to control the scope. Monitor what’s been done vs. what was supposed to be done. During that process, you will probably find the following tools useful:
Compare project reports with the scope and the project management schedule to see if the timeline, workload, tasks completed, etc. align with your estimates.
The process of managing the scope of your project might seem complicated, especially given the amount of preparation that goes into it. Once you give it a try, however, you’ll see that the documents you create very early in the process (scope management plan and project scope statement) will help you tremendously further down the line and enable you to deliver the product or service your team is working on.
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