Define Scope

-Rikesh Mathew

Define Scope

Develop Project Charter

Project Integration Management is the specific responsibility of the project manager andit cannot be delegated or transferred. The project manager is the one that combines theresults from all the other Knowledge Areas to provide an overall view of the project. Theproject manager is ultimately responsible for the project as a whole.Projects and project management are integrative by nature, with most tasks involvingmore than one Knowledge Area.The relationships of processes within the Project Management Process Groups andbetween the Project Management ProcessProject Integration Management is about:Ensuring that the due dates of project deliverables, the project life cycle, and thebenefits realization plan are aligned;Providing a project management plan to achieve the project objectives;Ensuring the creation and the use of appropriate knowledge to and from theproject;Managing project performance and changes to the project activities;Making integrated decisions regarding key changes impacting the project;Measuring and monitoring progress and taking appropriate action;Collecting, analyzing and communicating project information to relevantstakeholders;Completing all the work of the project and formally closing each phase, contract,and the project as a whole; andManaging phase transitions when necessary

PM Process Group

: Planning

Knowledge Group
PM Knowledge Area

: Scope

Scope Knowledge Area

What does it do?

  • Process of developing a detailed description of the project.
  • This helps expose risks and it also clarifies project assumptions
  • Defines which of the requirements from the collect requirements will be included in the project.
  • This process is iterative:
      1. Initiation: High level vision is established
      2. Planning stage: High-level requirements are broken into smaller components
      3. Monitoring & Controlling: Change requests may result in change in scope

Key Benefits

  • It establishes project boundaries and shows what’s included and excluded to prevent scope creep
  • Provides detailed understanding on the requirements to be executed and delivered

ITTO

Inputs

1. Project Charter
  • Formal documentation that defines high level project description
  • Contains project approval requirements
2. Project Management Plan
  • Any component of the PM plan can be used to help define the project scope.
  • The most important one is the project scope management plan
      1. Defines how scope will be defined, developed, monitored, and controlled throughout lifecycle
      2. Creates boundaries for your scope
      3. How to add new requirements to scope statement if scope changes
3. Project Documents
i. Assumptions log
  • Identifies assumptions and constraints of a project
ii. Requirements documentation
  • Output of Collect Requirements
  • Used to select the requirements that will be included
  • Requirements begin at a high level and then clarified s more information is known (progressive elaboration)
iii. Risk Register
  • Contains risks and risk response strategies that may affect project scope
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF)
  • We have no control over these factors but they can impact our project
      1. Organizational Culture
      2. Infrastructure
      3. Marketplace conditions
5. Operational Process Assets (OPA)
  • The way your organization wants you to run your projects which includes templates
  • Includes the 4 P’s – Plan, Processes, Procedures & Policy
  • Lessons Learned knowledge base
  • Historical Information
  • Standardised guidelines and work instructions.

Tools & Techniques

1. Expert Judgement
  • Groups or Individuals with specialised knowledge to develop a detailed scope statement
  • Experts may have defined scope for similar projects
2. Data Analysis
  • Any analysis that analyses data
  • Includes Alternatives Analysis
      1. Develop as many approaches as possible when defining scope
      2. It evaluates different ways to meet requirements
      3. Go with the best approach
3. Decision Making
  • We are making decisions on which requirements are going to include in our project
  • To help make the decision, we use Multicriteria decision Analysis – Weighted Average
4. Interpersonal & Team Skills
i. Facilitation
  • Used in workshops with diverse stakeholders from cross-functional teams.
  • To come to a common understanding of the project deliverables
5. Product Analysis
  • Defines products or services
  • You are forming the use, characteristics and other aspects of the deliverable
  • Translate product descriptions to tangible deliverables.
  • High-level details are decomposed to smaller details
  • Includes techniques such as
      1. Product breakdown
      2. Requirements analysis
      3. Systems analysis
      4. Systems engineering

Outputs

1. Project Scope Statement
  • Description of the product scope and the deliverables
  • Contains what’s included and excluded from scope
  • Progressive elaboration
  • Part of your scope baseline
  • Components of scope baseline include
      1. Product scope description: Characteristics of product/service/result
      2. Deliverables: Unique and quantifiable product/service/result
      3. Acceptance criteria: Required conditions to accept deliverables
      4. Project exclusions: Whatever is out of scope – helps manage stakeholder expectations
      5. Constraints: Limits that affect project execution
      6. Assumptions: Planning process factors that may not be true
2. Project Document Updates
  • Due to evolving scope, project documents will require updating
  • Documents that may be updated include
      1. Assumptions Log
      2. Requirements documentation
      3. Requirements traceability matrix
      4. Stakeholder register

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