Executive in wait

Inputs Project scope management is one of the key knowledge areas addressed by PMP. Its also a key skills for successful solution delivery.

Key Stakeholders involved in the scoping activities include:

• Project Sponsor / Executive
• Business Process Owner and SME for business area
• IT Management supporting this business area

Project Scope Management of PMP includes processes to ensure that all and only the work required by the project is done on any project. The key processes for this area in PMP are:

1. Scope Planning
2. Scope Definition
3. Creating Work Breakdown Structure / Product Breakdown Structure
4. Scope Verification
5. Scope Control

Scope Planning

Elaborate ,formal and time consuming scope planning activities are often necessary for critical projects. Decisions on scope are typically documented in a scope management plan. This plan contains information on:

• How the project scope will be defined
• Define a WBS from Project Scope
• How the scope will be verified
• How the scope will be kept in control

Scope Definition

Scope definition and decomposition involve the activities to size the proposed project so that estimates can be made of costs, resources requirements and project duration. This phase builds on the initial Project Scope statement. Assumptions, constraints on the project are elaborated in this phase. Dependencies of the project are identified and documented. The output of this phase is a Project Scope Document which typically has:

• Business objectives and high level requirements
• Strategic alignment describing how the initiative fits with organizational direction or mission.
• Project Description: Characteristics of the product/service being developed.
• Project Objectives : Key success criteria which include time/cost constraints, quality targets etc. Each objective can have a metric like dollars for cost.
• Project Boundaries: Including context diagrams to provide a visual model of the scope of the project
• Project Deliverables
• Initial constraints, assumptions, dependencies and risks
• Project team organization
• Important Project Milestones
• Initial cost and time estimates
• Project Configuration management details

Creating a WBS/PBS

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), is a decomposition of work that is required to complete a project to accomplish the business objectives. It is typically deliverable-oriented and hierarchical in nature. The WBS describes the total scope of the project work to be performed. A Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)
is a decomposition of the components of the product. The PBS describes the total scope of the product or service to be delivered.

Creation of a WBS(or PBS) is the next step after completion of a Project Scope Document. In this phase deliverables are divided into manageable components of work until deliverables until they are defined into a work package level. Cost and schedule should be reliably estimated from work packages.

A WBS dictionary can be created to support the WBS.

Scope Verification

This phase involves obtaining stakeholders formal approval to the completed project scope.

Scope control

This is to assure that all changes to the scope are processed through established change control processes. Scope changes can be

• Request for new items to be added in projects scope
• Request to modify deliverables
• Removal of deliverables from project scope. (de-scoping)