PMP - Scope Management

Imagine a scenario where you have an extremely important project under your command and, with its fixed objective, you’re all set to make it a grand success. You have everything under control, your project mandate and your project charter looks amazing, your project management plan is in place, and you’re ready to go! But, when you thought everything was in place and working fine, you remember that you’ve missed one very crucial stage in your project management endeavor—the scope.

The scope of a project is as important as the project manager leading the project. Without a proper scope in place or a scope that fluctuates as the project runs into execution, your project can really turn into a detrimental disaster. When you speak about project scope, you will get to know that all the planning and assignment and allocation of resources takes place with this aspect of the project. Within Project Scope Management, you will have a set of processes that eventually leads you accurately and precisely define and map the scope of a project with regard to its objectives.

Putting into practice these processes or techniques will enable you as a project manager to space out and accurately plan the resources needed at different phases of the project, in a manner so as to ensure there’s no inflation of cost or delay in the timelines set.

In projects, there are a lot of factors that surface during the execution of the project and that needs to be dealt with during the project life cycle. With Project Scope Management, you will be able to ensure that you look at those requests or changes to the original plan with one hand on the original scope. This way as a project manager, you will be able to decide what is part of the project scope and what is not.

What is Scope?

When you first hear the word scope, I am sure boundaries and limits or the reach of a particular entity passed your mind. In the world of project management, it surely sticks to the original meaning but can be accurately put as a set of deliverables of a project, planned in a way to achieve the ultimate project goal. These deliverables cascade from the requirements that in-turn comes from the objective of the project.

In PMBOK Verbatim, project scope is defined as:

“The work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service, or result with specified features and functions.”

Project Scope Management – Processes

There are 3 processes that are followed when it comes to project scope management and they are as follows:

• Planning – This process involves capturing data and defining the work that needs to completed in order to reach the project goal.
• Controlling – This process involves monitoring and tracking the scope of the project at all times. Reviews are conducted and documentation is created and regularly updated. This process also involves evaluation of changes to the project and check it again the scope of the project.
• Closing – Just like in the project phases/life cycle, in this process closing would simply mean bringing the entire activity to rest while still auditing and making sure that everything has been achieved as per the project’s intent.

While these are the broad category of processes followed, each project scope management technique or approach can be easily handled through these steps that are undertaken to ensure that your project scope management endeavor proceeds without any interruption or distraction, thus ensuring that your project activities and tasks proceed as per the plan.

There are 6 steps to ensure project scope management; these are as follows:

1. Planning Scope Management – The entire planning of your scope management activities takes place in this step. How you would be defining, validating, and controlling the scope of the project will be planned in this step. You will also discuss and put in plans as to help deal with scope creeps, change requests, and have an escalation path readied for any possible disagreements or disputes.
2. Collecting Requirements – Understanding stakeholders’ needs and the project objective is very important in determining the scope of the project. In this step, collecting data and information through different techniques is promoted to have a concise and rounded understanding of the requirements of the project.
3. Defining Scope – In this step, a detailed description of the project objective will be elaborated upon and a scope is thus born out of the requirements collected and the deliverables to be met. The scope establishes the outermost and innermost boundaries of the project and till where we can stretch or demarcate margins.
4. Creating a WBS – The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is one important aspect that fuels scope management, which eventually leads to successful projects with maximum profit in outcomes. The scope is chunked into smaller unit that can be effectively and efficiently worked upon. These chunks are called work packages. And, thus, are formed your activities and tasks.
5. Validating the Scope – In this step, the customer/client view and perspectives are taken into consideration once the scope is defined. In this case, since it’s a project, the customer/client of the project would be the stakeholders investing in the project. Accepting the deliverables jotted down in the scope would validate the claims of the scope being the most accurate. Work is evaluated and accordingly feedback is provided for each work package.
6. Controlling the Scope – In this step, the scope is monitored and inspected at designated intervals to contain the scope and restricting it from spilling over. Thus, ensuring effective management.

Project Scope Management Course Description

• Plan Scope Management – In this section, learn everything you need to know in order to plan a smashing scope and scope management flow to your latest project.
• Collect Requirements – In this section, learn of all the different tools and techniques there are to data and information collection for scoping and how much of value they can add to your management techniques.
• Define Scope – Learn about scope creation and how you can collate data to finally wind up with a successful scope and scoping mechanism for your project. Learn of all the tools and techniques you will need to get your scope right.
• Create WBS – Understand why you need WBS and how you will use the different tools and techniques there are to get your scope chunked to work packages.
• Validate Scope – Learn the role that stakeholders play in the validation process and how you can make a difference in this leg of the game.
• Control Scope – In this section, you will get the opportunity to learn from the best the ways of monitoring and inspecting the scope at all times in order to put up a great and successful project.