Chapter 4: Project scope management. After reading this chapter, you will be able to: Understand the importance of good project scope management, describe the process of planning scope management, discuss methods for collecting and documenting requirements to meet stakeholder needs and expectations,...
Chapter 4: Project Scope Management adopted from PMI’s PMBOK 2000 and Textbook : Information Technology Project Management (author : Dr. Kathy Schwalbe) Contents • Importance of scope management • Project Scope Management Processes (Initiation, Scope planning, Scope definition, Scope verification, Scope change control) – Initiation (init phase) • key tools: selecting project based on financial methods (NPV, ROI and Payback analysis) – – – – – Scope Planning (planning phase) Scope definition (planning phase) Scope verification (control phase) Scope change control (control phase) methods to improve Screening a project What is Project Scope Management? • Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them • Project scope management includes the processes involved in defining and controlling what is or is not included in the project • The project team and stakeholders must have the same understanding of what products will be produces as a result of a project and what processes will be used in producing them Chapter 4 Project Scope Management Processes • Initiation: beginning a project or continuing to the next phase • Scope planning: developing documents to provide the basis for future project decisions • Scope definition: subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components • Scope verification: formalizing acceptance of the project scope • Scope change control: controlling changes to project scope Chapter 4 Project Initiation: Strategic Planning and Project Selection • 1st initiation phase process • Initiation is the process of formally authorizing a project or that an existing project should continue on the next phase – The first step in initiating projects is to look at the big picture or strategic plan of an organization – Strategic planning involves determining longterm business objectives – IT projects should support strategic and financial business objectives Chapter 4 Inputs to Project Initiation • Product description – documents the characteristics of the products or service that the project was undertaken to solve. It also documents the business need that created the project • Strategic plan – describes the origination’s mission, vision, and goals for the future. Everything in projects management supports the strategic business plan of the origination. • Project selection criteria – defined in terms of the product, this covers the full range of management concerns. They are typically defined in terms of specific benefits of the project to the business • Historical information – results of previous decisions and performance. – For example: a) relevant lessons learned from past projects; b) the history with a particular customer; c) the history with similar projects Identifying Potential Projects • Many organizations follow a planning process for selecting IT projects • First develop an IT strategic plan based on the organization’s overall strategic plan • Then perform a business area analysis • Then define potential projects • Then select IT projects and assign resources Chapter 4 Tools & techniques • Project selection methods – they are techniques, practices or procedures for selecting a project that best supports the organization’s objectives. – Project selection methods generally fall into two broad categories: • a) benefit measurement methods – corporative approaches, scoring models, and benefitcontribution and entomic models; • b) constrained optimization methods – mathematical models using linear, dynamic, integer, and multiobjective programming algorithms • Expert judgment – Subject experts with specialized knowledge or training assess the inputs to this process. Results of this analysis are a documented opinion or recommendation Methods for Selecting IT Projects • There are usually more projects than available time and resources to implement them • It is important to follow a logical process for selecting IT projects to work on • It is often difficult to provide strong justification for many IT projects, but everyone agrees they have a high value • “It is better to measure gold roughly than to count pennies precisely” • Three important criteria for projects: – There is a need for the project – There are funds available Chapter 4 – There’s a strong will to make the project succeed 10 Scope verification & Scope change control • It is very difficult to create a good scope statement and WBS for a project • It is even more difficult to verify project scope and minimize scope changes • Many IT projects suffer from scope creep and poor scope verification 38 Scope Verification • 2nd of 8 controlling phase process • Scope verification is the process of formalizing acceptance of the project scope by key stakeholders, especially the customer and sponsor • It requires reviewing work products and results to ensure that all product or service features and functions are complete, correct and satisfactory Chapter 4 39 Inputs to Scope Verification • Work results – deliverables have been fully or partially completed, as well as what costs have been incurred or committed. They are the outcome of activities performed and are fed into the performance reporting process • Product documentation – any paperwork describing the project’s products must be available for review 40 Tools & techniques for Scope Verification • Inspection – activities such as measuring, examining, and testing undertaken to determine if results conform to requirements – The purpose is to identify any particular on variances, omissions, deficiencies, gaps, and errors 41 Outputs from Scope Verification • Formal acceptance – documentation of approving the project of the project, or phase, needs to be prepared. Often the client or sponsor needs to sign off on formal documents as a part of wrapping up the project 42 Scope Change Control • 3rd of 8 controlling phase process • Change control procedures enable project manager to understand and manage change requests. • Project manager need to control the scope of both the product and the project. – The big change requests are easy to spot because they happen all at once. – When there are small multiple change requests, these are known as scope creep and it can be a difficult to detect 43 Inputs to Scope Change Control • WBS – a scope definition tool that organizes the work and provides a basis for project estimates. • Performance reports – alert the project team. Status reports describe the project’s current standing. Progress report describes the team’s accomplishment • Change requests – the result of external events such as government regulations, error or omissions in scope definition, and valueadded changes • Scope management plan – part of the Project Plan. It describes how the project scope will be managed, how changes will be identified and classified, how changes will be integrated into the project, and what the required 44 procedures are form making changes Tools & techniques for Scope Change Control • Scope change control system – defines the procedures by which the scope of the project may be changed. It includes the paperwork, tracking systems, and approval levels necessary for authorizing changes. (e.g. change request form) • Performance measurement – techniques to assess the magnitude of any variations that occur in the performance of the project • Additional planning – activities that may be necessary to the project plan or subsidiary plan in order to adjust to changes 45 46 Outputs from Scope Change Control • Scope changes – any modifications to the authorized project scope as defined by the approved WBS. It often requires adjustments to cost, time, quality, or other project objectives • Corrective action – anything that bring the performance back in line with the project plan • Lessons learned – assessments that include the causes of variances, reasoning behind corrective actions, and other types of lessons learned as a result of scope change 47 Table 44. Factors Causing IT Project Problems* Factor Lack of user input Incomplete requirements and specifications Changing requirements and specifications Lack of executive support Technology incompetence Lack of resources Unrealistic expectations Unclear objectives Unrealistic time frames New Technology Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 *Johnson, Jim, "CHAOS: The Dollar Drain of IT Project Failures," Application Development Trends, January 1995, www.stadishgroup.com/chaos.html Chapter 4 48 Suggestions for Improving User Input • Insist that all projects have a sponsor from the user organization • Have users on the project team • Have regular meetings • Deliver something to project users and sponsor on a regular basis • Colocate users with the developers 49 Suggestions for Reducing Incomplete and Changing Requirements • Develop and follow a requirements management process • Employ techniques such as prototyping, use case modeling, and Joint Application Design to thoroughly understand user requirements • Put all requirements in writing and current • Create a requirements management database • Provide adequate testing • Use a process for reviewing requested changes from a systems perspective • Emphasize completion dates Chapter 4 50 Summary • Importance of scope management • Project Scope Management Processes – – – – – Initiation Scope planning Scope definition Scope verification Scope change control • Initiation: selecting project – needs, category, financial (NPV, ROI and Payback analysis) and weight score Chapter 4 51 Summary (2) • Scope planning – Charter to define objective – key project stakeholders should agree and sign the charter • Scope definition – Scope statement, WBS is a tool to define scope • Scope verification and change control – very difficult, common problem in IT – scope creep and change of user requirement • methods to improve: – prototyping, case modeling, put requirement in writing, provide adequate testing, incorporate change request review, emphasis on completion dates Chapter 4 52 ...Contents • Importance of scope management • Project Scope Management Processes (Initiation, Scope planning, Scope definition, Scope verification, Scope change control) – Initiation (init phase)... Screening a project What is Project Scope Management? • Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them • Project scope management includes the processes ... existence of a project and provides direction on the project s objectives and management • Key project stakeholders should sign a project charter to acknowledge agreement on the need and intent of the project Chapter 4 21 Sample Project Charter