Chapter 5:

Project Scope
Management

Information Technology
Project Management,
Seventh Edition

Note: See the text itself for full citations.

 Learning Objectives
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
Explain the scope definition process and describe the

contents of a project scope statement

Discuss the process for creating a work breakdown

structure using the analogy, top-down, bottom-up, and

mind-mapping approaches

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 2
 Learning Objectives
Explain the importance of validating scope and
how it relates to defining and controlling scope
Understand the importance of controlling scope

and approaches for preventing scope-related

problems on information technology (IT) projects
Describe how software can assist in project scope

management

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 3
 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
A deliverable is a product produced as part of a

project, such as hardware or software, planning

documents, or meeting minutes
Project scope management includes the processes

involved in defining and controlling what is or is not

included in a project

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 4
 Project Scope Management Processes
Planning scope: determining how the projects scope
and requirements will be managed
Collecting requirements: defining and documenting the
features and functions of the products produced during the
project as well as the processes used for creating them
Defining scope: reviewing the project charter, requirements
documents, and organizational process assets to create a
scope statement
Creating the WBS: subdividing the major project deliverables
into smaller, more manageable components
Validating scope: formalizing acceptance of the project
deliverables
Controlling scope: controlling changes to project scope
throughout the life of the project
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 5
 Figure 5-1. Project Scope
Management Summary

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 6
 Planning Scope Management
The project team uses expert judgment and
meetings to develop two important outputs: the
scope management plan and the requirements
management plan
The scope management plan is a subsidiary part

of the project management plan

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 7
 Scope Management Plan Contents
How to prepare a detailed project scope statement
How to create a WBS
How to maintain and approve the WBS
How to obtain formal acceptance of the completed

project deliverables
How to control requests for changes to the project

scope

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 8
 Requirements Management
Plan
The PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition, describes
requirements as conditions or capabilities that
must be met by the project or present in the
product, service, or result to satisfy an agreement
or other formally imposed specification
The requirements management plan documents

how project requirements will be analyzed,

documented, and managed

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 9
 Collecting Requirements
For some IT projects, it is helpful to divide
requirements development into categories called
elicitation, analysis, specification, and validation
It is important to use an iterative approach to

defining requirements since they are often unclear

early in a project

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 10
 Figure 5-2. Relative Cost to Correct a Software
Requirement Defect

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 11
 Methods for Collecting Requirements
Interviewing
Focus groups and facilitated workshops
Using group creativity and decision-making

techniques
Questionnaires and surveys
Observation
Prototyping
Benchmarking, or generating ideas by comparing

specific project practices or product characteristics to

those of other projects or products inside or outside
the performing organization, can also be used to
collect requirements
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 12
 Statistics on Requirements for
Software Projects (2011 Survey)*
Eighty-eight percent of the software projects involved
enhancing existing products instead of creating new
ones
Eighty-six percent of respondents said that customer

satisfaction was the most important metric for

measuring the success of development projects
Eighty-three percent of software development teams

still use Microsoft Office applications such as Word

and Excel as their main tools to communicate
requirements
*John Simpson, 2011: The State of Requirements Management (2011).

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 13
 What Went Right?
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories uses
Accept software, a product planning and
innovation management application and winner of
the Excellence in Product Management Award
from 20062008
Accept helps them instill a consistent, repeatable,

and predictable process for new product definition

and development
They can define what information comprises a

requirement and enforce discipline around that

process

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 14
 Requirements Traceability Matrix
A requirements traceability matrix (RTM) is a table
that lists requirements, various attributes of each
requirement, and the status of the requirements to
ensure that all requirements are addressed
Table 5-1. Sample entry in an RTM

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 15
 Defining Scope
Project scope statements should include at least a
product scope description, product user acceptance
criteria, and detailed information on all project
deliverables. It is also helpful to document other
scope-related information, such as the project
boundaries, constraints, and assumptions. The
project scope statement should also reference
supporting documents, such as product
specifications
As time progresses, the scope of a project should

become more clear and specific

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 16
Table 5-2. Sample Project Charter (partial)

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 17
Table 5-3: Further Defining Project Scope

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 18
 Media Snapshot
Many
people enjoy watching television shows like
Trading Spaces, where participants have two days and
$1,000 to update a room in their neighbors house. Since
the time and cost are set, its the scope that has the
most flexibility
Although most homeowners are very happy with

work done on the show, some are obviously

disappointed. Part of agreeing to be on the show
includes signing a release statement acknowledging that
you will accept whatever work has been done
Too bad you cant get sponsors for most projects to

sign a similar release form. It would make project scope

management much easier!
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 19
 Creating the Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS)
A WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work
involved in a project that defines the total scope of the
project
WBS is a foundation document that provides the basis

for planning and managing project schedules, costs,

resources, and changes
Decomposition is subdividing project deliverables into

smaller pieces
A work package is a task at the lowest level of the WBS
The scope baseline includes the approved project

scope statement and its associated WBS and WBS

dictionary
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 20
 Figure 5-3. Sample Intranet WBS
Organized by Product

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 21
 Figure 5-4. Sample Intranet WBS
Organized by Phase

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 22
 Figure 5-5. Intranet WBS and Gantt
Chart in Microsoft Project

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 23
 Figure 5-6. Intranet Gantt Chart Organized
by Project Management Process Groups

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 24
 Table 5-4: Executing Tasks for JWD
Consultings WBS

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 25
 Approaches to Developing WBSs
Using guidelines: Some organizations, like the
DOD, provide guidelines for preparing WBSs
The analogy approach: Review WBSs of similar
projects and tailor to your project
The top-down approach: Start with the largest
items of the project and break them down
The bottom-up approach: Start with the specific
tasks and roll them up
Mind-mapping approach: Mind mapping is a
technique that uses branches radiating out from a
core idea to structure thoughts and ideas

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 26
 Figure 5-7. Sample Mind-Mapping
Approach for Creating a WBS

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 27
 Figure 5-8. Gantt Charts With WBS Generated From a
Mind Map

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 28
 The WBS Dictionary and Scope
Baseline
Many WBS tasks are vague and must be
explained more so people know what to do and
can estimate how long it will take and what it will
cost to do the work
A WBS dictionary is a document that describes

detailed information about each WBS item

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 29
 Table 5-5. Sample WBS Dictionary
Entry

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 30
 Advice for Creating a WBS and WBS Dictionary

A unit of work should appear at only one place in

the WBS.
The work content of a WBS item is the sum of the
WBS items below it
A WBS item is the responsibility of only one
individual, even though many people may be
working on it
The WBS must be consistent with the way in which
work is actually going to be performed; it should
serve the project team first, and other purposes
only if practical

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 31
 Advice for Creating a WBS and WBS
Dictionary (contd)
Project team members should be involved in
developing the WBS to ensure consistency and
buy-in
Each WBS item must be documented in a WBS
dictionary to ensure accurate understanding of the
scope of work included and not included in that
item
The WBS must be a flexible tool to accommodate
inevitable changes while properly maintaining
control of the work content in the project according
to the scope statement

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 32
 What Went Wrong?
A project scope that is too broad and grandiose
can cause severe problems
Scope creep and an overemphasis on technology for
technologys sake resulted in the bankruptcy of a large
pharmaceutical firm, Texas-based FoxMeyer Drug
In 2001, McDonalds fast-food chain initiated a project to
create an intranet that would connect its headquarters
with all of its restaurants to provide detailed operational
information in real time. After spending $170 million on
consultants and initial implementation planning,
McDonalds realized that the project was too much to
handle and terminated it

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 33
 Validating Scope
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
Scope validation involves formal acceptance of the
completed project deliverables
Acceptance is often achieved by a customer
inspection and then sign-off on key deliverables

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 34
 Global Issues
Many countries have had difficulties controlling the
scope of large projects, especially those that
involve advanced technologies and many different
users
For example, the state government of Victoria,

Australia, has a Web site for its public

transportation smart card at www.myki.com.au.
There were many problems in developing and

implementing the smart card

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 35
 Controlling Scope
Scope control involves controlling changes to the
project scope
Goals of scope control are to

influence the factors that cause scope changes

assure changes are processed according to procedures
developed as part of integrated change control, and
manage changes when they occur
Variance is the difference between planned and
actual performance

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 36
 Best Practices for Avoiding Scope
Problems
1. Keep the scope realistic. Dont make projects so large that
they cant be completed. Break large projects down into a
series of smaller ones
2. Involve users in project scope management. Assign key
users to the project team and give them ownership of
requirements definition and scope verification
3. Use off-the-shelf hardware and software whenever
possible. Many IT people enjoy using the latest and
greatest technology, but business needs, not technology
trends, must take priority
4. Follow good project management processes. As described
in this chapter and others, there are well-defined processes
for managing project scope and others aspects of projects

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 37
 Suggestions for Improving User Input
Develop a good project selection process and
insist that sponsors are from the user organization
Have users on the project team in important roles
Have regular meetings with defined agendas, and

have users sign off on key deliverables presented

at meetings
Deliver something to users and sponsors on a

regular basis
Dont promise to deliver when you know you cant
Co-locate users with developers

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 38
 Suggestions for Reducing Incomplete
and Changing Requirements
Develop and follow a requirements management
process
Use techniques such as prototyping, use case
modeling, and JAD to get more user involvement
Put requirements in writing and keep them current
Create a requirements management database for
documenting and controlling requirements

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 39
 Suggestions for Reducing Incomplete
and Changing Requirements (contd)
Provide adequate testing and conduct testing
throughout the project life cycle
Review changes from a systems perspective
Emphasize completion dates to help focus on

whats most important

Allocate resources specifically for handling

change requests/enhancements like NWA did with

ResNet

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 40
 Using Software to Assist in Project
Scope Management
Word-processing software helps create several
scope-related documents
Spreadsheets help to perform financial
calculations, weighed scoring models, and
develop charts and graphs
Communication software like e-mail and the Web
help clarify and communicate scope information
Project management software helps in creating a
WBS, the basis for tasks on a Gantt chart
Specialized software is available to assist in
project scope management

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 41
 Chapter Summary
Project scope management includes the
processes required to ensure that the project
addresses all the work required, and only the work
required, to complete the project successfully
Main processes include

Define scope management

Collect requirements
Define scope
Create WBS
Validate scope
Control scope

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 42