Chapter 5:

Project Scope Management

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Management, Seventh Edition
 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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 Project Scope Management Processes

1) Planning scope: determining how the project’s scope and

requirements will be managed
2) 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
3) Defining scope: reviewing the project charter, requirements
documents, and organizational process assets to create a scope
statement
4) Creating the WBS: subdividing the major project deliverables into
smaller, more manageable components
5) Validating scope: formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables
6) Controlling scope: controlling changes to project scope throughout
the life of the project

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 Project Scope Management Summary

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 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 5
 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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 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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 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 8
 Relative Cost to Correct a Software
Requirement Defect

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 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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 Statistics on Requirements for
Software Projects (2011 Survey)*
 88% of the software projects involved enhancing
existing products instead of creating new ones
 86% of respondents said that customer satisfaction

was the most important metric for measuring the

success of development projects
 83% 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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 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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 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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Table 5-2. Sample Project Charter (partial)

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Table 5-3: Further Defining Project Scope

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 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 neighbor’s house. Since
the time and cost are set, it’s 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 can’t get sponsors for most projects to

sign a similar release form. It would make project scope

management much easier!
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 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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 Figure 5-3. Sample Intranet WBS
Organized by Product

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 Figure 5-4. Sample Intranet WBS
Organized by Phase

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 Figure 5-5. Intranet WBS and Gantt
Chart in Microsoft Project

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 Figure 5-6. Intranet Gantt Chart Organized
by Project Management Process Groups

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 Table 5-4: Executing Tasks for JWD
Consulting’s WBS

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 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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 Figure 5-7. Sample Mind-Mapping
Approach for Creating a WBS

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 Figure 5-8. Gantt Charts With WBS Generated From a
Mind Map

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 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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 Table 5-5. Sample WBS Dictionary
Entry

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 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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 Advice for Creating a WBS and WBS
Dictionary (cont’d)
 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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 What Went Wrong?
 A project scope that is too broad and grandiose
can cause severe problems
◦ Scope creep and an overemphasis on technology for
technology’s sake resulted in the bankruptcy of a large
pharmaceutical firm, Texas-based FoxMeyer Drug
◦ In 2001, McDonald’s 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,
McDonald’s realized that the project was too much to
handle and terminated it

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 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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 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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 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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 Best Practices for Avoiding Scope
Problems
1. Keep the scope realistic. Don’t make projects so large that
they can’t 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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 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
 Don’t promise to deliver when you know you can’t
 Co-locate users with developers

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 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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 Suggestions for Reducing Incomplete
and Changing Requirements (cont’d)
 Provide adequate testing and conduct testing
throughout the project life cycle
 Review changes from a systems perspective
 Emphasize completion dates to help focus on

what’s most important

 Allocate resources specifically for handling

change requests/enhancements like NWA did with

ResNet

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 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 38
 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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