Scope

Breaking down the process of planning scope management

By Kelsey Locaylocay

On the list of project management knowledge areas, project scope management is the first on that list. In the simplest of terms, project scope management is known to be the part of project management that involves “defining and managing all the work required to complete a project successfully”. This phase of project management is known to be very critical and important because it is the defining process of the entire project. This knowledge area deals with defining and controlling the certain things that should, and should not be, included in the project. To have a better understanding of scope management, let's imagine that there is this empty ground where construction for a house needs to be done. If a blueprint or plan for the house is not provided, then the end result could be anything, hence why project scope management is important - so that we can define what we need and what we don't need.

In project scope management there are six processes which are followed in order to successfully navigate your way through this knowledge area:

Each process is vitally important to scope, but especially planning scope management. Planning scope management is the process that will kickstart the project in a good direction, so it’s important for project managers to execute this process perfectly. With that said, let’s delve deeper into understanding the process of planning scope management.

planning scope management

The Three Factors

The process of planning scope management includes how the scope will be managed throughout the entirety of the project. After looking over the project management plan and other factors as well such as the project charter, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets, the project team will discuss and use expert judgement to create two important things: the scope management plan and the requirements management plan. However, before diving into those two topics, let's get a better understanding of what those factors listed before are:

Project Charter

Project charter includes several sub-factors such as the purpose of the project, business objectives, project description, project scope and boundaries, requirements for the project and more. Overall, this factor of project scope management entails documenting why a project is being undertaken and the benefits it will bring.

Enterprise Environmental Factors

Enterprise environmental factors includes sub-factors such as defining risk estimation, government regulatory laws, competitor influence, organizational structure, and more. Overall, this factor of project scope management entails defining all environmental factors (both internal and external) that could possibly influence the success of the project itself.

Organizational Process Assets

Organizational Process Assets includes several sub-factors such as defining organization policies and guidelines, organization standards, project management policies, and safety policies. Overall, this factor of project scope management entails defining anything that can be used in the actual management of the project.

Scope Management Plan

Now moving on to the scope management plan, the plan itself primarily deals with determining how the scope is explained, developed, structured and verified. Project managers use this plan in order to map their project so that it stays within the planned scope. By doing so, project managers are able to distribute resources in a certain way so that the project can meet the timely requirements, as well as the budget and quality requirements.

The plan itself consists of various requirements such as a detailed project scope statement, a WBS (work breakdown structure) that is then maintained and approved, a formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables, and then control requests for changes to the project. As you can see, creating a scope management plan may seem difficult to accomplish simply because there are multiple things that must be included. However, there are seven steps that one can follow in order to create a scope management plan. By following these steps, you can get a better understanding of the scope management plan.

Requirements Management Plan

The requirements management plan consists of documenting how the requirements for the project will be analyzed, documented, and managed. It is within this plan that the following information is included and required:

How to:
- Plan, track, and report requirements activities
- Perform configuration management activities
- Prioritize requirements
- Use product metrics
- Trace and capture attributes of requirements

This step of planning scope management is highly important. It’s often easy for those working on the project to unintentionally omit requirements, fail to document important information, or leave certain requirements incomplete. The requirements management plan helps to keep the project on track and everything accountable.

Overall, the process of planning scope management can be one that seems daunting and intimidating. However, this process can successfully be understood by breaking down each of the requirements and steps. From looking over the three factors (project charter, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets) to breaking down the two plans (scope and requirements), breaking down each step in the planning process can make everything a bit easier to understand as a whole.

Sources

Malsam, William. “How to Make a Scope Management Plan.” ProjectManager.com, ProjectManager.com, 24 Sept. 2020, www.projectmanager.com/blog/scope-management-plan.
Dow, Rebecca. “The Difference Between Project Charter and Project Scope Statement.” MindGenius, MindGenius, 28 June 2019, www.mindgenius.com/the-difference-between-project-charter-and-project-scope-statement/.
“Downloadable Free Requirements Management Plan.” Project Management Docs, 11 Dec. 2019, www.projectmanagementdocs.com/template/project-planning/requirements-management-plan/.
Schwalbe, Kathy. Information Technology Project Management. Cengage, 2019.

Page updated

Report abuse