Hello fellow project managers, project coordinators, testers, developers and any other professions reading this blog! Today’s topic is focused on scope management and its importance. I hope you enjoy reading this post!
What is scope? Why is it important? Why do we care about project scope? Why is it a big deal if we have scope creep or doing work that is potentially out of scope? These are all very important questions that require a lot of thought and a good understanding of project management. Project scope is what drives the project from the very beginning. Without a clear project scope, project managers and stakeholders within the project will not understand the end goal that they are trying to achieve and the purpose of the project.
Project scope dictates the objective of the project, the purpose of the project and the end results that are going to be achieved. As a project manager, it is very important to define the project scope at the early stages of the project. The reason for this is that once the project is active and in the requirements, design, development or testing stages, stakeholders of the project may come in and try to bring new requirements or changes to the requirements that were not part of the original scope of the project. If this situation happens, this can lead to a multitude of various issues, including, but not limited to:
- Impacts to project schedule: project schedule will be impacted if the original project plan was intended to implement solution X and now the scope includes implementing project X with a component Y. Component Y may not have been part of the original scope, but adding this component may impact your project from a few hours of extra work to potentially months, depending on how complex the component is and the level of effort required from the project team in terms of requirements, design, development and testing.
- Impacts to project budget: Adding new scope to an existing project can impact the project budget as well. This is due to the fact that this work was not planned for, which means resources will need to spend an additional amount of time to incorporate this component into the project. With additional hours, this will increase the labor cost associated with the project. The change in scope can also change the type of product that is being utilized, which may require additional license fees to be paid and/or customization cost to meet the new requirements that were not part of the scope previously.
- Changes to the purpose of the project: When finalizing scope in the initial stages of a project, it is important to make sure that there is a clear objective that is being met. When there is additional scope added to a project, it is critical to make sure that it does not impact the purpose of the project and what is trying to be achieved.
- Misalignment and confusion with project stakeholders: When the project scope changes, it can lead to mass confusion with various stakeholders. Stakeholders may question as to why scope is being changed/added as it may impact the overall purpose of the project. As a project manager, it is important to make sure that all stakeholders are aware of what the scope of the project is and keep them aligned towards a common goal.
Project scope is important for a project manager to understand and keep in mind as he/she goes into meetings with the project’s stakeholders as well as works in different phases of the project lifecycle. In the requirements phase, it is important to make sure that project stakeholders do not add requirements that can change the scope of the overall project. In the design phase, it is important to make sure that the stakeholders are not bringing any “new” design changes that will impact the project scope or the original requirements that were defined. The test phase is where project stakeholders really have a first look at how the system will operate in the future state so its important to make sure that they do not bring any new requirements that will change the scope of the project.
How do you manage project scope? What aspects of scope management do you focus on? Leave your comments below!