PMP - Scope Management

An Overview of Scope

Definition: Scope is the way that we describe the boundaries of the project. It defines what the project will deliver and what it will not deliver. For larger projects, it can include the organizations affected, the transactions affected, the data types included, etc.

If you look at the reasons that projects fail, it is usually the result of two problems. Either the team did not spend enough time defining the project and/or there was a lack of scope management. Even if the project manager did a good job of defining scope, the hard part comes in having to manage the project to that agreed-upon scope.

First things first - without proper scope definition in the Define Work step, you have no chance to manage scope effectively. Evoking the scope change process implies that a change is outside the scope agreed to in the Project Definition. If that scope is fuzzy, or leaves room for interpretation, then the client may say that the change is within scope, and the project manager will find it difficult to make scope management stick.

The purpose of scope change management is to protect the viability of the current approved Project Definition. When the project was defined, certain assumptions were made as to what the project was going to produce. These were identified and agreed to in the scope section of the Project Definition. If the deliverables change during the project (and usually this means that the client wants additional items), the estimates for cost, effort and duration may no longer be valid. However, if the sponsor agrees to include the new work into the project scope, the project manager has the right to expect that the cost, effort hours and /or duration will be modified (usually increased) to reflect this additional work. This new cost / effort / duration now become the approved target.

Sometimes the project manager thinks that scope management means having to tell the client 'no'. That makes the project manager nervous and uncomfortable. However, the good news is that effective scope management is the art of getting the Sponsor to say 'no'. This is very important. Few clients can see and express every requirement up-front. Therefore, there are usually changes that need to be introduced during the life cycle. These changes may be very necessary for the solution and there may be valid business reasons why they should be included. The project manager and project team must recognize when these changes are requested. Then they must follow a predefined scope change process. This process ultimately brings the appropriate information to the Project Sponsor for resolution.