HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
Project Scope Management
Every business or organization exists for a specific purpose. While most are intended to make
money, there are usually more defined goals under that general umbrella. For example, your
business might be designed to sell a specific product or service, or even just provide information
on a given topic. Whatever it is that your organization is meant to do, it is critical that it does that
job to the highest possible level.
On a smaller scale, it is the same way with projects. Projects exist within organizations, and they
are intended to accomplish a specific purpose as well. However, instead of selling a certain
product, a project might be created to design a new feature that will be included with that product
or service forthwith.
No matter what a project is designed to do, it is crucial that it be defined and established as
accurately as possible ahead of time. This is often called the scope of the project. Scope
management is a knowledge area that is focused on making sure that a given project includes
everything that it needs to complete the task as described, and nothing more. The first step in
undertaking any project consists of identifying exactly what youre going to do, the scope of
work. In this stage, you identify major elements of work and then break them down
systematically into smaller and smaller pieces, until each piece becomes a comfortable size to
estimate, execute, and monitor. Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of
the project and the processes used to create them.
Deliverables describe products created as part of a project. Deliverables can be product related,
such as a piece of hardware or software, or process-related, such as a planning document or
meeting minutes. Project stakeholders must agree what the products of the project are and, to
some extent, how they should be produced to define all of the deliverables. If a project doesnt
have all necessary resources available to it, the project isnt likely to be finished because it will
be ill-prepared for the challenges ahead. At the same time, if the project has more than it needs,
the outcome may be reached but resources will have been wasted along the way. Getting the

38

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
scope just right on a project is one of the most important elements of achieving success in the
end.
Only when the scope is dialed in correctly can everything else in the project be completed
according to plan. The resources dedicated to a project can take on many forms, but all of them
are important. The scope of a project takes a view of these resources as a whole to determine if
the project has just what is needed to reach the goal that has been laid out. Firstly, project
requirements must be collected and defined so that a work breakdown structure (WBS)
document can be created. The WBS is a deliverable-orientated hierarchical decomposition of the
work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the
required deliverables. Some examples of the resources that a project can use would include;

Employees; this is probably the first resource that is considered when putting together a
new project. Who is going to work on these tasks? Do these people exist within the
organization, or will new team members need to be recruited? Do current employees have
the time available to work on this project specifically? All these questions and more need
to be answered when assembling a project team. Getting the team right is a major factor
of properly scoping a project.

Budget; most projects include some kind of capital budget for expenses that go beyond
things like payroll. There may be some costs associated with buying materials that will go
into that new feature. Budgeting for things like raw materials and new equipment also
goes toward the overall scope of the project.

Time; as they say, time is money in business. The longer a project takes to be completed,
the more it will cost the organization. When a project is first being designed, there should
be a timeline in place that defines the scope of the work in that regard. For example, a
project could be planned to take only a month, or it could be scheduled for a year or
more. Since time and money are so closely connected, predicting the time scope of the
project accurately is important when it comes to controlling costs.

Goal; one other important piece of project scope is simply what the goal of the project is
in the first place. This can often become lost in the shuffle as the project develops, and
the final result may end up well outside of the scope that was originally intended. For
example, instead of designing a new feature for an existing product, the team could end
39

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
up with a whole new product entirely. While that could be a good or a bad thing, it is
certainly outside of the original scope of the project.
The four items above are usually the main components that need to be considered when
framing the scope of an upcoming project. Project managers are not only tasked with getting
to the end of a project successfully, but also with making sure that what happens during the
project is within the scope that was laid out for them at the beginning.
The Concept of Creep
The idea of scope creep is one that has plenty of uses in business, and it applies in project
management as well. While trying to keep a project within its original scope, you might find
that project scope creep starts to develop and things grow quickly out of control. This
happens when one part of the project spurs an idea to do something else, or to add onto what
is already being done. The project creeps larger and larger until it isnt anything like what it
was supposed to be in the beginning. Preventing project creep is a task that the project
manager and other leaders should take seriously. If creep is left unchecked over a period of
time, the overall project could end up being far more costly and time consuming than
expected.
Being a business leader in general is largely about understanding and managing scope. The
best companies in the world know exactly what they do best, and they stick to it as closely as
possible. Many businesses have been undone by straying from their core competency and
trying to do too much, too quickly. Dont let that happen to a project that you are managing.
Laying out a defined scope at the beginning of the work, and then sticking with it as much as
possible throughout the project life-cycle, is the path toward a successful conclusion and
overall improvement for the organization.
Managing the Project Scope

40

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
There is a well-known saying which states that: Projects dont fail at the end, they fail at the
beginning. There is a lot of truth in this and whilst failure may not appear obvious until the
final stages of a project, the post implementation review often finds that there were known
issues with the project which could and should have been addressed at a much earlier point.
These issues often turn up to do with the scope of the project. The word scope has two
distinct uses in project management;
Project scope refers to the work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service,
or result with the specified features and functions.
Product scope refers to the features and functions that characterize a product, service or
result.
In both instances defining scope is an exercise in fact finding, documenting and gaining
agreement about what needs to be done and how. This can be a time consuming process and
those project team members involved in the scoping exercise can find it frustrating because
stakeholders whose input is needed may not always be available for meetings and often
assign these things a lower priority than their own day-to-day work. This is quite
understandable because many of them will not be part of the project team and they are
unlikely to have had sufficient time allocated in their already busy schedules for this
additional work.
To fully appreciate this problem you need to be aware of the distinction between allocated
time and elapsed time. Even if sufficient time has been allocated for meetings with
stakeholders and they are able to find this time in their schedules, there may be delays in
when these meetings happen. These delays tend to accumulate so that instead of having 20
hours of meetings over two weeks, you end up with 20 hours of meetings over three and a
half weeks. In this example, the allocated time has not been exceeded but the elapsed time
has overrun significantly.

41

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
This can lead to a situation where the project appears to be slipping almost from the very
beginning because project team members cannot get sufficient face time with stakeholders
outside of the project or cannot get these people into the same meeting where a consensus
about what is required could be worked out.
There is also the problem of how to occupy project team members during this elapsed time. A
common response to this situation is to gloss over the importance of the scoping exercise
based on the feeling that everybody seems to pretty much agree, and we really do need to get
on and produce some deliverables. This scenario is more common and represents the biggest
single problem with the scoping aspect of the project very seldom is enough time allowed
for it to be done properly.
Differences in perception of what was meant when the client specified the project
deliverables can lead to vastly different understandings of what exactly is required. Not only
must the scope be agreed up front, it needs to be constantly monitored throughout the project
to avoid it changing in a way that will break the budget or timescale, or will contravene
stakeholders expectations of the final deliverable.
One needs to define those things that are out of scope as well as those things that are within
the scope the scope of the project because it cannot be taken for granted that everyone
involved understands where the scope of the project ends unless they are specifically told that
information. Most experienced project managers would agree that the scope of the project
needs to be decided on and documented before any real work begins. However, in the real
world this ideal is often compromised because insufficient elapsed time has been allocated
for it.
Remember, the principal challenge of project management is to accomplish the project goals
and objectives while respecting the constraints of scope, time and cost. One of the most
effective ways of balancing these constraints is by developing clear and comprehensive scope
statement. In a nutshell therefore,

42

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
-defining scope is an exercise in fact finding, documenting and gaining agreement about what
needs to be done and how.
-it can be difficult to get sufficient face time with stakeholders to achieve consensus about the
exact scope of the project.
-scope needs to be constantly monitored to avoid it changing in a way that will break the
budget or timescale, or will contravene stakeholders expectations of the final deliverable.
Project scope management therefore includes the processes involved in defining and controlling
what work is or is not included in a project. It ensures that the project team and stakeholders
have the same understanding of what products the project will produce and what processes the
project team will use to produce them. Six main processes are involved in project scope
management:
i)

Planning scope management; involves determining how the projects scope and
requirements will be managed. The project team works with appropriate stakeholders
to create a scope management plan and requirements management plan.

ii)

Collecting requirements; involves defining and documenting the features and

functions of the products for the project as well as the processes used for creating
them. The project team creates requirements documentation and a requirements
traceability matrix as outputs of the requirements collection process.

iii)

Defining scope; involves reviewing the scope management plan, project charter,
requirements documents, and organizational process assets to create a scope
statement, adding more information as requirements are developed and change
requests are approved. The main outputs of scope definition are the project scope
statement and updates to project documents.

iv)

Creating the Work Breakdown Structure; involves subdividing the major project
deliverables into smaller, more manageable components. The main outputs include a
scope baseline (which includes a work breakdown structure and a WBS dictionary)
and updates to project documents. There are several good reasons why its smart to do
good WBS:

43

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D

The WBS provides an easy-to-read graphical representation of the work, allowing

stakeholders to review it thoroughly for missing elements of work.

People often underestimate the effort required to execute a project. A fully developed
WBS underscores how much work there really is.

The WBS provides a convenient and logical structure for estimating the duration and the
cost of each activity, as well as for assigning responsibilities and resources to activities.

The WBS provides an excellent source for examining the risks associated with the
project.

A sample WBS for an intranet project is shown below;

v)

Validating scope; involves formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables. Key

project stakeholders, such as the customer and sponsor for the project, inspect and
then formally accept the deliverables during this process. If the deliverables are not
acceptable, the customer or sponsor usually requests changes. The main outputs of
this process, therefore, are accepted deliverables, change requests, work performance
information, and updates to project documents.

vi)

Controlling scope involves controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of
the projecta challenge on many IT projects. Scope changes often influence the
44

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
teams ability to meet project time and cost goals, so project managers must carefully
weigh the costs and benefits of scope changes. The main outputs of this process are
work performance information, change requests, and updates to the project
management plan, project documents, and organizational process assets. The goal of
scope control is to influence the factors that cause scope changes, to ensure that
changes are processed according to procedures developed as part of integrated change
control, and to manage changes when they occur. You cannot do a good job of
controlling scope if you do not first do a good job of collecting requirements, defining
scope, and validating scope.
How can you prevent scope creep when you have not agreed on the work to be performed and
your sponsor has not validated that the proposed work was acceptable? You also need to develop
a process for soliciting and monitoring changes to project scope. Stakeholders should be
encouraged to suggest changes that will benefit the overall project and discouraged from
suggesting unnecessary changes. The project management plan, requirements documentation,
requirements traceability matrix, work performance data, and organizational process assets are
the main inputs to scope control.
An important tool for performing scope control is variance analysis. Variance is the difference
between planned and actual performance. For example, if a supplier was supposed to deliver five
special keyboards and you received only four, the variance would be one keyboard. The outputs
of scope control include work performance information, change requests, project management
plan updates, project documents updates, and organizational process assets updates.
Identifying Who Does What: The Responsibility Assignment Matrix
The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) is a tool that identifies how project participants
interact with the activities of the project. The most common type of interaction is responsibility
for completing an activity. But consider other situations, such as these: a technical expert who
must be consulted on several activities, management approvals that are required before initiating
an activity, or a client representative who must be notified when certain activities have been

45

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
completed. The RAM provides an opportunity for documenting these types of people-project
interactions.
Along the left of the RAM are the project activitiesagain, a direct output of the WBS. (These
should be elements of work, not functional responsibility.) Across the top are the major project
participants. (These should be specific individuals. You may indicate just the departments, before
individuals are assigned.) In each cell is a letter that denotes the type of people-project
interaction. There are no standards for the codes; use whatever works for your particular situation
and include a key. Here are some possible interactions:
Responsible Document reviewer Must be notified Accountable Input requested
Participant

Gate reviewer

Approval required

May be notified

Support

The RAM can be a valuable communication device, as it displays the project participants and
their implied relationship to one another as well as to the project.

Figure: Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Using Software in Project Scope Management

46

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
Project managers and their teams can use several types of software to assist in project scope
management. One can use word-processing software to create scope-related documents, and
most people use spreadsheet or presentation software to develop various charts, graphs, and
matrixes related to scope management.
Mind-mapping software can be useful in developing a WBS. Project stakeholders also transmit
project scope management information using various types of communication software such as
e-mail and assorted Web-based applications. Project management software helps you develop a
WBS, which serves as a basis for creating Gantt charts, assigning resources, allocating costs, and
performing other tasks.
You can also use the templates that come with various project management software products to
help you create a WBS for your project. Many IT projects use special software for requirements
management, prototyping, modeling, and other scope-related work. Because scope is such a
crucial part of project management, many software products are available to assist in managing
project scope.
Project scope management is very important, especially on IT projects. After selecting projects,
organizations must plan scope management, collect the requirements and define the scope of the
work, break down the work into manageable pieces, validate the scope with project stakeholders,
and manage changes to project scope. Using the basic project management concepts, tools, and
techniques can help you manage project scope successfully.
Topic Summary
Project scope management includes the processes to ensure that the project addresses all the
work required to complete the project successfully. The main processes include planning scope
management, collecting requirements, defining scope, creating the WBS, validating scope, and
controlling scope.

47

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
The first step in project scope management is planning scope management. The project team
reviews information and uses expert judgment and meetings to help create a scope management
plan and requirements management plan.
The next step is collecting requirements, a crucial part of many IT projects. It is important to
review the project charter and meet with key stakeholders listed in the stakeholder register when
collecting requirements. The main outputs of this process are requirements documentation and a
requirements traceability matrix.
A project scope statement is created in the scope definition process. This document often
includes a product scope description, product user acceptance criteria, and detailed information
on all project deliverables, and information on project boundaries, constraints, and assumptions.
There are often several versions of the project scope statement to keep scope information
detailed and up to date.
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a
project that defines its total scope. The WBS forms the basis for planning and managing project
schedules, costs, resources, and changes. You cannot use project management software without
first creating a good WBS. A WBS dictionary is a document that provides detailed information
about each WBS item. A good WBS is often difficult to create because of the complexity of the
project. There are several approaches for developing a WBS, including using guidelines, the
analogy approach, the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach, and mind mapping.
Validating scope involves formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables. Controlling
scope involves controlling changes to the project scope. Poor project scope management is one
of the key reasons projects fail. For IT projects, it is important for good project scope
management to have strong user involvement, executive support, a clear statement of
requirements, and a process for managing scope changes.

48

HBC 2301/2404 BCOM/BBIT YR 4 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT by

MUKHONGO P.D
Many software products are available to assist in project scope management. The WBS is a key
concept in properly using project management software because it provides the basis for entering
tasks.

49