Lecture 3: Project Scope

Management
Course Code: PXB30103/PPB37103
Project scope management
• Scope of project
• Work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Types of WBS
Introduction: Project Scope Management
• Easiest way to define in project management
• In many ways the hardest thing to agree
Overview: Easiest way to define Project scope
Management

Out of scope
• Outside of your scope
• You don’t have to do it
In scope •
•
Not economically viable
Not needed by the
Everything that you
organisation
have to do or
deliver
• Perhaps will be
delivered by other
projects at other times
• Sometimes called
project exclusions
Issues?
• Negotiating the scope of your project is the “heart” of good project
management
• But it is the toughest challenge to face as project manager
• Issues
• Stakeholders try to fit additional functionalities into your scope
• Extending scope boundaries without increasing resources, budget or schedule
• This is known as “scope creep”
• Stakeholders have different needs, agendas and interests
• With limitations of resources you have; you need to negotiate and
balance with different need and desires
Project Scope Management
• Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure
that the project includes all the work required, and only the work
required, to complete the project successfully.
• Managing the project scope is primarily concerned with defining and
controlling what is and is not included in the project.
Scope of Project
• Project Scope Management refers to the set of processes that ensure
a project’s scope is accurately defined and mapped. Scope
Management techniques enable project managers and supervisors to
allocate just the right amount of work necessary to successfully
complete a project—concerned primarily with controlling what is and
what is not part of the project’s scope.
• Project Scope
• Scope refers to the detailed set of deliverables or features of a project. These
deliverables are derived from a project’s requirements
• The work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service, or
result with the specified features and functions (PMBOK)
Processes of Project Scope
• There are three processes of Project Scope Management: planning,
controlling, and closing.
• Planning
• The planning process is when an attempt is made to capture and define the
work that needs to be done.
• Controlling
• The controlling and monitoring processes focus on documenting tracking,
scope creep, tracking, and disapproving/approving project changes.
• Closing
• The final process, closing includes an audit of the project deliverables and an
assessment of the outcomes against the original plan.
Work Breakdown Structure
• The first major step in the planning process after project requirements
definition is the development of the work breakdown structure (WBS)
• A WBS is a product-oriented family tree subdivision of the hardware,
services, and data required to produce the end product
• It identifies the deliverables and the work packages used to measure
project performance
• Considers other areas that require structured data, such as scheduling,
configuration management, contract funding, and technical performance
parameters
• Two goals of WBS;
• To ensure that the project includes all the work needed
• To ensure that the project includes no unnecessary work
Characteristics of WBS
• It is representative of work as an activity, and this work has a tangible
result.
• It is arranged in a hierarchical structure.
• It has an objective or tangible result, which is referred to as a
deliverable.
Careful consideration must be given to the design and development of
the WBS
Types of Work Breakdown Structure
• The work breakdown structure acts as a vehicle for breaking the work
down into smaller elements, thus providing a greater probability that
every major and minor activity will be accounted for
• Although a variety of work breakdown structures exist, the most
common is the six-level indented structure shown below:
WBS
• WBS is the primary input to 4 core processes and one facilitating
process:
• Activity definition
• Resource planning
• Cost estimating
• Cost budgeting
• Risk management planning
Preparing WBS
• The following should stimulate thought when developing a WBS
• Look at the entire project
• Think deliverables
• Think with the end in mind
• Think through the production of deliverables. What methods? What special
processes? What quality requirements?
• What are its constituent parts?
• How do the pieces work together?
• What needs to be done?
Why Use a Work Breakdown
Structure?
• To ensure that the project includes all the work needed
• To ensure that the project includes no unnecessary work
Facilitating the process
Communications
• The WBS facilitates communication of information regarding project scope,
dependencies, risk, progress, and performance between the project
manager and stakeholders throughout the life of the project.
Reporting
• The WBS provides the project management team a framework on which to
base project status and progress reporting.
• The WBS can provide different perspectives of the project structure.
For example, information can be reported by:
• Life cycle phase
• Deliverable
• Work package
Example 1: Build a house
Example 2: New Toy
Example 3: Conference
Example 4: Micro air vehicle
Summary
• Scope is an easy concept
• But negotiating, documenting and making it stick and winning over
your stakeholders is difficult challenge