Defining the Project

CHAPTER FOUR

1
 Learning Objectives
• Identify key elements of a project scope statement and understand why a complete scope statement is critical
to project success.
• Describe the causes of scope creep and ways to manage it.
• Understand why it is important to establish project priorities in terms of cost, time, and performance.
• Demonstrate the importance of a work breakdown structure (WBS) to the management of projects and how
it serves as a database for planning and control.
• Demonstrate how the organization breakdown structure (OBS) establishes accountability to organization
units.
• Describe a process breakdown structure (PBS) and when to use it.
• Create responsibility matrices for small projects.
• Create a communication plan for a project.
2
 OUTLINE
• Step 1: Defining the Project Scope
• Step 2: Establishing Project Priorities
• Step 3: Creating the Work Breakdown Structure
• Step 4: Integrating the WBS with the Organization
• Step 5: Coding the WBS for the Information System
• Process Breakdown Structure
• Responsibility Matrices
• Project Communication Plan
• Assignment
3
The old saying “We can control only what we
have planned” is true;
therefore, defining the project is the first step.

4
Step 1: Defining the Project Scope

5
 Step 1: Defining the Project Scope
• Project Scope – A definition of the end result or mission of the project—a
product or service for the client/customer—in specific, tangible, and
measurable terms.
• Purpose of the Scope Statement [“statements of work” (SOW)]:
• To clearly define the deliverable(s) for the end user.
• To focus the project on successful completion of its goals.
• To be used by the project owner and participants as a planning tool and for measuring
project success.

6
 Step 1: Defining the Project Scope
• Many projects suffer from scope creep, which is the tendency for the project scope to expand over time—
usually by changing requirements, specifications, and priorities.
• Five of the most common causes of scope creep are
• Poor requirement analysis. Customers often don’t really know what they want. “I’ll know it when I see it” syndrome
contributes to wasted effort and ambiguity.
• Not involving users early enough. Too often project teams think they know up front what the end user needs, only to find
out later they were mistaken.
• Underestimating project complexity. Complexity and associated uncertainty naturally lead to changes in scope, since there are
so many unknowns yet to be discovered.
• Lack of change control. A robust change control process is needed to ensure that only appropriate changes occur in the
scope of the project.
• Gold plating. Gold plating refers to adding extra value to the project that is beyond the scope of the project. This is common
on software projects where developers add features that they think the end user will like.

7
 Employing a Project Scope Checklist
• To ensure that scope definition is complete, you may wish to use the following checklist:
1. Project objective
2. Product scope description
3. Justification
4. Deliverables
5. Milestones
6. Technical requirements
7. Limits and exclusions
8. Acceptance criteria

8
 Step 1: Defining the Project Scope
• A project charter refers to a document that authorizes the project manager
to initiate and lead the project.
• This document is issued by upper management and provides the project manager with
written authority to use organizational resources for project activities.
• Often the charter will include a brief scope description as well as such items as risk
limits, business case, spending limits, and even team composition.

9
Step 2: Establishing Project
Priorities

10
 Step 2: Establishing Project Priorities
• Quality and the ultimate success of a
project are traditionally defined as
meeting and/or exceeding the
expectations of the customer and/or
upper management in terms of cost
(budget), time (schedule), and
performance (scope) of the project.
• One of the primary jobs of a project
manager is to manage the trade-offs
among time, cost, and performance.
11
 Step 2: Establishing Project Priorities
• One technique found in practice that is useful for this purpose is completing a priority
matrix for the project to identify which criterion is constrained, which should be enhanced,
and which can be accepted:
• Constrain. The original parameter is fixed. The project must meet the completion date,
specifications and scope of the project, or budget.
• Enhance. Given the scope of the project, which criterion should be optimized? In the case of
time and cost, this usually means taking advantage of opportunities to either reduce costs or shorten
the schedule. Conversely, with regard to performance, enhancing means adding value to the project.
• Accept. For which criterion is it tolerable not to meet the original parameters? When trade-offs
have to be made, is it permissible for the schedule to slip, to reduce the scope and performance of the
project, or to go over budget?

12
Example of a Project Priority Matrix

13
Step 3: Creating the Work
Breakdown Structure

14
 Major Groupings Found in a WBS
• Once the scope and deliverables have been identified, the work of the project can be
successively subdivided into smaller and smaller work elements.
• The outcome of this hierarchical process is called the work breakdown structure (WBS).
• Use of a WBS helps to assure project managers that all products and work elements are
identified, to integrate the project with the current organization, and to establish a basis for
control.
• Basically, the WBS is an outline of the project with different levels of detail.
• Best suited for design and build projects that have tangible outcomes rather than process-
oriented projects.

15
 Hierarchical Breakdown
of the WBS
• The lowest level of the WBS is called a
work package.
• Work packages are short-duration tasks
that have a definite start and stop point,
consume resources, and represent cost.
• Each work package is a control point.

16
 Work Package
• A work package is the lowest level of the WBS.
• It is output-oriented in that it:
• Defines work (what).
• Identifies time to complete a work package (how long).
• Identifies a time-phased budget to complete a work package (cost).
• Identifies resources needed to complete a work package (how much).
• Identifies a person responsible for units of work (who).
• Identifies monitoring points (milestones) for measuring success.

17
 How WBS Helps the Project Manager
• The WBS defines all the elements of the project in a hierarchical framework and establishes
their relationships to the project end item(s).
• This hierarchical structure facilitates evaluation of cost, time, and technical performance at
all levels in the organization over the life of the project.
• Provides management with information appropriate to each organizational level.
• Helps in the development of the organization breakdown structure (OBS). which assigns
project responsibilities to organizational units and individuals.
• Helps manage plan, schedule, and budget.
• Defines communication channels and assists in coordinating the various project elements.
18
Introduction

19
Step 4: Integrating the WBS with
the Organization

20
 Step 4: Integrating the WBS with the
Organization
• The WBS is used to link the organizational units responsible for performing the
work – in practice, the outcome of this process is the organization breakdown
structure (OBS).
• The OBS depicts how the firm has organized to discharge work responsibility.
• The purposes of the OBS are to provide a framework to:
• summarize organization unit work performance,
• identify organization units responsible for work packages, and
• tie the organizational unit to cost control accounts.

21
Introduction

22
Step 5: Coding the WBS for the
Information System

23
 Step 5: Coding the WBS for the Information
System
• WBS Coding System defines:
• Levels and elements of the WBS.
• Organization elements.
• Work packages.
• Budget and cost information.
• Allows reports to be consolidated at any level in the organization structure.

24
 Step 5: Coding the
WBS for the
Information System

25
Process Breakdown Structure

26
 Process Breakdown Structure
• It is more difficult to apply WBS to less tangible, process-oriented projects in which
the final outcome is a product of a series of steps or phases.
• Here, the big difference is that the project evolves over time with each phase
affecting the next phase.
• Information systems projects typically fall in this category—for example, creating an
extranet website or an internal software database system.
• Process projects are driven by performance requirements, not by plans/blueprints.
• Some practitioners choose to utilize what we refer to as a process breakdown
structure (PBS) instead of the classic WBS.

27
28
 Process Breakdown Structure
• Checklists that contain the phase exit requirements are developed to manage
project progress.
• These checklists provide the means to support phase walk-throughs and reviews.
• Checklists vary depending upon the project and activities involved but typically
include the following details:
• Deliverables needed to exit a phase and begin a new one.
• Quality checkpoints to ensure that deliverables are complete and accurate.
• Sign-offs by all responsible stakeholders to indicate that the phase has been successfully
completed and that the project should move on to the next phase.

29
Responsibility Matrices

30
 Responsibility Matrices
• Responsibility matrices provide a means for all participants in a project to
view their responsibilities and agree on their assignments.
• They also help clarify the extent or type of authority exercised by each
participant in performing an activity in which two or more parties have
overlapping involvement.
• By using an RM and by defining authority, responsibility, and
communications within its framework, the relationship between different
organizational units and the work content of the project is made clear.
31
Responsibility Matrices

32
Responsibility Matrices

33
Project Communication Plan

34
 Project Communication Plan
• Once the project deliverables and work are clearly identified, following up with an
internal communication plan is vital.
• Stories abound of poor communication as a major contributor to project failure.
• Having a robust communications plan can go a long way toward mitigating project
problems and can ensure that customers, team members, and other stakeholders
have the information to do their jobs.
• The communication plan is usually created by the project manager and/or the
project team in the early stage of project planning.
35
 Project Communication Plan
• Project communication plans address the following core questions:
• What information needs to be collected and when?
• Who will receive the information?
• What methods will be used to gather and store information?
• What are the limits, if any, on who has access to certain kinds of information?
• When will the information be communicated?
• How will it be communicated?

36
 Project Communication Plan
• Developing a communication plan that answers these questions usually entails the
following basic steps:
1. Stakeholder analysis – Identify the target groups.
• Typical groups could be the customer, sponsor, project team, project office, or anyone who
needs project information to make decisions and/or contribute to project progress.
• By identifying stakeholders and prioritizing them on the “Power/Interest” map, you can
plan the type and frequency of communications needed.
2. Information needs – What information is pertinent to stakeholders who
contribute to the project’s progress?
37
 Project Communication Plan
• Developing a communication plan that answers these questions usually entails the
following basic steps:
3. Sources of information – Where does the information reside? `and how will it be
collected?
4. Dissemination modes – In today’s world, traditional status report meetings are
being supplemented by e-mail, teleconferencing, SharePoint, and a variety of
database sharing programs to circulate information.
5. Responsibility and timing – Determine who will send out the information and
when.
• Timing and frequency of distribution appropriate to the information need to be established.
38
“Power/Interest” map

39
 Shale Oil
Research Project
Communication
Plan

40
Assignment

41
 Assignment
• Case 4.1 – Celebration of Colors 5K
• Case 4.2 – The Home Improvement Project

42
Thank You

43