Project Scope

Management
Topic # 4
Chapter 5 – Schwalbe
Chapter 5 – PMBOK
 Scope
• Product scope: The features and functions that characterize a
product, service, or result; and/or
• Project scope: The work performed to deliver a product,
service, or result with the specified features and functions.
• The term project scope is sometimes viewed as including
product scope.
 Scope Statement
• Should be concise & clear.
• Vary with project types.
• The scope statement should include:
– A project Justification: The business need that sparked the
creation of the project
– Brief Description of Project’s Products: It summarizes the
characteristics of products or services that the project will
produce.
– Summary of Project Deliverables
– Statement of Project Success Criteria: A quantifiable criteria
that must be met for project success.
 Scope Statement
• Project exclusion: Explicitly stating what is out of scope for
the project.
• Constraints: A limiting factor that affects the execution of a
project or process. For example: a predefined budget or any
imposed dates or schedule milestones, contractual provisions
– Information on constraints may be listed in the project scope
statement or in a separate log.
• Assumptions: A factor in the planning process that is
considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or
demonstration.
– Also describes the potential impact of those factors if they
prove to be false.
 Establishing project scope and
objectives
• 1.1 Identify objectives and measures of effectiveness
– ‘how do we know if we have succeeded?’

• 1.2 Establish a project authority

– ‘who is the boss?’

• 1.3 Identify all stakeholders in the project and their

interests
– ‘who will be affected/involved in the project?’
 Setting objectives
• Answering the question ‘What do we have
to do to have a success?’
• Need for a project authority
– Sets the project scope
– Allocates/approves costs

• Could be one person - or a group

– Project Board
– Project Management Board
– Steering committee
 Objectives
Informally, the objective of a project can be defined
by completing the statement:

The project will be regarded as a success

if………………………………..

Rather like post-conditions for the project

Focus on what will be put in place, rather than how

activities will be carried out
 Objectives/Goal should be
SMART
S– specific, that is, concrete and well-defined

M – measurable, that is, satisfaction of the objective

can be objectively judged

A– achievable, that is, it is within the power of the

individual or group concerned to meet the target

R– relevant, the objective must relevant to the true

purpose of the project

T– time constrained: there is defined point in time by

which the objective should be achieved
 Goals/sub-objectives
These are steps along the way to achieving the
objective. Informally, these can be defined by
completing the sentence…

Objective X will be achieved

IF the following goals are all achieved
A……………
B……………
C…………… etc
 Goals/sub-objectives continued
Often a goal can be allocated to an individual.
Individual may have the capability of achieving goal,
but not the objective on their own e.g.

Objective – user satisfaction with software product

Analyst goal – accurate requirements

Developer goal – software that is reliable

 Measures of effectiveness
How do we know that the goal or objective has been
achieved?
By a practical test, that can be objectively assessed.

e.g. for user satisfaction with software product:

• Repeat business – they buy further products from us
• Number of complaints – if low etc etc
 Quantifying benefits
Benefits can be:
• Quantified and valued e.g. a reduction of x
staff saving £y
• Quantified but not valued e.g. a decrease in
customer complaints by x%
• Identified but not easily quantified – e.g.
public approval for a organization in the
locality where it is based
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 Scope Statement of a game
• Project Title: Bouncy Bunny Counts Money
• Project Justification/ Business Need: Our company has a hole
in the market when it comes to children's items. Bouncy
Bunny Counts Money will fulfill this hole and further boost
sales of our accounting software market to parents of the
children using this game.
• Project Scope: This project will consist of creating a
marketable game based upon the Bouncy Bunny Counts
Money comics on our website. The project will be completed
by December, 2010. Modules of the game will include a
simple shopping game, a way for Bouncy Bunny to earn
money, and a way to motivate players to continue to play.
 Scope Statement of a game
• Project Deliverables:
– Scope Statement
– Progress Reports
– Issues Reports
– Weekly Meeting Notes
– Testing Strategy & Acceptance Testing Document
– Final Game
– User Guide
• Project Success: The project will be determined successful if
the game sells.
 Scope statement Example: Errors
• There might be way more deliverables than listed.
• Team Members & Important Stakeholders are not listed.
• It will be important for this project team to further define
what project success will look like. How many copies
should sell? How long should they take to sell?
• In the project justification, it is mentioned that this
project is to also boost sales of company x's accounting
software. How many units of that should be sold?
 Scope statement Example: Errors
• In order to run a successful project, it will be important for
stakeholders to see a timeline and to note important
milestones. For instance, when will the game concept art be
due? When will the scripting be complete? When will the
product packaging be completed?
• There is no budget included. How much will it cost to
create Bouncy Bunny Counts Money? How many employees
will be required?
 CASE STUDY
CASE ANALYSIS

SCOPE DISCUSSION OF A CAR

POOLING APP
 Requirement Gathering through
Communications
• Interviews & Focus Groups
• Facilitated workshops
• User stories
• Questionnaires
• Observation
• Prototypes
• Benchmarks
• Existing System & Documents
Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM)
• One method that can help track the requirements from the
requirements document to the finished product is a
requirements traceability matrix (RTM).
 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• A WBS is a decomposition of the work required to complete
the project.
• A WBS is made up of work tasks at the lowest level.
• It helps to improve the accuracy of time, cost & resource
estimates & helps to communicate clear work responsibilities.
• The WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of
work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the
project objectives and create the required deliverables.
• The WBS organizes and defines the total scope of the project.
 Creating WBS
• Decomposition is a technique used for dividing and
subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into
smaller, more manageable parts.
• The work package is the work defined at the lowest level of
the WBS for which cost and duration can be estimated and
managed.
• Expert judgment is often used to analyze the information
needed to decompose the project deliverables down into
smaller component parts in order to create an effective WBS.
• The project manager, in collaboration with the project team,
then determines the final decomposition of the project scope
into the discrete work packages that will be used to effectively
manage the work of the project.
 Why WBS?
• This helps you to objectively identify all of the work necessary without
subconsciously leaving out real work in order to fit date constraints.
• The WBS step helps accomplish the following key objectives:
– Develops an objective, rational view of the amount of work required
– Helps team grasp the skills required and amount of resources required for the
project
– Provides a clear framework for assigning to individuals a clear task definition
and delegate the responsibility for completion
– Lays a foundation for analyzing the task dependencies and for isolating and
managing risks
– Lays a foundation for developing a bottom-up estimate for the project
schedule
– Allows tradeoffs to be made consciously and with the proper consensus
involved.
 Why WBS?
• A WBS defines the required way to complete the project:
• A WBS creates a sense of urgency
• A WBS can prevent scope creep
• A WBS provides control
 WBS Structure & Types
• WBS can have two forms:
– Tabular Form
– Like an Organizational Chart (Diagrammatic Form)
• WBS can be made through
– Functions or Process
– Phases
– Deliverables
– Cost Structures
– Business Functions
 Projects and Activities
B - Identifying Activities
• Work-based: draw-up a Work Breakdown Structure
listing the work items needed
• Product-based approach
– list the deliverable and intermediate products of
project – product breakdown structure (PBS)
– Identify the order in which products have to be
created
– work out the activities needed to create the
products
• Hybrid approach: A mix of the activity-based
approach and the product-based approach.

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 Approaches for Identifying
Activities

Identifying Activities
Activity Product
Hybrid
Based Based
Approach
Approach Approach
 Activity Based Approach
• The activity based approach consists of
creating a list of all activities that the project is
thought to involve.
• This can be done by
– Brainstorming session involving the whole project
team
– The analysis of similar past projects.
 Activity Based Approach
• When preparing the WBS:
– Too great depth should be avoided as it will result
in a large number of tasks that will be difficult to
manage.
– Too shallow structure should be avoided as this
will provide insufficient detail for project control.
– Each branch should be broken down at least to a
level where each leaf may be assigned to an
individual or responsible section within the
organization.
 Activity Based Approach
• Advantages of WBS are
– More likely to obtain a task catalogue that is
complete and composed of non-overlapping
activities.
– WBS represents a structure that can be refined as
the project proceeds. It can start shallow early in
the project and can be developed as information
becomes available.
 Product Based Approach
• It consists of producing a product breakdown
structure PBS, and a product flow diagram
PFD.
• Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)
– It shows how a system can be broken down into
different products.
– It is less likely that a product will be left out of a
PBS that that an activity might be omitted from an
unstructured activity list. Why?
 Product Based Approach
• Product Flow Diagram (PFD)
– It indicates for each product, which other
products are required as ‘inputs’.
– It is easily transformed into an ordered list of
activities by identifying the transformations that
turn some products into others.
Product Based Approach
Product Based Approach
 Hybrid Approach
• It is the most commonly used approach.
• A mix of the activity-based approach and the
product based approach.
• The “WBS” in the hybrid approach is based on:
– a list of the final deliverables
– a set of activities required to produce each of
these deliverables.
Hybrid Approach
 PBS VS WBS
What is that product made up of How the product will be made
 Work breakdown structure – An
Example

Work Breakdown Structure (an extract)

Software
project

Requirements System Coding Testing

Analysis Design

Data Process
Design Design
 Product based approach - An
example
A Product Breakdown Structure (an extract)

Inventory
Control

Inventory Item Management

Databases Processing Reporting

Item Vendor Item Item Item Sales

Database Database Purchasing Sales Reporting Reporting

Item Item Item Invoicing Sales Order

Addition Deletion Modification subsystem Processing
 Hybrid approach – An example
Software Project

System Installation Software component User manual User Training

Analyse requirements Review requirements Analyse requirements Design course

Detailed design Outline design Design manual Write materials

Integrate system Detailed design Document manual Print course materials

Test system Code software Capture screens Training

Deliver system Test software Print Manual

A Work Breakdown Structure based on deliverables

 Hybrid Approach (cont’d)

• IBM in its MITP methodology suggests

5 levels
– Level 1: Project
– Level 2: Deliverables (software, manuals
etc)
– Level 3: Components
– Level 4: Work-packages
– Level 5: Tasks (individual responsibility)
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Example: WBS Organized by product
Example: WBS Organized by Phase
Example: WBS in tabular form
 WBS Construction
• Top Down v/s Bottom up
• Top Down:
– Use deductive reasoning because it starts with general and is
decomposed into more specific
– Would identify a solution first & then dissect to implement the
solution
– Preferred method
• Bottom-Up:
– Moves from more specific to general
– Ideal for brainstorming session
Example - High level WBS of Market based
Software Product
Generalized WBS for Online Retail App development
 CASE STUDY
CASE ANALYSIS

WBS CONSTRUCTION OF A CAR

POOLING APP
 Scope Verification & Scope Change Control
• Scope verification involves formal acceptance of the
completed project scope by the stakeholders.
– This acceptance is often achieved by a customer inspection and then
sign-off on key deliverables.
• Scope control involves controlling changes to the project
scope.
– Assure changes are processed according to procedures developed as
part of integrated change control, and manage changes when they
occur. You cannot do a good job of controlling scope
• A good job for collecting requirements, defining scope, and verifying scope
is necessary for good control.
 Managing & Controlling Scope Creep
• Develop a good project selection process for IT
projects.
• Have users on the project team.
• Have regular meetings.
• Deliver something to project users & sponsors on
regular basis.
• Co-locate users with the developers
Reducing Changing & Incomplete Requirements
• Develop & Follow requirement management process *that
includes procedure for initial requirements determination.
• Include techniques like prototyping, use case modeling & JAD
to thoroughly understand user requirements.
• Put all requirements in writing & keep them current & readily
available.
• Conduct testing & verification & validation throughout project
life cycle.
• Use a process for reviewing requested requirements changes
from a systems perspective.
• Emphasize completion dates.
 Project Charter/Project Plan
• A project charter is a document that formally recognizes the
existence of a project and provides direction on the project s
objectives and management.
• Components of Project Charter:
– The Project Title & Date of Authorization
– Project Sponsor & Organization
– Project Manager & Organization
– Project Background
– Goals & Objectives
– Project Deliverables
– Scope of project & exclusions
– Risks & Assumptions
– Critical Success Factors
 Components of Project Charter
• Critical Success Factors
• Risk Mitigation & Contingency
• HL Plan & Milestones
• Cost estimates
• Stakeholders & responsibilities
• Project Structure & Organization Structure
• Job roles & Resource Requirements
END OF TOPIC 4

-COMING UP!!!!!!
- Team Analysis
-Midterm Examination 1
-Project Time Management

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