CHAPTER 5: PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT
WHAT IS PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT?
Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used
to create them. 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. Project scope management
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:
1. Planning scope management involves determining how the project’s scope and
requirements will be managed.
2. Collecting requirements involves defining and documenting the features and functions of
the products 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.
3. 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.
4. Creating the WBS involves subdividing
the major project deliverables into
smaller, more manageable
components
5. Validating scope involves formalizing
acceptance of the project
deliverables.
6. Controlling scope involves controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of the
project
PLANNING SCOPE MANAGEMENT
After reviewing the project management plan, project charter, enterprise environmental factors, and
organizational process assets, the project team uses expert judgment and meetings to develop two
important outputs: the scope management plan and the requirements management plan. In
general, a scope management plan includes the following information:
How to prepare a detailed project scope statement
How to create a WBS
How to maintain and approve the WBS
How to obtain formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables
How to control requests for changes to the project scope
, Another important output of planning scope management is the requirements management plan.
The 1990 IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology defines a requirement as
follows:
1. A condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an objective.
2. A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system or system component
to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document.
3. A documented representation of a condition or capability as in 1 or 2.
The requirements management plan documents how project requirements will be analyzed,
documented, and managed. A requirements management plan can include the following
information:
How to plan, track, and report requirements activities
How to perform configuration management activities
How to prioritize requirements
How to use product metrics
How to trace and capture attributes of requirements
COLLECTING REQUIREMENTS
The second step in project scope management is often the most difficult: collecting requirements. A
major consequence of not defining requirements well is rework, which can consume up to half of
project costs, especially for software development project.
For software development projects, prototyping and document analysis are common techniques for
collecting requirements, as are context diagrams, which help to clarify the interfaces and boundaries
of a project or process. On agile software development projects, the product owner creates the
prioritized product backlog for each sprint, as shown in Chapter 3. Benchmarking, or generating
ideas by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or
products inside or outside the performing organization, can also be used to collect requirements.
The project’s size, complexity, importance, and other factors affect how much effort is spent on
collecting requirements.
Just as a project team can collect requirements in several ways, there are several ways to document
the requirements. Project teams should first review the project charter because it includes high-level
requirements for the project, and they should refer to the scope and requirements management
plans. Requirements documents are often generated by software and include text, images, diagrams,
videos, and other media. Requirements are often broken down into different categories such as
WHAT IS PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT?
Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used
to create them. 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. Project scope management
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:
1. Planning scope management involves determining how the project’s scope and
requirements will be managed.
2. Collecting requirements involves defining and documenting the features and functions of
the products 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.
3. 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.
4. Creating the WBS involves subdividing
the major project deliverables into
smaller, more manageable
components
5. Validating scope involves formalizing
acceptance of the project
deliverables.
6. Controlling scope involves controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of the
project
PLANNING SCOPE MANAGEMENT
After reviewing the project management plan, project charter, enterprise environmental factors, and
organizational process assets, the project team uses expert judgment and meetings to develop two
important outputs: the scope management plan and the requirements management plan. In
general, a scope management plan includes the following information:
How to prepare a detailed project scope statement
How to create a WBS
How to maintain and approve the WBS
How to obtain formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables
How to control requests for changes to the project scope
, Another important output of planning scope management is the requirements management plan.
The 1990 IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology defines a requirement as
follows:
1. A condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an objective.
2. A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system or system component
to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document.
3. A documented representation of a condition or capability as in 1 or 2.
The requirements management plan documents how project requirements will be analyzed,
documented, and managed. A requirements management plan can include the following
information:
How to plan, track, and report requirements activities
How to perform configuration management activities
How to prioritize requirements
How to use product metrics
How to trace and capture attributes of requirements
COLLECTING REQUIREMENTS
The second step in project scope management is often the most difficult: collecting requirements. A
major consequence of not defining requirements well is rework, which can consume up to half of
project costs, especially for software development project.
For software development projects, prototyping and document analysis are common techniques for
collecting requirements, as are context diagrams, which help to clarify the interfaces and boundaries
of a project or process. On agile software development projects, the product owner creates the
prioritized product backlog for each sprint, as shown in Chapter 3. Benchmarking, or generating
ideas by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or
products inside or outside the performing organization, can also be used to collect requirements.
The project’s size, complexity, importance, and other factors affect how much effort is spent on
collecting requirements.
Just as a project team can collect requirements in several ways, there are several ways to document
the requirements. Project teams should first review the project charter because it includes high-level
requirements for the project, and they should refer to the scope and requirements management
plans. Requirements documents are often generated by software and include text, images, diagrams,
videos, and other media. Requirements are often broken down into different categories such as
