Creating the Scope Statement 613

Creating the Scope Statement

The following exercises are presented here:

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Exercise 3.1: Creating the Project Management Plan

Exercise 3.2: Creating a Scope Management Plan and Ma nagi ng Scope Change

Exercise 3.3: Creating the Project Scope Statement

Exercise 3.1 : Creating the Project Management Plan The objectives for Exercise 3.1 are as fo llows:

• Describe the project planning process.

• Understand when the project manageme nt plan is created.

• Describe typica l components of a project management plan.

Background There is a point in time on a project when you have completed the planning and are ready to sta rt executing the plan. This point is when you perform one of the project integration man­agement processes-Develop Project Management Plan. Develop Project Management Plan takes a ll the information created in the previous planning processes and integrates it into one comprehensive document that wi ll serve as a guide during the project Execution and Monitor­ing and Controlling processes. This document usually has the forma l approval of the project stakeholders. Throughout this workbook I have described the planning processes performed in the other eight Knowledge Areas. The project management plan contains elements of all the project management planning processes. These are processes such as Scope Planning, Schedule Development, COSt Budgeting, Quality Planning, Acquire Project Team, Communications Plan­ning, Risk Management Planning, and Plan Purchases and Acquisitions. Twenty-one planning processes can be incorporated into the project management plan. Part of your job as project manager is determining which processes best fit your project needs. Your project management plan will cover the planning processes you will use.

If the project management plan is a comprehens ive document that gu ides you in project execution and control, then what should it contain? In this exercise, you' I! examine the most common components of a typical pro ject management plan.

Components of a Project Management Plan

A typical project management plan has 14 components.

Management plans Throughout the course of these workbook exercises, you will have many o pportunities to explore management plans, such as the scope management plan later in this chapter and the quality management plan in Chapter 4. You need to include portions of your management plans in the project management plan. Remember that this project management plan serves as a guide for the project during the Execution and Monitoring and Controlling

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processes. Therefore, you need to determi ne which sections should be included to guarantee the objectives of the project. These management plans should correspond directly to the pro­cesses you have selected for your project. The project manage ment plan should incl ude some portions of all of these:

• Project scope management plan

• Schedule management plan

• Cost management plan

• Quality management plan

• Process improvement plan

• Staffing management plan

• Communications management plan

• Risk ma nagement plan

• Procurement management plan

Other components You might want to also include other pertinent pieces of information in your project management plan. These compo nents again should provide information and guid­ance as you execute the project. You might consider including the following information:

Milestone list As you worked through the WBS and project schedule, you probably deter­mined what del iverables will be created at what points of time. These del iverables create a mi lestone list. It would be adva ntageous to include this list in the project schedule as a base­line of what you plan to deliver.

Schedule baseline The project schedule is created during the Schedule Development pro­cess of the Plann ing phase of a project. It is created with too ls and techniques such as cal­culating critica l path and duration compression. The original schedule is called the schedule baseline. The schedule basel ine is documented in the project management plan. This allows the project team to compare what they planned to do with what is actually being done.

Resource calendar Resource calendars need to be included in the project management plan so team members understand exactl y what days they are active and what days they are idle.

Cost baseline At the end of the Cosr Plann ing process, you created a cosr baseline. This baseline conveys what you plan on spend ing on the project. The cost basel ine should be kept in the project ma nagement plan as a point of comparison as you execute the project.

Risk register The risk register is created in the Risk Identification process and includes risks, potential responses, and other pertinent information. It is kept in the project manage­ment plan as a living document that must be updated, inspected, and acted upon throughom the execution of rhe project.

Be sure to include in your project management plan any other documentation that is nec­essary to gu ide the pro ject to successful completion. This document should act as a litmus test for project personnel when they are in doubt about what to do.

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In this exercise, yOll wi ll test your knowledge abollt creating a project ma nagement plan as yOll help the Sensational Adve rtisement Prod uctions (SAP) company create a project ma nage­ment plan for its advertisi ng campaign fo r a new cell phone service.

Scenario You are back working with Pam Rosenbaum of SAP on the cell phone project. Your task is to help her start using the processes and tools of what is probably the most important fu nction: project integration management. Pam muSt coord inate the efforts of each of the campaign project managers (Michael Harland fo r print, Judy Ara kawa fo r TV, and Joseph Matumbo for telemar­keting), and each of those managers is gening direction from individual marketing managers within the telecomm unications company.

Because these subprojects must integrate and because a change in one campaign could affect the others, Pam knows she must create an integrated project management plan. Even though the telecommu nications company is putti ng a lot of money into the campaign, SAP still has a tight budget for all its advertis ing. You wi ll use your knowledge of project ma nagement plann ing to help Pam put together an integrated project management plan that guides the work for both SAP and its cl ient.

Testing Your Knowledge of Creating a Project Management Plan Consider the cell phone project's ma nageme nt structure and objectives as you answer t he fo llowing questio ns:

1. When is a project ma nagement plan created?

2. Describe the Project Management Planning process.

3. Pam is work ing on the cost portion of the project ma nagement plan. How should she organize the costs in the project ma nagement plan?

4. Name three sections that Pam could include in her project management plan.

Exercise 3.2: Creating a Scope Management Plan and Managing Scope Change The objectives for Exercise 3.2 are as follows:

• Describe the need fo r a scope ma nagement plan.

• Describe the parts of a scope management plan.

• Be able to create a scope ma nagement plan.

• Learn how to manage scope change.

Background Is the scope of your project well defined? If the scope changes for your project, what will you do? Do your stakeholders know what to do if they need to suggest a change to the scope of your project? Should you change the scope of your project whenever someone requests it? All

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of these questions (and many more) wi ll be answered if you create a scope management plan, a component of the project management plan. As with all Knowledge Areas, the PMBOK Guide suggests using documentation to formalize Scope Ma nagement for your projecc If scope change criteria for your project aren't written down early in the plan ning process, you will tend to make them up along the way. Documenting the methods fo r defini ng scope and the processes for managing changes prevents yOll from becoming disorganized and helps you manage the project consistentl y. It also means you and your team can more easily identify when scope change occurs. It allows you to reject changes that shouldn't occur on the project.

For the scope management plan, you and your team need to determine what methods you will use to defi ne scope (includ ing the work breakdown structure) and assess the stability of the scope at the time you document it. You need to decide how the work described by the scope will be ver­ified and approved for accuracy and completeness, the likelihood of scope changes throughout the project life cycle, and the impact to your project if the scope does change. You need to doc­ument how you will manage the scope and its change. For instance, will you have a scope change request form that must be completed, or can people just send email? Whose approva l will you need, and what are the standard time frames fo r scope change approva l or rejection? Are there some scope changes the project can absorb without much impact that cou ld be handled with informal change control processes? What if, after you have completed more of your scope def­inition, you find that you need to update the scope management plan? For instance, you might find a new field you need to add to the scope change request form to hel p prioritize change more accurately. How will you ha ndle those needs?

In this exercise, you wi ll lea rn the elements that make up a scope management plan and the methods for creating one. Finally, you will continue to hel p the Best Investment Company (BIC) in its project management endeavors.

Scope Management Plan Elements

You will document the fo llowing elements for your scope management plan:

• How wi ll you and your project team defi ne the project'S scope and work breakdown structure? What tools and techn iques will you use to do so?

• How will you veri fy the accuracy of the work of the project, and what constitutes accep­tance of the deliverables?

• Once it's defined, what is the sta bility of the project scope? Is it early in scope develop­ment? Is the scope likely to change as you bu ild more information about your project? Is the scope simple and well defined? Are you in the later stages of your planning process, which wou ld ind icate a more stable scope?

• How ofte n do you estimate that the scope might change, and why?

• If the scope changes, what will the impact be to your project in terms of duration, COSt, quality, or any other important areas of the project? Do some scope changes have more impact than others? Why?

Fo r managing scope change, you will want to ensure that you answer the following questions:

• What kind of information about the change request needs to be captured?

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Are there specific processes you will use to evaluate and approve/reject changes? How will you log and track change and ensure that it is incorporated into the project ? How wi ll you manage scope changes not accepted fo r this phase of the project?

Who needs to approve change requests? And under what circumstances?

How often wi ll scope changes be reviewed?

Creating a Scope Management Plan

When creating a scope management plan, be sure you do the fo llowing:

Identify how your team and you will create the project scope statement and the work breakdown structure (WBS). Document how you will create the project scope statement and WBS, and make sure you answer the fo llowing questions: In defining project scope and the WBS, will you and your project team be using methods defined by your organization, methods defined by the project management office (PMO), or other methods? Do you have a tem plate or some other fo r­mat you must use to define project scope? Will you need to use a graphic WBS, or will an outline method be OK? Do you already have enterprise WBS templates you should use? What are the minimum req uired items (such as deliverables, objectives, requ irements, assumptions, con­srraints, and so on) tha t must be included in the project scope starement? Don't forget to define how the project scope starement will be approved and who will approve it.

Describe how you and your team will assure that the deliverables defined in the project scope are verified for accuracy. Document rhe process for how you wi ll accept del iverables. For instance, for each de liverable, you mighr identify who the designared reviewers and approvers are. (A responsibil ity assignment matrix would work well for th is). Then, describe rhe time frames for review and perhaps req uire a wa lk-through of cri rical deliverables, with a question­and-answer period, or multiple walk-throughs for each deliverable. Finally, you might require an email or signature from each approver of the deliverable to veri fy thar rhey believe the del iv· erable is accurate.

Document the scope change process . You will wa nt to integrare the scope change process into your overall change control procedures. (Those will be described in a later exercise.) You need to document general informarion about change requests, such as the date, a brief descrip­tion of [he reason(s) the change is requested, and who is requesting it. You also need to record whether there is a business need, a technical need, or another type of need for the change. Include a description of the analysis requ ired for each change req uest (a subject matter expert needs to

document impact/analysis). The following items might be a pa rt of that analysis:

• Impact on scope, resources, cosr, quality, schedule, a deliverable, goal, or any other item in the project that will change.

• Any new ris ks introduced o r old risks impacted. Are there issues that could affect the existing requirements for the result, service, o r product if the scope changes?

• The effect the change will have on other dependencies, such as othe r projects or busi­ness processes.

You'll want to document the levels o f review and approval for the change (or the reason the change was not accepted) and how the change is communicated to everyone (whether you

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bel ieve they're affected or not ). You might set up a matrix for levels of approva l in the scope change plan or in the overall change control plan. The thresholds for approva l will vary greatly depending on the complexity o f the project. For instance, a five-month project might be able to rolerate a week's slippage and th us might not requ ire a high-level approval. But a one-week sli p­page fo r a two-month project is relatively significant. And lastly, indicate how the change will be integrated into the scope and managed and tracked as part of the project ma nagement plan.

Include the probability of scope changes and their anticipated frequency and a plan for regu­lar, consistent reviews of the pro ject scope in the scope management plan. Make sure you document how you will review the project scope througho ut the project's life. The best way to stay with in scope is to remind your team and stakeholders frequently about what was agreed ro and provide the impact of the change. (Remember, it's best not ro accept change requests without an analysis o f their impact on the project.) A scheduled project scope review can do this. Also, after you have defined the project scope, you might wa nt to provide a confidence fac­ror about its stabi lity. A cookie-cutter, well-defi ned project's scope wi ll change much less tha n a new, in novative, or risky project that is not similar to anyth ing your team has ever worked on before. To determine a scope confidence factor, you might want to answer the following questions:

• Has everyone approved the project's scope statement?

• Do you antici pate new stakeholders joining the project over time?

• Does the scope statement still need some cla rity?

• Have you been able to thoroughly document the project's assumptions and constraints?

• Have you been able to easily identify success criteria and create objective measurements for each of the project scope's goa l statements?

You can use this info rmation to estimate how much time you will need for the project admin is­tration o f scope changes. You might create a table with various dates on which you will perform a scope review so you can have the team review the scope and its stabili ty and then document changing stability after these reviews.

Describe how scope changes impact the pro ject. If you are under a very tight schedule, you might descri be how any scope addition will change the end da te. Or if quality is one of the important driving factors, you might stipulate that additions to the scope must also include add itional quality assura nce.

Communicate the scope management plan and the scope change process to your pro ject team and stakeholders. Hold a meeting to describe the scope management plan, and hold a train­ing session to make sure everyone knows the processes for scope change.

Scenario You've just returned from meeting with Betsy Smith, a project manager with the Best Invest­ment Corporation (BIC). You begin to sort through your notes to assess progress in developing

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the scope management plan. You ask yourself, "How can I best help BIC to develop consistent practices in project management planning stages?" You review the foUowing notes:

Project already started.

No scope management plan.

Project creates a plan to increase public awareness and use of an existing Internet investment program. On market for 6 months but is not meeting expected market penetration.

Betty started to create a project scope statement but not quite done with that.

Budget is $50,000. Project expected to take three months.

Deliverables: in-house research focus survey the plan

Must convince sponsor, Harriet Freeman, director of marketing, that plan is backed by excellent marketing research and easily implemented.

2 key stakeholders missing at intra of scope statement. Betsy tried to get their approval but unable to do so yet.

Project already started. Most research completed.

Betsy finding evidence that normal marketing process not originally followed in the project.

Market changed due to the downturn in the economy.

Some extra marketing steps need to be taken. More Internet and TV advertising.

Fred Arlington (project manager, original project) now wants independent auditor to review the market research findings. Does not think the research team coming to the right conclusions.

Testing Your Knowledge of Creating a Scope Management Plan and Managing Scope Change Consider what you've learned about scope management planning, scope changes, and Betsy's project as you answer the following questions:

1. What process would you recommend to Betsy for creating the project scope statement?

2. What is a process you might recommend to verify the accuracy of the research deliverable?

3. Describe how Fred Arl ington's change might impact schedule, quality, the people, or any other important elements of the project.

4. What will you recommend Betsy have Fred do to request this change? What data do you think needs to be captured for this scope change request?

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5. Who wi ll you recommend a pprove the change, and whe n do you recommend the change reviews occur?

6. Why is a scope management plan important?

Exercise 3.3: Creating the Project Scope Statement The o bjectives for Exercise 3.3 are as fo llows:

• Descri be the need for a project scope statement.

• Descri be the essential elements of a project scope statement.

• Create the elements of a project scope statement.

Background The project scope statement is one of the mOSt important items you can create fo r your project. Without it, you have a project with no bounds. Add itionall y, without a scope statement, what the project will accompl ish can be anyth ing you or your stakeholders decide along the way. If scope is not well defi ned, your project team can expect rework, delays, cost increases, and ever-worsen ing morale as they try to hit the movi ng target.

Within the project ma nagement processes, you create two project scope statements: one dur­ing initiating processes (the preliminary project scope statement) and the second during the plan­ning phase (the detailed scope statement). The preliminary project scope statement builds on the project charter to provide a high-level scope statement. The detailed project scope statement uses the preliminary scope statement, other planning processes, and the input of the project team to bu ild a clearer, more rigorous scope statement. The detailed scope statement becomes the basis fo r all project decisions. This exercise focuses on the detailed project scope statement.

A scope statement acts as a document of common understa ndi ng between your project team and its customer of the project requirements, objectives, and deliverables. As a project ma nager, perhaps your most importa nt job is to ma ke sure the project scope statement is written, under­stood, and agreed upon by stakeholders, as well as approved by stakeholder leadership. And it becomes your mission to make sure all tea m members on the project stay focused on the scope and nothing else. An approved, documented scope statement is also the baseline of the scope, and if th ings change, you will follow change procedures to document and plan the changes into your project. If you use a vendor, the scope statement can be used to develop a statement of work (SOW) to describe the work the vendor will perform.

In this exercise, you will learn the elements of a project scope statement and get some expe­rience with creating a project scope statement by leading BIC through the project scope devel ­opment process.

Project Scope Statement Elements

Document the fo llowing elements for your project scope statement:

Project objectives Descri be the quantifiable criteria for success, and include at least cost, schedule, and quality measures. Make sure that you can measure the completio n of the objec­tive in some kind of numerica l form (such as in dollars, percentages, dates, and so on).

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Product, service, or result scope description Document the product, service, or resu lt char­acteristics. Objectives, deliverables, and requirements are often a decomposition of the prod­uCt, service, or resu lt scope description. This descr iption should include the business need! justificat io n for the product, serv ice, or result as well .

Pro ject deliverables List summary-level , measura ble subproducts that will combine for full delivery of the product, service, or result of the project and close the project. Th is might include a high-level work breakdown structure (WBS) to show the scope of the project.

Requirements and specifications Ensure that you document the needs and expectations of stakeholders for the deliverables of the prod uct, service, or result of the project. These usually descri be the capabilities and conditions the deliverables must meet .

Product, service, or result acceptance criteria Include the quality measurement criteria (such as fitness for use o r performance measurements ) that define acceptable del iverables.

Project boundaries Li st what is (a nd what is not) included in the scope of the project. Usu­all y, since the rest of the document describes what is included in the project, project bound­aries can be extremely usefu l in describing items or issues that will not be addressed. If in your discussions with stakeholders you hear them say that something should not be addressed dur­ing this project, include those items in an "out-of-scope" section.

Assumptions and constraints List all assumptions you are making for the project (s uch as o nce committed, resources wi ll not be moved off your project) and constraints that restrict what the project team can do (s uch as the team has to rely on the existing infrastructure net­work to implement new application software throughout the country).

Project organization Describe how the project is staffed to undertake and complete the project. You also might create a preliminary roles and responsibilities document as part o f the project organization documentation.

Initial risks List major challenges or o pportu nities the project team and stakeholders identify for the project . This will be covered in more deta il in risk management, but the list starts here.

Cost and time estimates Include cost estimates, mi lestones that might constra in the project, and fund ing limitations.

Project configuratio n management requirements Document project spec ifications, configu­ration management, and level of change control.

Approval requirements Define who must approve what on the project. This is often similar to a responsibil ity assignment matrix.

The Scope Statement Process When creating a scope statement, follow these steps:

1. Review the project charter and the preliminary project scope statement for any items you can use fo r further detail in the project scope statement. If the preliminary scope statement is well-written, you might decide to simply refine that document rather than sta rt from scratch for th is deta iled project scope statement.

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2. Work with your project team and other stakeholders to write a brief general Statement about the purpose o f your project or to review the one you already have from the project charter. Try to include a general description o f what is in the project as well as what is not in the project.

3. Create a product scope description, and include a project justification. Th is might have been completed in a business case, a feasibility study, the project charrer, or the project selection work that was completed pr ior to the project being approved.

4. List the project's objecti ves or goa ls. This is where you describe the goals that help you measure project success. You might think of what must be done for the project to be com­plete (critica l success factors). This needs to be a quantifiable statement, such as " increase shareholder satisfaction by 10 percent." This could be easily measured with pre- and post­implementation surveys. The surveys, of course, would need to be a del ivera ble of the project.

5. Create a li st of major deliverables and a high-level work breakdown structure to show the scope of the work. This is a good time to bra instorm deliverables with your project team. You would then organize the delivera bles into major categories using a top-down approach to the WBS. Make sure each deliverable is measurable and has success criteria tied to it. You might have existing work brea kdown structures or tem plates to help you accomplish this.

6. List assumptions. These are what you and your project team expeCt to hold true throughout the project. They might seem obvious to your team, but by documenti ng them, you can test them as assumptions and ensure that stakeholders agree. Often these assumptions, if they do not hold true, become risks.

7. List constraints. These are bounds under which your team will work throughout the project. They restrain or dictate the actions of the project team. Fo r instance, if the team needs to fol­low some particularly strict safety procedure, it will restrict the team from getting the work done as fast it could otherwise.

8. Include a reference to requ irements and spec ifications if they have been produced. These requirements are the basis for understand ing the amount of work tha t needs to be done and for creati ng a statement of work for a vendor if you need to contract some of the work. Sometimes, the requ irements and specifications are a deliverable to be produced as parr of the project. In that case, they will not be available yet but should be identified as deliverables in the WBS.

9. Include a descri ption of the project organization, includ ing the major roles and respons i­bilities needed for the project. If some team members have been assigned, start the project team directory that includes contact information and project roles. Also include approval requirements for the items in the scope statement.

10. Include a schedule estimate for the project (includ ing any milestones that must be met ) and a budget, including fu nding limitations.

11. Include risks and project configuration requirements. Holding a session to identify major risks is sometimes a great way to identify deliverables that the tea m might have missed when creati ng the initial de liverables list.

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12. Write the scope statement document, and de liver it to you r stakeholders for approval. Do not just send the project scope statement out and ask stakeholders to approve it. Have a meeting to review it with the major stakeholders and project team. Make sure you get written approval from each stakeholder who needs to approve the pro ject scope state­ment, especially your customer.

Scenario Betsy Smith realized she needs a documented project scope statement fo r her project. You've been working with her to implement sound project management processes for a project to increase the public awa reness and use of an Internet investment program. The investment pro­gram has existed for six months but is not meeting expected market penetration. Betsy's team has been researching the project for a month but now needs a plan for what to do next.

The Internet investment program was expected to increase the overall investment penetra­tion by 10 percent. But, right now, no one is sure how much it has increased investment pen­etration because overall investment activity is down 15 percent in the last year. The original project team advertised the service on TV and with Internet pop-up ads. Betsy is very excited because she has discovered that the origina l team did not advertise in some major investor magazines, such as Fortune, and that the TV ads were broadcast at the wrong times for the tar­get audience. She thinks with this knowledge, she can generate a plan to increase penetration for the Internet service immediately if her research team focuses on those areas.

The project has a budget of $50,000 to develop the plan, and BIC wants the new plan within three months. Betsy has already used about $4,000 in research efforts. She has a team of researchers, parr-time software application developers, and the original Internet investment program project manager to ca ll on for help. Betsy is looking for your recommendations on developing a project scope statement to guide the team through the remainder of the project.

Testing Your Knowledge of Creating the Scope Statement Consider your knowledge of project scope statements and what you've learned about the BIC project as you answer the fo llowing questions:

1. Write a brief purpose statement for this project. Include a business justification statement. What is the product of this pro ject?

2. What are some of the major deliverables of the project? Is each deliverable you identify a critica l success factor? Why or why not?

3. Create some goal/objective statements, and make sure they are measurable. Include a description of the measure you plan to use to verify that each goal and objective is met.

4. Describe some of the assumptions you have for this pro ject.

5. List and describe some of the project constraints.

6. Will you need a statement of work? Why or why not?

7. If you were to write a list of what should not be included in the scope statement, what are some of the things that you would recommend be described as "out-of-scope?"