The Basics of Scope Management: How to Manage Scope

Summary

This video delves into the fundamentals of scope management in project management, outlining the critical areas of establishing, documenting, and controlling scope. It emphasizes the importance of collecting and prioritizing requirements, creating a scope statement, and developing a work breakdown structure. The video also touches on the interplay between scope management and other project aspects such as benefits management, quality management, and change control, highlighting the necessity of ongoing activities like resource allocation, communication, and quality assurance.

Takeaways

• 📋 Scope management is crucial for project success and involves establishing, documenting, and controlling the project scope.
• 🗂️ Establishing scope starts with collecting requirements and prioritizing them against available resources, leading to a scope statement that defines what is and isn't included.
• 📝 Documenting the scope involves creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) and a WBS dictionary, which are essential for detailing project deliverables and their acceptance criteria.
• 🔍 Validating the scope ensures that stakeholders are satisfied with the project's direction and that there have been no significant changes since the negotiations.
• 🛠️ Controlling scope during project delivery involves monitoring and managing changes to the scope, with change control being a critical aspect of this process.
• 🔗 Scope management interacts significantly with other project management areas, particularly benefits management, quality management, and configuration management.
• 💼 Resource management is a key ongoing activity in scope management, ensuring that resources are effectively allocated and deployed.
• 🗣️ Constant communication with team members and stakeholders is vital to keep everyone informed about the scope and progress of the project.
• 🔍 Ongoing quality assurance and control processes are necessary to ensure that project deliverables meet the required specifications and standards.
• 🔄 Change control processes are integral to managing requests for changes to the project scope or specifications, ensuring that changes are considered and managed appropriately.
• 📚 Configuration management and version control of documentation are important for maintaining consistency and tracking changes throughout the project lifecycle.

Q & A

What are the three main areas of scope management mentioned in the video?

The three main areas of scope management are establishing scope, documenting scope, and managing scope.

What is the first step in establishing scope?

The first step in establishing scope is collecting requirements from users and stakeholders.

How does negotiation play a role in scope management?

Negotiation is used to prioritize requirements against available resources and to produce a scope statement.

What is a scope statement and why is it important?

A scope statement defines the scope of the project, including exclusions, and is important for setting clear expectations and boundaries.

What is a work breakdown structure (WBS) and how is it used in scope management?

A work breakdown structure is a hierarchical decomposition of the work involved in a project and is used to document scope by breaking it down into manageable components.

What is a work breakdown structure dictionary and its purpose?

A work breakdown structure dictionary provides detailed information about each component of the WBS and is used to further document the scope.

What are acceptance criteria and how do they relate to scope management?

Acceptance criteria are the standards that products or deliverables must meet to be accepted and are crucial for scope validation.

How does scope management interact with benefits management and budgeting?

Scope management interacts with benefits management and budgeting because a larger scope can affect the benefits and the budget required to deliver the project.

What is the role of scope management in quality management?

Scope management overlaps with quality management in setting acceptance criteria, which involves quality control and assurance processes.

How does scope management interact with configuration management?

Scope management interacts with configuration management when changes to scope occur, requiring version control and document management.

What are some ongoing scope management activities during project delivery?

Ongoing scope management activities during project delivery include resource management, communication, monitoring delivery, quality assurance, quality control, change control, and configuration management.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Scope Management Essentials

This paragraph introduces the basics of scope management, emphasizing its importance in project management. It outlines the three main areas: establishing, documenting, and managing the scope. Establishing scope involves collecting requirements, negotiating priorities, and producing a scope statement that includes both inclusions and exclusions. Documenting scope requires creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) and a WBS dictionary, as well as defining acceptance criteria for deliverables. Managing scope involves validating the scope with stakeholders to ensure it meets their expectations and there have been no significant changes. The paragraph also highlights the interplay between scope management and other project management disciplines such as benefits management, quality management, and configuration management.

05:00

🎬 Engaging with Project Management Content

The second paragraph serves as a call to action for viewers, encouraging them to engage with the content by giving a thumbs up if they enjoyed the video. It also invites viewers to subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications to stay updated with forthcoming project management content. The speaker expresses anticipation for the next video, aiming to foster a community of project management enthusiasts.

Keywords

💡Scope Management

Scope Management is the process of defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project. It is a critical component of project management that ensures the project includes all the necessary tasks while preventing scope creep. In the video, scope management is broken down into three main areas: establishing, documenting, and controlling the project scope. The video emphasizes the importance of managing scope to align with project goals and resources.

💡Requirements Collection

Requirements Collection refers to the process of gathering and documenting the specific needs and expectations of users and stakeholders. This is an essential step in establishing the project scope as it helps to identify what the project should deliver. In the video, it is mentioned as the first step in establishing scope where stakeholders' needs are collected and then negotiated to align with available resources.

💡Negotiation

Negotiation in the context of project management involves discussions and agreements among stakeholders to prioritize requirements against the resources available. It is a key part of establishing the project scope, ensuring that the project objectives are realistic and achievable. The video script highlights that after collecting requirements, facilitation of negotiation is necessary to prioritize them.

💡Scope Statement

A Scope Statement is a formal document that defines the work that will be done and the boundaries of the project. It includes both inclusions and exclusions, clarifying what is and is not part of the project. The video emphasizes the production of a scope statement as a crucial outcome of the scope establishment phase, providing a clear definition of the project's objectives.

💡Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical decomposition of all the work involved in a project. It breaks down the project into smaller, more manageable components. In the video, the WBS is mentioned as a tool for documenting the scope, which helps in creating a WBS dictionary and understanding the project's deliverables.

💡WBS Dictionary

The WBS Dictionary is a companion document to the WBS that provides detailed information about each component of the WBS. It includes descriptions, resource estimates, and other relevant data. The video script mentions creating a WBS dictionary from the WBS as part of the scope documentation process, which aids in detailed planning and execution.

💡Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance Criteria are the standards or conditions that must be met for a project deliverable to be accepted as complete. They are used to ensure that the work done meets the quality and performance expectations of the stakeholders. The video discusses the need to define acceptance criteria for each deliverable in the WBS to check off completion.

💡Validation

Validation in project management is the process of confirming that the project output meets the needs of the stakeholders and is fit for the intended purpose. The video describes the need to validate the scope with stakeholders to ensure that the interpreted outcomes of negotiations are correct and that there have been no significant changes during the project's execution.

💡Scope Control

Scope Control involves monitoring the project's scope and managing changes to it to ensure that the project stays within the defined boundaries. It is part of the ongoing scope management activities during project delivery. The video highlights the importance of scope control in maintaining the integrity of the project scope and preventing scope creep.

💡Change Control

Change Control is the process of reviewing, approving, or rejecting changes to the project scope, schedule, or resources. It is a critical part of scope management as it helps to manage scope creep and ensure that changes are controlled and do not derail the project. The video script mentions change control as an important aspect of controlling scope during project delivery.

💡Interactions with Other Aspects

The video script discusses how scope management interacts with other aspects of project management, such as benefits management, quality management, and configuration management. These interactions are crucial as they influence the overall project success. For example, the scope affects the project's benefits and budget, and changes in scope can impact quality assurance and configuration management.

Highlights

The basics of scope management are essential for project management.

Three main areas of scope management: establishing, documenting, and managing scope.

Collecting requirements from users and stakeholders is the first step in establishing scope.

Negotiation among stakeholders helps prioritize requirements against available resources.

A scope statement defines what will be done and what exclusions will be made.

Documenting scope involves creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) and a WBS dictionary.

Acceptance criteria for deliverables are crucial for scope documentation.

Validation of scope ensures stakeholders' satisfaction with the work done.

Scope management interacts with benefits management, budgeting, and quality management.

Change control is an important aspect of controlling scope during project delivery.

Scope management is interconnected with resource management, communication, and quality assurance.

Configuration management and version control are part of ongoing scope management activities.

Scope management is a core part of project management discipline.

Understanding the components of scope management is crucial for effective project management.

The video provides a clear explanation of the components of scope management.

The presenter encourages viewers to subscribe for more project management content.

Transcripts

in this video i want to survey the

basics of scope management

how to manage scope on your project

[Music]

there are three main areas of scope

management

establishing your scope

documenting your scope and actually

managing it

so what are the main things that fall in

each

under establishing scope the first thing

we do is we collect requirements from

users and from stakeholders

and then we start to facilitate a

negotiation among those users among

those stakeholders to prioritize the

requirements that they want against the

resources we have available to deliver

them

and finally we produce a scope statement

which defines the scope of what we're

going to do and also the exclusions an

explicit statement of what we are not

going to do

the areas where we are going to

disappoint

some of our stakeholders

now we need to document our scope

and to do that we build a work breakdown

structure and from our work breakdown

structure we create a wbs a work

breakdown structure dictionary

and i have a whole video on how to

create a work breakdown structure

for you to refer to

next we need to look at the acceptance

criteria for each of the products or

deliverables on our work breakdown

structure

what are the standards they need to

conform to and what we need to check in

order to sign them off

and finally in this arena we need to

validate the scope we need to take all

the work we've done

our work breakdown structure on wbs

dictionary and our acceptance criteria

back to our stakeholders and check that

they are satisfied with them this isn't

about reopening negotiations it's about

making sure firstly that we properly

interpreted the outcome of those

negotiations and secondly that there has

been no material change

while we have been doing this work

the final arena of scope management is

controlling scope

during the delivery of the project we

need to be monitoring what's going on

with respect to scope

and of course

we have to be controlling changes to

scope

and change control is an important topic

in itself that we've covered elsewhere

but scope management does not sit on its

own it has important interactions with

every other aspect of the project

but there are some where the

interactions are bigger

and more evident

and the first of those is with benefits

management with building the business

case and establishing the budget

because the bigger the scope the more

the benefits but also the bigger the

budget you'll need to deliver it

secondly in setting the acceptance

criteria we're going to overlap deeply

with the whole discipline of quality

management and quality control and

quality assurance quality design

processes

and finally because we will need to

change scope from time to time

as events dictate

then scope management will also interact

a lot with things like configuration

management version control document

management and information management in

general

and during the delivery or

implementation stage of your project

there will be a number of ongoing scope

management activities

each of these is a subject in its own

but some of the main ones are resource

management making sure you allocate and

deploy the resources you have both human

resources and materials and equipment

to each of the scope areas

you'll need to be constantly

communicating both with your team

members and with your stakeholders to

make sure they understand the scope that

you're delivering

and how progress is going

you'll need to monitor delivery and in

thinking about acceptance you've got the

ongoing processes of quality assurance

to make sure that delivery is to quality

specification

and quality control to check after

delivery that each product meets its

criteria

then of course there is change control

the process of considering and either

accepting or rejecting requests for

change to the scope or to the

specifications

and finally

following on from the change control

process we've got configuration

management and version control of all

the documentation

scope management is a core part of the

project management discipline

and there is a lot to it

but many people don't understand what

all of the components are

so i hope i have explained them clearly

for you

[Music]

please do give a thumbs up if you've

enjoyed this video i'll be creating

loads more great project management

content for you so please do subscribe

to the channel and hit the notification

bell so you don't miss any of it

and i look forward to seeing you in the

next video