Project Scope and Its Role in Success
It’s not an easy task to manage and deliver a successful project, yet successful Project Managers do it repeatedly. Project Scope Management is one of the key reasons behind these successful projects.
A Project Manager has to keep the project under budget and also complete it before the deadline. This requires them to understand the project in the clearest way possible.
They break down the whole project into manageable tasks, assign deadlines to each task, allocate the right amount of resources to the right place and also track the progress of the whole project.
All of this is made possible only through Project Scope Management. But before we understand Project Scope Management, we have to understand what “Project Scope” means.
Outline
It can be defined as a detailed outline of all the elements of a project. It is a part of project planning and revolves around clearly defining:
- Goals of a Project.
- Required Resources.
- Task Deadlines.
- Project Boundaries.
- Features.
- Project’s Function.
- Assumptions.
- Project Deadline.
It shows a rough picture of what the project and deliverables are going to look like. One of the duties of a Project manager is to align stakeholders’ expectations with project deliverables, and a clear Project Scope is the best way to do so.
A clear Project Scope is beneficial in every stage of project management by forming a vision of the whole project right from the start. It also aids in forming a well-structured Project Scope Statement.
Statement
A Project Scope Statement is a detailed account of all the work and resources required to execute a project. It aims to provide everyone with a well-defined and clear vision about all the goals a project is trying to accomplish.
It usually revolves around the following aspects of a project:
- Detailing all the work to be done for the completion of a project and how it is going to be done.
- A clear idea of expected deliverables by the end of a project. This could be software, a feature, a service or a product.
- Scope exclusions: This is a list of all the things that won’t be a part of the project to avoid Scope Creep.
- Deadline of the project. It also includes deadlines for the various tasks and functions to be performed to complete the project on time.
- All the resources that will be required during the project.
The statement is essential to align customers’ expectations right from the start of a project and helps in preventing conflicts during or after the project.
Let’s try to better understand it through an example.
Example
Suppose a company ABC wants to build task list software. This task list software will be used by them to assign tasks to their employees regularly.
Introduction
This task list software project is being undertaken for company ABC. The purpose of the software is to assign tasks to company ABC’s employees.
Project Scope
This project will include research on company ABC’s requirements and then developing a piece of software that can assign tasks to their employees.
Project Deliverables
A piece of software that successfully assigns tasks to the employees of company ABC.
Criteria of Project’s Acceptance
Company ABC will use, review, and approve the task list software.
Project Deadline
The software must be delivered to the company ABC before the end of this year.
A Project Scope Statement is then approved by the customer and the project is assigned. In this way, all the expectations are cleared even before starting the project making it easier for both parties to work together.
As we are now clear with the term, let’s try to understand what Project Scope management is.
Project Scope Management
Project Scope Management is an elaborative process by which a Project Manager defines the scope of a project. This mostly involves controlling whether something is a part of a project or not.
It consists of the following steps:
- Planning Scope Management: In this step, a plan is created based on the customer’s input and expectations.
- Collecting Requirements: This step involves collecting and documenting all the information regarding the project. It helps in setting clear expectations between both parties and tunes out any confusion.
- Defining Scope: After collecting all the information regarding the project, the scope of work is defined with data collected as a reference. This is the basis of all the decisions of whether something is a part of a project or not.
- Planning The Work: A Work Breakdown Structure is an important part of project scope management. A project needs to be broken down into manageable chunks with deadlines to work without getting overwhelmed. This also tracks the progress of a project and aids to deliver it on time.
- Validating the scope: A Project Manager needs to inspect whether the project they are working on matches the Project Scope they defined. This involves feedback, suggestions and advice at the end of each phase of a project.
- Controlling the Scope: This involves keeping track of the required changes in the scope of the project to better align the project and requirements.
All of these steps, if performed right, form a well-structured Project Scope and help in the smooth progress of any project.
Its Importance
Project Scope Management is an important part of any project to complete and here are some reasons to better understand its importance:
Define Project Needs
A Project Scope clearly states all the labour, resources and money going into the project. And project scope management helps define these resources at the right time during a project.
This ultimately keeps the workflow smooth and steady. Team members also get rid of worries regarding lack or delay of resources at any point of time during the project.
Focus On Work
Once a project is clearly defined, each member of the team has a clear understanding of what they have to do. This leaves no room for confusion among anyone and it leads to a productive environment.
A productive environment not only increases productivity but also keeps the project on track. The most difficult task for a project manager is to keep the project progressing and a clear Project Scope Management solves this problem
Only a handful of 2.5% of companies complete all their projects. A clear Project Scope can help you become one of them.
Dealing With Changes
A project is bound to have some changes. But a clear Project Scope Management tries to minimize these changes. Even after minimizing the chances, some changes can occur but a well-defined project scope management helps incorporate these changes with the minimum stress possible.
A customer may also come up with new needs in between and a clear project scope management makes it easier to negotiate those changes. It makes it easier to reallocate resources per incorporated changes in the easiest way possible.
Ease in Budgeting
A Project Manager has to keep the project under budget all the time. A well-defined Project Scope estimates the most accurate amount of resources required for a project.
It also helps in project analysis from time to time. Project analysis is a crucial step during the management of any project. It also involves matching the project cost and the cost mentioned in the Project Scope. Matching them is important to keep the budget in check during project progress.
An effective Project Scope Management keeps the difference between two to a minimum. And it also aids in cutting down costs at the right time if the project costs are increasing.
In case of any changes requested by a client, a clear Project Scope will help you negotiate more money without hampering your relationship with the client.
Avoiding Scope Creep
Scope creep can be defined as a subtle deflection from the project plan through the addition of new requirements. This makes the project very different from what it was supposed to be. It can also increase project costs and delay the whole project.
Scope Creep is a result of changing requirements due to various internal reasons of an organization.
A well-defined Project Scope can help you avoid Scope Creep. If the client comes up with any changes that are not under your scope of work, you can negotiate the budget and deadlines of the projects easily as you can clarify the deflection from Project Scope.
Scope Creep is one of the most common project managers face during projects. An effective and clear Project Scope Management can go a long way in such cases.
Keeping up with Deadlines
A Project Manager is supposed to complete a project assigned to them on time but most of them fail to do so. One of the most common reasons why projects fail is that tasks and their deadlines are not well defined.
With a clear Project Scope, you can avoid such delays and also see the project progress in terms of deadlines. It keeps the project on track and leads to completion before the deadline.
Project Scope Management helps in negotiating deadlines if necessary as it becomes easier to make a client understand through the documentation.
Improving Client Relationship Management
One of the key factors in building a good relationship with a client is trust and clarity.
A good relationship with a client makes the work easier because the client believes in your expertise and relies on it.
With an effective scope, you prove your expertise to the client which makes him trust you more. Also, it provides clarity to a client in every aspect of the project.
So, with a good Project Scope Management strategy you can build a good relationship with your client. This will make him consider you for more projects and that’s a huge benefit for you.
Avoid Stress
Once a project is clear with its amount of work, deadlines, phases, and budgeting it makes the project stress-free.
It becomes easier to manage people and distribute work for each task. Task deadlines track the project progress and the resources are allocated at the right time.
It becomes easier to handle something unexpected due to clarity brought by a Project Scope.
A clear Project Scope Management in the right way opens up a stress-free work environment. It boosts productivity and helps everyone work in the most effective manner possible.
Quality Maintenance
This is probably one of the biggest challenges a Project Manager faces during a project. Even after getting workflow and resources in place – maintaining professional quality becomes a task in itself.
Better management solves this because the deliverables are well defined at each stage of work progress. So, if the quality is being compromised at any particular stage it can be corrected right away before moving to the next stage.
Referring to Project Scope at each stage saves a lot of time and resources and makes it easier to track the quality as well.
Managing Multiple Projects
In most cases, a Project Manager is managing multiple projects at the same time. It can become overwhelming for him to handle multiple projects if the Project Scope is not clear.
It’s an important skill to learn for a Project Manager to handle multiple projects.
A clear Project Scope for each project can make it easier for a Project manager to handle multiple projects simultaneously. It separates each project into its list of tasks and deadlines. This keeps the multiple projects separated from each other and avoids confusion among the team members.
It helps you keep track of how much more work you can take or drop if required so that none of the projects is hampered in the process.
Final Thoughts
It is the most efficient method of finishing projects and helps you become a better project manager. It provides you with a clear picture of any project from the outset and keeps difficulties to a minimum at all stages of project progress.
Also, it aids in negotiating all of the changes that occur throughout the course of a project in the most efficient manner feasible. As a result, in order to handle projects correctly, every Project Manager must develop their project scope management abilities.
