Scope Management: PMP Study Guide for PMBOK 6th Edition
Plan Scope Management
| Scope management | Scope management is the process of defining what work is required and then making sure all of that work and only that work is done |
| Product scope | Product scope is another way to say “requirements that relate to the product of the project.” |
| Project scope | The work required to achieve the deliverables. The work can include planning, coordination, and management activities. |
| Scope management plan | The scope management plan could be thought of as containing three parts where scope will be:
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Collect Requirements
| Collect Requirements | The Collect Requirements process involves gathering more specific input on those requirements from all stakeholders. This process is critical of project success, as missed requirements could mean significant changes and conflict throughout the remainder of the project and even project failure. |
| Interviews | The team or project manager interviews project stakeholders to identify their requirements for a specific element of the product or project work, or for the overall project. These interviews can take place between individuals or in group settings. Interviews can also be conducted via email, phone, calls, letter, or other methods. |
| Focus groups | This technique helps to get a specific set of stakeholders’ or subject matter experts’ opinions and requirements for the product or an aspect of the project |
| Facilitated workshops | Facilitated workshops bring together stakeholders with different perspectives to talk about the product and ultimately, arrive at consensus regarding the requirements |
| Group creativity techniques | Many different types: brainstorming, nominal group techniques, Delphi, idea/mind mapping and affinity diagram |
| Group decision making techniques | Unanimity; majority; plurality and dictatorship |
| Questionnaires or Surveys | Fast method to accumulate information from many respondents |
| Observations | Also called “job shadowing” – assists in understanding the process to uncover hidden requirements |
| Requirements documentation | This documentation is an output of the Collect Requirements process and helps make sure the requirements are clear and unambiguous. The documentation can contain various types of information. |
| Requirements management plan | In addition to describing the methods to use to identify requirements, the plan should answer the following questions:
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| Requirements Traceability Matrix | The requirements traceability matrix helps track requirements over the life of the project to ensure they are accomplished.
The matrix usually takes the form of a table with information like numbers, source of each requirements, and status. |
Define Scope
| Project charter | Formally authorizes the project within the organization. Developed during integration – develop project charter |
| Requirements documentation | Output from Scope – Collect requirements. How the requirements will meet the business needs. Includes: quality requirements, acceptance criteria, impacts, training requirements, etc. |
| Organizational process assets | Policies, procedures, and guidelines that will impact how scope will be managed |
| Expert judgement | Select experts to assist in developing portions of the detailed scope statement |
| Product analysis | Better understanding of product techniques: product breakdown, systems analysis, systems engineering, value engineering, value analysis and functional analysis |
| Project scope statement | Confirms common understanding of project scope among stakeholders. Includes: scope description, product acceptance criteria, deliverables exclusions, constraints and assumptions |
| Constraints and Assumptions | Constraints and factors that limit the teams’ options. Assumptions are things that are assumed to be true but that may not be true. |
Create WBS
| WBS Definition | Improves accuracy of cost, time, and resource estimates. Defines a baseline for performance measurement and control. Facilitates clear responsibility assignments. |
| Decomposition | Sub-divides major deliverables into smaller, more manageable components until all can be defined with adequate costs and duration estimates.
5 steps:
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| WBS | Deliverable oriented grouping of project elements which defines the entire scope. Benefits:
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| WBS Dictionary | The WBS dictionary provides a description of the work to be done for each WBS work package and helps make sure the resulting work better matches what is needed |
| Scope Baseline | For scope, the baseline is the agreed upon project scope statement, the WBS, and the WBS dictionary |
Validate and Control Scope
| Validate Scope | The validate scope process actually involves frequent planned in meetings with the customer or sponsor to gain formal acceptance of deliverables during monitoring and control. |
| Control Scope | The control scope process involves measuring project and product scope performance and managing scope baseline changes |
Things to Remember
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| 2 | Assume that you are the project manager for the BUYER for all questions on the exam that involve procurement |
| 3 | Project manager must be assertive in how they manage the project. You must be able to say no and not allow activities that will take away for the focus and objectives of the project. Unnecessary scope adds time. |
| 4 | When you take the exam, assume that the project manager has expended the effort necessary to determine all the requirements and that those requirements are ranked by order importance. |
| 5 | There can be many references to be WBS on the exam. In short, remember the following. A WBS:
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| 6 | The Control Scope process involves measuring project and product scope performance and managing scope baseline changes. As you take the exam, assume that you are controlling scope in this way. You must assume proper project management is being done on the project unless the exam says otherwise. |
Before you go…
Lastly, don’t forget to check out the other study notes in this series and download our free 200 practice questions by clicking the links below:
Integration Management – PMP Study Guide
Scope Management – PMP Study Guide
Time Management – PMP Study Guide
Cost Management – PMP Study Guide
Quality Management – PMP Study Guide
HR Management – PMP Study Guide
Communications Management – PMP Study Guide
Risk Management – PMP Study Guide