What is Project Scope Management based on PMP Certification?: In this article, you will learn everything in detail about Project Scope Management, brief about 6 Processes of Project Scope Management, Product and Project Scope, importance of Project Scope Management, trends & emerging practices, tailoring considerations and many more.

Project Scope Management based on PMP Certification

Introduction to Project Scope Management

Project Scope Management is second knowledge area among all ten-knowledge area (Integration Management, Scope Management, Schedule Management, Cost Management, Quality Management, Resource Management, Communication Management, Risk Management, Procurement Management and Stakeholder Management) that every project manager should be familiar with.

Project Scope Management based on PMP Certification

Before we discuss about Project Scope Management, we must be familiar with the terms called Product Scope & Project Scope.

What is Product Scope and why it is important?

The features and functions which specify characteristics of a product or service. In simple terms, expectation of customer can also be called as Product Scope. Product scope is defined in product life cycle where product scope is measured against product requirements.

What is Project Scope and why it is important?

Project scope is an important parameter which needs to be tightly kept under control by project manager, throughout the life cycle. Project Scope refers to the work which needs to be accomplished for the purpose of delivering a product or service.

Sometimes Project scope can be viewed as including product scope. Project scope is defined in project life cycle where project scope is measured against Project Management Plan.

What do you mean by Project Scope Management?

Project Scope Management incorporates the essential processes which are required to make sure that all the required work included in the project without including unnecessary or redundant work to achieve project’s objectives for the successful completion of project as per stakeholder’s expectations.

Project scope management helps project manager to manage it properly in order to finish the project on planned schedule and budget as per expectation of client.

Why Project Scope management is important?

The main concern of Project Scope Management is to define and control what is and what is not included in the project. Defining Project Scope Management is initial phase of any project planning process which needs to be done by Project Manager. If scope of project is not defined properly, it would be very much challenging to complete the project successfully. Project Scope can be considered as the boundary within which project team will successfully deliver the project and the result will not match stakeholder’s expectations.

The main benefits of project scope management can be listed as:

Scope Management clearly specifies what to deliver
It helps for making appropriate decisions during the project life cycle
It helps managers to get a reference point for decision making
It makes project delivery easy and smooth by defining clear scope statement

Trends and Emerging Practices in Project Scope Management

Determine problems and identify recommended solutions
Determine business needs and criteria to meet those needs
Implementation of the product & service of the project for completing successfully.
Manage needs and requirements of the stakeholders to meet goals and objectives of the project

Tailoring Considerations in Project Scope Management

Because each project is unique, the project manager may need to tailor the way that the Project Scope Management processes are applied. Consideration for tailoring includes:

Development approach
Validation and control
Knowledge and requirements Management
Governance
Stability of requirements

What are the six Processes of Project Scope Management?

The entire knowledge area of Project Scope Management is further divided into smaller six processes which is very crucial to keep in mind for project managers in an organization. Each of these processes holds major contributions towards successful completion of the project.

Here’s is the brief of six Project Scope Management processes and details including Inputs, Tools & Techniques and Outputs will be explained in upcoming articles.

1. Plan Scope Management (Planning)

Plan Scope Management is the first process of Project Scope Management which provides Scope Management Plan as an output that describes how to define, develop, manage, validate and control the scope of project and product. Another output provided by this process is Requirements management plan which describes how to document, analyse and manage product requirements.

2. Collect Requirements (Planning)

Collect Requirements is another planning process of Project Scope Management knowledge area which defines, documents and manage needs and requirements of relevant stakeholders (Such as clients, sponsors, senior management, government regulators etc.) for the purpose of meeting project objectives. This process is also useful for determining and managing expectations of customer.

Like as Plan Scope management process, this process is performed only once or at predefined points providing basis to define project and product scope.

3. Define Scope (Planning)

Define Scope is the third process of Project Scope Management knowledge area, which determines description of the project and product in detail in order to deliver it. Project manager needs to define what is included and what is not in the project. Project scope can be defined by identifying project goals, Project objectives, schedule, cost, activities, required physical & team resources etc.

This process describes the product, service, or result boundaries and acceptance criteria. The major output of this process is project scope statement which includes product scope description, deliverables, acceptance criteria, project exclusions and documents the entire scope. This process is highly iterative.

4. Create Work Breakdown Structure (Planning)

Create WBS is the fourth process of Project Scope Management Knowledge area which includes process of subdividing project deliverables and project work into small chunks to manage them easily for achieving better outcomes.

This hierarchically decomposed work structure which needs to be carried out by project team is called as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The lowest level of WBS is known as Work Package which contains planned work. This process is performed once or at predefined points in the project.

5. Validate Scope (Monitor and Control)

Validate Scope process is the part of monitoring and controlling process group which is mainly concerned with how completed project deliverable will be accepted and obtaining formal acceptance by the customers or sponsors. Validate scope is also named as Scope verification.

Validating each deliverable, this process maximizes acceptance probability of final product, service, or result. This process is performed periodically throughout the project as needed.

6. Control Scope (Monitor & Control)

Control Scope is the final process of Project Scope Management which falls under monitoring and controlling process group. This process continuously monitors the progress status (project and product scope) and manage changes as per project requirements.

It also manages scope creep which happen when project or product scope are expanded without making necessary adjustments to cost, schedule and resources. This process is performed throughout the project as required.

Conclusion

Most hopefully, you would like this information, and this chapter is most important as it describes Project and Product scope in proper manner.

This article briefly describes about six process of Project Scope Management, but each process will be described separately with all necessary details in upcoming articles.

Share your views/questions about this script in the comment box below which would be highly appreciated and of course, you can also contact me on my email id: sdeepak222@gmail.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for taking time reading this article.

What is project scope management based on PMP Certification?