Planning How to Manage the Project Scope

This involves creating a scope plan that describes how the scope of the project will be defined and managed throughout the life of the project. This task involves the project manager, the project sponsor, selected project team members, selected stakeholders, anyone with responsibility for any of the scope management processes, and others as needed.

The resulting scope plan describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and verified.

Elements of the scope management plan

Key elements include processes that detail how:

1. A detailed project scope statement will be prepared
2. The work breakdown structure will be created from the detailed project scope statement
3. How the WBS will be approved and then maintained
4. How formal acceptance will be obtained
5. How requests for changes to the project scope statement will be accepted and handled

Aim of project scope management

The main input to this process is the project charter, and the two main outputs are the scope plan itself and the requirements management plan. The project plan is the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled. It integrates and consolidates all of the subsidiary plans and baselines from the planning processes. Approved subsidiary plans of the project plan are used to create the scope plan and influence the approach taken for planning scope and managing project scope.

The project charter provides a preliminary definition of roles and responsibilities and the project objectives. It is usually a fairly short document that refers to more detailed documents. It provides the high-level project description and product characteristics. It also contains project approval requirements and will be completed by the sponsor or individual initiating the project.

There are several key sections that you need to include in your project charter:
1. Contact points for key individuals of the project.
2. Project Purpose - the issue/problem to be solved by the project.
3. Business Objectives for the project as they relate to the organizations strategic plan.
4. Assumptions that have been made as part of the project.
5. Description of the project.
6. Definition of the project scope and the limits identified.
7. Overview of major milestones and deliverables for the project.
8. Project Authority - including an organization chart and definition of roles and responsibilities.
9. Resources required for the project including: costing, equipment, staffing, support, operational & IT facilities,
10. Signatures of the key project members that authorize the project.

When the project charter is first circulated it can attract additional sponsorship from other areas of the business that feel as though they would benefit from getting on board and increasing the scope of the project or it can sometimes be decided that the business case is not strong enough for the project to proceed.

The main objective here is to clarify the business need and define the scope of the project and show clearly that other options have been considered and that this project is the right choice along with the reasons why this is so.

You can find a project charter template on this website which can help you to produce this document or you may find that your organization has a template of its own that you will be expected to use.
Project charter

The purpose of the project charter is to document the reasons for undertaking the project including:

• Objectives
• Constraints
Main stakeholders
• In-scope items
• Out-of-scope items
• High-level risk plan
Communication Plan
• Target Project Benefits
High-level Budget
• Spending Authority

In summary, the purpose of this step is to create a scope plan that will serve as a guide for the project team members to give them direction on how the scope will be managed throughout the project. See the scope plan checklist.

You may also be interested in:
Project Scope Management | Scope Creep and Project Change Control | Planning How to Manage the Project Scope | Documenting the Project Requirements | Creating a Project Scope Statement | Creating the Work Breakdown Structure | Validating and Controlling Project Scope.


Key Points

  • A scope plan describes how the scope of the project will be managed throughout the life of the project.
  • The main input is the project charter, which provides a preliminary definition of roles and responsibilities, and the project objectives.
  • The resulting scope plan describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and verified.

Today's Top Picks for Our Readers:
Recommended by Recommended by NetLine

** PLEASE DESCRIBE THIS IMAGE **

Top Trending Free eBooks