PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy

Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar

www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy

By Dr. TD Jainendrakumar

The main objective of any project is to fulfill the scope of the project on time and within the
budget.

What is Project Scope?

Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the deliverables of the project and the
processes used to create them. Project scope management includes the processes required to
ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete
the project successfully. Uncontrolled changes are often referred to as project scope creep; it is
the duty of the project manager to see that the changes are managed without increasing cost
and time.

There are two types of scope that are Product Scope and Project Scope

 Product scope: The features & functions that characterize the product, service, or result
documented usually by the Business Analyst in consultation with the stakeholders.
 Project Scope: The work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service, or
result with the specified features and functions.

Project has to be completed by fulfilling the customer requirements related to product

functionalities as well as the project expectation that is on time within budget. Generally the
product scope will be managed and monitored by the line managers this is called engineering
management, whereas project managers will be concentrated on project integration, scope,
time, cost, quality, resource, communication, risk, procurement and stakeholder management.
In some companies Project managers has to perform both, the problems faced in such type of
situation is that the project manager may be more concentrating on his technical capabilities
and mostly doing the line managers job that is engineering management and may be failed to
perform project management ( this is called halo effect ).

Plan Scope Management

The first process in this knowledge area is to Plan Scope Management which is coming under
planning process group. This is the process of creating a scope management plan that
documents how the project scope will be defined, validated, and controlled. It provides
guidance and directions on scope will be managed.

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

Plan Scope Management: Inputs

1. Project Management Plan: it defines how the project is executed, monitored,

controlled and closed. It integrates all plan components.
2. Project Charter
3. Enterprise Environmental Factors
4. Organizational Process Assets

Plan Scope Management: T & T

1. Expert Judgment from knowledgeable and experienced parties.

2. Meetings with stakeholders

Plan Scope Management: Output

1. Scope Management Plan. It includes:

 Process for preparing a detailed project scope statement.

 Process to enable the creation of WBS
 Process to establish how the WBS will be managed
 Define formal acceptance criteria of deliverables
 How change requests will be applied to scope

2. Requirements Management Plan: describes how requirements will be analyzed,

documented, and managed. It includes, but not limited to:

 How requirements activities will be planned, tracked and reported.

 Configuration management activities (managing changes in the functionalities of the
product).
 Requirements prioritization process.
 Product metrics (contains major functionalities of product and it’s user groups)

Collect requirements

The second process in this knowledge area is to collect requirements from the concerned
stakeholders; this is also coming under planning process group. This is the process of
determining; documenting and managing stakeholder needs to meet project objectives. The
key benefit is to provide the basis for defining and managing project scope.

 Requirements include the quantified and documented needs and expectations

of the sponsor, customer, and other stakeholders.

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

 Requirement must be analyzed and recorded in a clear and detailed way to be

measured.

Requirements can be grouped into classifications including:

 Business requirements, describe the high-level needs of the organization as a

whole.
 Stakeholder requirements, describe needs of a stakeholder or stakeholder
group.
 Solution requirements, describe features, functions and characteristics of the
product, service, or results.
 Transition requirements; describe temporary capabilities such as data
conversion & training needs.

Collect Requirements: Inputs

1. Project Scope Management Plan

2. Requirements Management Plan
3. Stakeholder Management Plan
4. Project Charter
5. Stakeholder Register

Collect Requirements: T & T

1. Interviews: meeting the stakeholders to ask prepared and spontaneous question &
recording the responses.
2. Focus groups: bring together stakeholders and subject matter experts to learn
about their expectations and attitudes about a proposed product, service or result.
3. Facilitated Workshops: Focused session with key cross-functional stakeholders to
define product requirements.
4. Group Creativity Techniques:
a. Brainstorming: A group discussion in a room to form a solution
b. Delphi Technique: Get the views form the experts from different locations
and select a solution with the help of a facilitator.
c. Nominal Group: Each one in the group writes a solution in a board and
discuss in detail about that.
d. Idea/Mind Mapping: Using a pencil and paper work it out until the
requirements are clear.
e. Affinity Diagram: Diagrammatic representation of requirements
f. Multi-criteria decision analysis: Decision Analysis to match different situation
to see that all criteria’s related to requirement are met
5. Group Decision Making Techniques

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

a) Unanimity : Unanimous decision

b) Majority : Majority decides the solution
c) Plurality : If there are 10 members in a group let us assume 3 people have
agreed to solution A, other 3 people agreed to solution B, and rest of the 4
people agreed to solution C, then accept solution C this is called plurality.
d) Dictatorship: One person takes the decision and all have to accept.
6. Questionnaire and Surveys
7. Observations: Go to customer site and observe, how the system is moving
8. Prototypes: Prototype models are demonstrated to get more specifications or
requirements.
9. Benchmarking : Comparing system performance with other systems
10. Context Diagrams: Draw the diagram of situation for more visibility
11. Document Analysis: Understand how the documents are prepared.

Collect Requirements: Outputs

1. Requirements Document contains :

a) Business Requirements
b) Stakeholder requirements
c) Solution requirements
d) Project requirements
e) Transition requirements

2. Requirements Traceability Matrix: matrix representation of requirements of

different people or sections in an organization.

Define Scope

The third process in this knowledge area is to define Scope which is coming under planning
process group, the process of developing a detailed description of the project and product. The
project scope serves as a reference for all future project decisions.

Define Scope: Inputs

1. Scope Management Plan

2. Project charter
3. Requirements Document
4. Organizational Process Assets (Procedures & Templates , Historical Data, Lessons
learned from old Projects)

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

Define Scope: T & T

1. Expert Judgment
2. Product Analysis (System analysis, Value analysis)
3. Alternatives Generations ( One problem can be solved in different ways, generate
different alternatives ways to produce a product, service or result to select the best,
this is possible through systems analysis)
4. Facilitated workshops

Define Scope: Outputs

1. Scope Statement: describes project’s deliverables and the work required to create
those deliverables. It includes

a) Product scope description

b) Deliverables’ Acceptance Criteria
c) Project Deliverables
d) Project Exclusion
e) Project Assumptions
f) Constraints
2. Project Documents Updates: may include, but not limited to:

a. Stakeholder register
b. Requirements Documents
c. Requirements Traceability Matrix

Create Work Breakdown Structure

The fourth process in this knowledge area is to Create Work Breakdown Structure which is
coming under planning process group, in this process subdividing the project deliverables and
project work into smaller and more manageable components. The work breakdown structure is
a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of project work.

Create WBS: Inputs

1. Scope Management Plan

2. Project Scope Statement
3. Requirements Document
4. Enterprise Environmental Factors
5. Organizational Process Assets

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

Create WBS: T & T

1. Decomposition: The subdivision of project deliverables into smaller, more

manageable components. The work package level is the lowest level in the WBS,
and is the point at which the cost and activity durations can be reliably estimated
and managed. The level of detail for work packages will vary with the size and
complexity of the project. Normally the level of decomposition can be up to 8 - 80
hour heuristic that is if someone can do all the activities in the work packages with
in one day(8 hours) or within 10 days (80 hrs.), then don’t decompose further.
(Please refer the diagram given below). In complex projects the work packages are
suitably grouped under different control of accounts for the ease of management.
2. Expert Judgment

Create WBS: Outputs

1. Scope Baseline
a. Project Scope Statement
b. WBS
c. WBS Dictionary
2. Project Documents updates
3. WBS Dictionary may include (but not limited to)
a. Code of Account Identifier
b. Description of work
c. Assumptions and Constraints
d. Schedule Milestone
e. Resource required
f. Cost Estimate
g. Acceptance criteria
h. Quality Requirements

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

There can be many work packages under each task depending upon the nature of the project

(Fig. a)

(Fig. b)

In WBS the project will be decomposed up to the work package level only

WBS of an aircraft system project shown here in (Fig. c)

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

Level 3 above (Fig. c) is at the work package level and there will be many activities under each
work package level is as shown in (Fig. b) above. All these work packages will be grouped under
different control of accounts for example there can be one control of accounts for task1 refer
(Fig. a) & Air Vehicle in (Fig. c) is a control of accounts and under that control of accounts there
can be different work packages, but we have shown only one work package in (Fig. a) and in
(Fig. c) we have 3 different work packages for Receiver, Fire Control and Communication, under
each of these work packages there can be a list of activities as shown in Fig. b)

Validate Scope

The fifth process in this knowledge area is to validate Scope which comes in monitoring and
control process group, means formalizing the acceptance of the completed project deliverables
by the customer. This includes reviewing deliverables with the client and obtaining formal
acceptance of deliverables. Scope validation is concerned with acceptance of deliverables by
the external customer while quality control is concerned with checking the correctness of the
deliverables internally and meeting quality requirements.

Validate Scope: Inputs

1. Project Management Plan

2. Requirements Documentation
3. Requirements Traceability Matrix (Requirements are placed systematically in matrix
form)
4. Validated Deliverables
5. Work Performance Data (Data regarding the actual work)

Valid Scope T & T

1. Inspection by customer
2. Group Decision making Techniques

Validate Scope Outputs

1. Accepted Deliverables
2. Change Request
3. Work Performance Information(Information received while comparing actual work
with the planned work)
4. Project Document Updates

Control scope

The sixth and last process in this knowledge area which comes under monitoring and control
process group this is to control scope means monitoring the status of the project & products
scope and managing changes to scope baseline. Ensure all requested changes and

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
www.pmworldjournal.net Advisory

recommended corrective or preventive actions are processed through the “Perform Integrated
Change Control” process. Control Scope process will control the scope creep.

Control Scope Inputs

1. Project Management Plan

a) Scope baseline
b) Scope management plan
c) Change management plan
d) Configuration management plan
e) Requirements management plan
2. Requirement Documentation
3. Requirement Traceability Matrix
4. Work Performance data
5. Organizational process Assets

Control Scope T & T

1. Variance Analysis: Analyze the performance measurements to assess the

variation from the scope baseline. Analysis should determine the cause and
degree of variance.

Control Scope Outputs

1. Work Performance Information

2. Change Request
3. Project management Plan Updating
4. Project Document Updates
5. Organizational Process Assets updates

Increased scope means increased time and cost, therefore it is the duty of the project manager
to build the scope baseline and control the scope changes and finish the project on time and
within the budget.

References:

1. PMBOK 5th edition

2. Project Management a systems Approach to Planning, scheduling and control by HAROLD
KERZNER, PH.D.
3. https://in.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=work+breakdown+structure+diagrams&hspar
t=tata&hsimp=yhs-photon_001&type=tatafp
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_breakdown_structure

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PM World Journal Project Scope Management in PMBOK made easy
Vol. IV, Issue IV – April 2015 T. D. Jainendrakumar
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About the Author

Dr. T D Jainendrakumar

Dr. TD Jainendrakumar, PhD, MCA, PMP is an international PMP

trainer, EX-Scientist/Principal Scientist/Joint Director, N.I.C,
Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Government of India,
Madhyapradesh. He has over 25 years’ of extensive experience in the areas of IT
Project management in e-governance at Ernakulam District Collectorate, District Courts
of Kerala, Central Administrative Tribunal Ernakulam, Rajeev Gandhi National Drinking
Water Mission (400 crore project), New Delhi and Principal Systems Analyst in National
Informatics Centre, Madhya Pradesh State Centre especially in the following areas of
specialization: IT practice management (Project Management Methodologies, Tools
and techniques, Standards & Knowledge);IT Infrastructure Management (Project
Governance, Assessment, Organisational Instructions & Facilities and Equipments); IT-
Resource Integration Management (Resource Management, Training & Education,
Career Development & Team Development);IT-Technical Support (Project Mentoring,
Project Planning, Project Auditing and Project Recovery); and Business Alignment
Management (Project Portfolio management, Customer Relationship Management,
Vendor Management & Business performance management).

Teaching Project Management & ICT Subjects for professionals and post graduates.
Master of Computer Applications (MCA), a 3 year post graduate course dealing with
software Engineering and Project Management from a premier institute Anna University
Campus. He is a PMP of PMI USA since 2008. Resource person of PMI, you can see
his name in the PMBOK 4th edition and 5th edition published by PMI, USA under the
list of contributors for project management. Scored 4.11 out of 5 in the project
management (2005) examination conducted by brainbench.com, secured a Masters
Certificate in Project Management, and is one among the top scorers (First in India and
3rd position in the world in the experienced category).

He has published papers in PM World Today having cumulative index factors more
than 2 in the areas of specialization of Project Management & Information Technology.

Holding an Hon’ Doctorate from Cosmopolitan University, USA in Project Management

& Information Technology. Presently working as an independent project management
consultant and an International Project management (PMP) trainer. Provided PMP
training to the senior officials of big MNCs like M/S. Earnest & Young and He is a
visiting professor and sharing his knowledge and experience and to handle classes in
Management Information Systems, Quality Management, Project Management and
Software Engineering to some of the big universities. He can be contacted at
[email protected].

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