Introduction: In scope management, it is essential that the initial scope of the project is defined very clearly. Then as the project progresses, one should be able to measure if the project is on track or is lagging behind. Two important measures for judging the progress or slips are the time allocations made initially and the budget meant for executing the tasks. Periodically, measurements must be made to check if any deviations are happening. Some changes in the requirements are inevitable in any real-life project. The trick is to make sure nothing goes out of control. When there is no escape from making changes, the original baseline will have to be updated carefully to reflect the change. The processes used reflect these needs.
Processes Required: Collect requirements, define scope and create breakdown structures are the processes you are going to need that help set down the exact scope of a project. Collect requirements is the process of collecting initial requirements. These are sort of top-level statements that define the need. When a customer is requesting a project, these high level requirements may be defined in the contract. You will need to ask around and try to elicit further details from actual users. Often it is difficult to define the exact need as, even the end users, may have no idea of what they are really looking for. Any techniques that help crystallize the thoughts, unstated needs, even wishful thinking needs to be captured.
Define scope is the process that formally sets down the requirements of the project to be undertaken. Having done that, you need to define actual tasks to achieve the expected outcome. When the initial boundaries of the scope have been defined, you need to define the specific activities to be done, particular tasks to be completed, in what sequence so that the project outcomes could be achieved. Work breakdown process defines the work involved. It serves two purposes. The first of course is that, activities get clearly defined. You can review and make sure everything required to be done has been included. There will be very low probability that something is missed out and therefore, project outcome could be jeopardized. Second advantage of defining work in sufficient detail is that it becomes easier to define the effort estimates. Estimates are going to be accurate when all the steps are explicitly known.
Once you have gone through these steps, the scope definition will be reasonably accurate. There is another process that the project team will need to go through. The scope details will have to be verified. Expert judgment is a big help here. Experience with similar projects, activities, task will enable will enable accurate assessment of the details. Going through a verification phase will ensure everything has been considered and no important details missed.
Control scope is a process involves monitoring the work performance and assessing if activities are proceeding as planned. The reference is the baseline plan. This baseline may get moderated due to approved changes. Then this modified baseline becomes the reference for further progress measurements. If there are deviations in work performance, corrective measures need to be taken.
