Thursday 9 December 2021

How can i effectively control the scope of my project?

Controlling project scope is project management activities that monitor project status, discover whether deliverables meet documented requirements, and manage changes to project scope baselines.

What do you need to control the scope?



The first thing to look at is the project management plan, especially the scope baseline, which is the "expected scope", compared to the scope of implementation of the project, and calculate the differences. 

If there is a deviation, the project manager needs to plan for corrections or preventive actions through a change control committee request.

Other information we use from the project management plan is the requirements management plan, the scope management plan, the change management plan, and the configuration management plan. 

 

These documents tell us how to manage changes in requirements and scope, manage any changes to baseline documents, and the process of updating configurable items. the scope of control process can also be unexpected, and you may notice other changes, such as changes in requirements, that affect other ancillary plans.


What does "configurable item" mean?


in short, configurable items are versioned documents (or project artifacts such as design, art, spreadsheets, and source code). this means that any changes to them are made by authorized personnel on the team, negotiated with required team members and/or other stakeholders, and used the change control process.

These documents are saved in an access-controlled environment, using a system that allows multiple people to make changes to the same document without overwriting each other's modifications. the configuration management plan defines these items and the process of controlling the changes to these artifacts. when an approved change is made to a configurable item, it is versioned and re-baselined.

We may need to go back and refer to the requirements documentation and requirements traceability matrix to verify that the delivery actually meets the documented requirements or that there are any deviations.

Next, we'll need to know how we execute the project, which is performance-related data. examples include how many deliverables have already started, at what stage of development they are in, how many change requests have been received, and which deliverables have been completed.

Finally, the policies, processes, templates, and guidelines that your organization sets to control scope, as well as any templates that are already available, will help us gain more control over scope.

How do you control the scope?


By comparing the current scope status of the project with base lined scope information, and the differences are found. if a mutation is found, corrective or preventive measures should be taken. any change requires the project manager (or any stakeholders) to decide whether preventive or corrective action is required and to make a change request. 

 

When a change request is approved by the change control committee, it is executed by making the necessary changes to the schedule and recreating the scope and schedule baseline.

Changes to scope can occur for different reasons - scope sprawl, gold plating, or customer requests. some changes are so small that the project manager (or project management team) finds that implementing them has no impact on any project constraints. in this case, the change control process is unnecessary.

The first is a change request. you or your customer may find many incorrect things that such "complaints" are recorded and passed through the change control committee. 

 

They are used to implement corrective or preventive measures and to manage discrepancies in scope. change requests may also be made due to changes in the scope of the customer's special requirements.

Subsidiary management plans, such as the scope management plan for the project management activities themselves, provide feedback on how our earlier plan was completed. therefore, you can use this information to update your project management plan.

During this process, we may update the cost baseline, the progress baseline, and the performance metric baseline as the range baseline is updated.

If the impact of the changes is significant, we may even eventually update the project documentation, such as the requirements documentation and the requirements traceability matrix.



How do i implement a scope change?


Someone on the team or any stake finds that a change in scope is required and submits a change request. this change request is then submitted to the change control committee by performing an integrated change control process. 

 

The project manager may also assess the impact of the change on the project objectives to help make a decision in the change control meeting.

If the change is approved, the impact on project constraints, such as schedule, scope, and cost, is evaluated in detail. this is where variance analysis comes into play. then plan new work based on the results of the variance analysis.

The range baseline is updated to create a new baseline and distribute it to the team. all further development work will refer to this new baseline. when a new baseline is created, the previous baseline becomes online. finally, changes are made according to the revised schedule to implement.


How to effectively control the scope of the project



In order to implement change control, an effective scope change process must be established. Modern project management software Innovative Techniques PM can help you make effective decisions and measure whether every change is meaningful and affordable.

You and your team can communicate transactions, issues, defect reports, improvement requirements, and more through the change management module of Innovative Techniques PM. In a system, change requests can be distinguished by severity, queued at different priorities to control access, or reassigned or transferred.

The importance of the scope of control is that it should document changes and notify stakeholders.

Innovative Techniques provides change requests to record and manage project changes quickly and efficiently, automatically tracking and recording the behavior of all submitter and reviewers in real time. 

 

The Change requests can be applied to document changes to project WBS, and change impact information and change requests are permanently associated to help project personnel make more effective and accurate decisions and measurements.



The project scope management is not difficult to implement, but it does take effort and time, and project management software is worth the investment. with its processed scope management, projects may be challenged by inflated scope and irregular inventory to deliver projects with minimal risk.

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