Project Management

Many scope management processes work well at the project manager level, but get compromised by team members. If the project manager is diligent in enforcing the scope change rules, the client may try to go directly to team members for changes. For instance, when an agreed-upon report is delivered for review, the client may request a second report to provide more clarity. The team member may agree to the work (showing 'client focus'). The result is that the activity takes too long or resources that could have been applied to other high priority work get absorbed working in an area that is out of scope.

The bottom line is that everyone needs to be held accountable for the scope management process. Team members must understand the process and why it is important. The client must also understand the process and its importance. Don't consider these procedures to be only of interest to the project manager and the sponsor. Make sure the procedures are communicated to the entire team.

When clients request scope changes directly from team members, bring this to the attention of the client manager or the sponsor. When team members make commitments for work that is out of scope, deal with it promptly. The first time it happens it may be considered a training matter. The next time it might be a performance problem.

The Change Control Board

Sometimes on very large projects, the project sponsor does not feel comfortable making the scope change decisions alone. This may especially be the case if the effect of the change will impact other organizations. It may also be the case that multiple organizations are participating in, or contributing to, the project funding, and want to have some say in evaluating scope change requests. For these cases, a group of people might be needed to handle the scope change approval.

A common name for this group is a Change Control Board. If a Board exists, it may be more cumbersome to work through. However, the general scope change management process does not need to change dramatically. For instance, there is still a document for the initial the scope change request. The project team needs to determine the impact and cost to the project. The Board must consider the impact, the value to the project, the timing, etc., and then make a determination as to whether the request is accepted.

The Scope Change Procedures must be somewhat more sophisticated to account for the Board. For instance, you need to clarify who is on the Board, how often they will meet, how they will be notified in emergencies, how they will reach decisions (consensus, majority, unanimous, etc.), how incremental work will be paid for, etc.

Only the Sponsor Can Approve Changes – Not Users and Client Managers

A typical problem on a project is that the team does not understand the roles of the sponsor, client and end users. In general, the project sponsor is the person who is funding the project. If the client were embodied in one person, it would be the project sponsor. The sponsor is usually high up in the organization and not easy to see on a day-to-day basis. In most cases, the sponsor designates someone in his or her organization to make most decisions on a daily basis.

The people that the project team tends to work with most often are end users. End users are the people that use the solution that the project is building. The end users are the ones that will generally make requests for changes to deliverables. It doesn't matter how important a change is to an end user, the end users cannot make scope change decisions and they cannot give your team the approval to make a scope change. In proper scope change management, the sponsor must give the approval. The end users can request scope changes, but they cannot approve them. The end user cannot allocate additional funding to cover the changes and they cannot know if the project impact is acceptable. If the change is important enough to the Sponsor, he or she will approve it, along with the appropriate budget and duration changes. If the change is not important enough, it will not be approved. However, it will be the Sponsor making the decision, not the project manager, client manager, project team or end users.

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Weekly Anagram

Let's have some fun! See if you can unravel this anagram. (Anagrams are a word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as satin to stain.)

Activities that have to be performed sequentially or within a predetermined time of each other

TAD ICE TIE VISIT: _ _ _ _ | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Last Week's Anagram.

A condition where there is no excess time between activities

ART ELF ZOO: ZERO FLOAT

Wideman Glossary Term of the Week - Capability

• The ability to perform effectively, efficiently and with the necessary skills.

• Having the needed attributes to perform or accomplish.

• The power to produce an effect, or perform as expected.

Labels: Scope Management Process