PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide, Third Edition (Certification Press)

Planning the project scope involves progress elaboration. The project scope begins broad and through refinement becomes focused on the required work to create the product of the project. Like any process in project management, scope planning has inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. The following table lists the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs of scope planning.

Using Scope Planning Tools and Techniques

The goal of scope planning is to create a scope statement and the scope management plan, two of the outputs of the scope planning process. The project manager and the project team must have a full understanding of the project requirements, business need of the project, and stakeholder expectations to be successful creating the scope statement and the scope management plan. Recall that there are two types of scopes:

• Product scope Features and functions of the product of the project

• Project scope The work needed to create the product of the project

Using Product Analysis

Product analysis is, as the name implies, analyzing the product the project will create. Specifically, it involves understanding all facets of the product, its purpose, how it works, and its characteristics. Product analysis can be accomplished through one or more of the following:

• Product breakdown This method breaks down the product into components, examining each component individually and how it may work with other parts of the product. This approach can be used in chemical engineering to see how a product, such as a pharmaceutical, is created and how effective it is.

• Systems engineering This process focuses on satisfying the customers' needs, cost requirements, and quality demands through the design and creation of the product. There is an entire science devoted to systems engineering in various industries.

• Value engineering Deals with reducing costs and increasing profits, all while improving quality. Its focus is on solving problems, realizing opportunities, and maintaining quality improvement.

• Value analysis Similar to value engineering, this focuses on the cost/quality ratio of the product. For example, your expected level of quality of a $100,000 automobile versus a $6,700 used car is likely relevant to the cost of each. Value analysis focuses on the expected quality against the acceptable cost-also known as the cost of quality.

• Function analysis Related to value engineering, this allows team input to the problem, a search for a logical solution, and tests the functions of the product so the results can be graphed.

• Quality function This deployment is a philosophy and a practice to fully understand the customer needs-both spoken and implied-without gold-plating the project deliverables.

Using the Benefit/Cost Analysis

The analysis of benefits to costs is straightforward business. The project manager records the tangible and intangible benefits and costs and creates a ratio between the two. For example, a project to create an addition onto an existing home may have a cost outlay of $75,000, but also have costs that are not financial, such as loss of yard space, additional heating and cooling requirements, risk of expansion for resale purposes, and so on. The benefits of the expansion can include more living space for the family, added comfort to the home, not having to move to a new house, and so on. The benefit/cost ratio lists the key benefits against the key costs and can be written as 3:2-three benefits, against two costs.

Finding Alternatives

Project managers, project team members, and stakeholders must resist the temptation to fall in love with a solution too quickly. Alternative identification is any method of creating alternative solutions to the project need. This is typically accomplished through brainstorming and lateral thinking.

Examining the Scope Statement

The scope statement, an output of scope planning, is the guide for all future project decisions. It is the key document to provide understanding of the project purpose. The scope statement provides justification for the project existence, lists the high-level deliverables, and quantifies the project objectives. The scope statement is a powerful document that the project manager and the project team will use as a point of reference for potential changes, added work, and any project decisions. The scope statement includes or references the following:

• Project justification Identifies the business needs of the project. It answers why the project has been authorized. This is important since it provides guidance should the project undergo cuts and tradeoffs of deliverables.

• Project's product The scope statement reiterates the details of the project product.

• Project deliverables The high-level deliverables of the project should be identified. These deliverables, when predefined metrics are met, signal that the project scope has been completed. When appropriate, the scope statement should also list what deliverables are excluded from the project deliverables. For example, a project to create a new food product may state that it is not including the packaging of the food product as part of the project. Items and features not listed as part of the project deliverables should be assumed to be excluded.

• Project objectives Project objectives are specific conditions that determine the success of a project. Conditions are typically cost, schedule, and quality metrics. Vague metrics, such as customer satisfaction, increase risk for the project, as the metric 'customer satisfaction' is subjective and not quantified.

Examining the Supporting Detail

Have you ever wondered how and why a project manager made a particular decision? Supporting detail provides information on why decisions were made. Supporting detail serves as point of reference in the project. It provides information for identified constraints and assumptions made during the scope planning processes.

Implementing the Scope Management Plan

The scope management plan explains how the project scope will be managed and how scope changes will be factored into the project plan. Based on the conditions of the project, the project work, and the confidence of the project scope, the scope management plan should also define the likelihood of changes to the scope, how often the scope may change, and how much the scope can change. The scope management plan also details the process of how changes to the project scope will be documented and classified throughout the project life cycle.

Exam Watch

Generally, you do not want the project scope to change. The implication of the scope management plan concerns how change to the project scope will be permitted-and what the justification is to allow the change.

There are three big themes from this chapter you'll encounter on the project exam: initiation, scope, and the WBS. For initiation, you should know several facts based on the processes found within initiation:

1. Projects are initiated based on business and customer needs, as well as opportunities.

2. Feasibility studies can help determine if a project should be selected for authorization.

3. The product description is created to help direct the project planning and selection method.

4. The project charter is created and signed by senior management to authorize the project.

5. The project manager is named and appointed in the project charter.

There are two types of scope, project scope, and product scope. Unless the exam is talking about features and characteristics of the project deliverables, it will be referring to the project scope. If you think this through, it makes sense: think of all the billions of different product scopes that can exist… the exam will offer big, old hints if its talking about product scope.

Project scope, on the other hand, focuses on the work that has to be done in order to create the product. Recall that the project scope is concerned with the work required-and only the required work-to complete the project.

Your favorite project management tool, the WBS, is the most important tool in your project management toolbox. It is used as input to five planning processes:

• Cost estimating

• Cost budgeting

• Resource planning

• Activity definition

• Risk management planning

Here's a nifty hint: WBS templates come from previous projects and/or the project management office if the organization has one. WBS activities are defined in the WBS dictionary.