ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the “what” of the project, more formally known as the project scope. Scope is central to any project, as fulfilling the scope is the primary reason for the existence of the project in the first place. While seemingly straightforward, managing scope well, especially in a changing environment, can be one of the greatest project challenges. So much so that the recent advancement in the Agile project approach is to tackle the very issue of defining and managing scope. The importance of carefully defining project scope, identifying the specific requirements, creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) to guide and direct work activities, and validating and controlling scope throughout the project will be discussed in turn.
In traditional project management, especially before the recent advancements in stakeholder management, project professionals often initiate projects by addressing the question of scope. Logically, this makes intuitive sense – understanding “what” is foundational to the planning of cost, resources, communication, and most other project management domains. However, given the challenges of defining scope, project professionals may utilize different methodologies to identifying, analyzing, and managing scope based on the project deliverables, project environment, 126and other important factors. Here, some projects may naturally gravitate toward the more adaptive and Agile approaches while favoring the predictive and traditional methods.
This chapter addresses three important questions with regard to scope management:
Why is scope management important?
What are the challenges of managing scope?
How to manage scope well on projects?
