Project Scope Document

 

The description of the boundaries of the project is basically defined as scope. Actually what will be delivered by the project and what will not be delivered is defined by it. All the stakeholders have a view from the project and scope is defined to be that view. It also defines the limit of the project. That the project involves all the basic tasks and processes is ensured by project scope management (Adler and Pittz, 2016). The primary concern of project scope management is to define and control what are the things to be included in a project as must. This report will be outlining a proper project scoping document by including all the essential content.

A project scope is described as the process of identifying all the elements and tasks that will be needed to complete the project in an account of achieving the objectives. The tasks may be included in the log frame. They might also be identified before by the project team. The tasks may be team building capacity, stakeholder management, meetings and project presentation and all the other important tasks which will be consuming the resources of the project. (Bryde and Joby, 2007)

2.1 Project Scope Statement

The usage of a project scope statement is developing and confirming a common understanding of the project scope among the principal stakeholders. The things that should be included in a project scope statement are – the project justification, a brief definition of the outputs of the project and the intended benefits, a summary of the major constraints of the projects, assumptions and dependencies on the other projects, the external initiatives and also a statement including the success factors. This is basically a communication tool involving all the stakeholders of the project ensuring that they all have a common perception on the idea of the project. It also communicates the changes made in a project. (Davidson, 2014)

• According to the project justification, the mentioned problem will be answered and satisfied by the project. Such as, the increase in the per capita income of the population. It will also be defining the beneficiaries who will be benefitted from the outcomes of the project.
• The tangible outputs of the projects are also summarized by the brief description.
• Any significant limitations either imposed by the donor or the beneficiaries or the local conditions are included in the project constrains. For example, the employee benefits of the workplace may be designed as a project and the implications in setting up the benefits.
• A list of the conditions is included in the project assumptions which are assumed to stay for the project to succeed. The conditions which are generally thought as true without proof or demonstration are the contribution of the employees to complete the project with their activities.
• Project dependencies will be either internal or external factors. Upon them the project is dependent. Such as, the partner organization that provides the goods or services which will be used by the project.
• The success of the project is basically defined by the stakeholders of the project, especially the employees and the beneficiaries. Success of a project doesn’t depend on only meeting and completing the activities of the project on time, within budget and the expected quality which is acceptable by the stakeholders and employees. The success of the project is ultimately defined by the beneficiaries of the project. So it is thought to be a good practice to ask and document the expectations from the project.

The project scope statement is thought and held to be the most important instrument that a project needs to design the project. The project scope statement is used in the evaluation of every request and the communication of the limits of the project to a wider range of audience. It also works as a project information document which concisely puts the terms defining the tasks of the project. (Hyväri, 2006)

2.2 Work Breakdown Structure

So when the project scope statement has been finalized, the next process is to define the scope by breaking it down to the manageable pieces. The purpose of it is developing a complete list including all the tasks that are needed to complete the project. The stakeholders will be using the list to determine the resources requirements for example, the time, skills and cost estimation. This process is also used as a baseline for measuring the performance and monitoring the project, supporting the clear communication the responsibilities of the tasks. (Davidson, 2014)

The work breakdown structure of the project is defined to be an outcome oriented analysis of the work included in the project. It also defines the total scope of the project.

In project management, it is thought to be a foundation document. It provides the basis for planning and managing the schedule and budget of the project and it requests for any changes or deviation from the plans.

The work breakdown structure is basically developed in the form of an inverted tree structure. These are organized by objectives. It has the look of an organizational chart which helps the stakeholders in visualizing the project along with all its components. The work breakdown structure is also defined to be a project management technique to define and organize the total scope of a project by using a hierarchical tree structure. (Adler and Pittz, 2016)

The work breakdown’s first two levels describe a set of planned outcomes which collectively and exclusively characterize the project scope’s 100%. At each subsequent level, one employee of the workplace node collectively and exclusively represents the scope of the node of all the employees. Planned results are described by a well-designed work break structure rather than planned actions. The desired ends of the project are the outcomes. They can be accurately predicted. These actions include the plan of the project which might be difficult for prediction. Designing a project gets easier by a well-designed work breakdown structure and also makes it easy to assign activities to one and only one terminal elements of work breakdown structure.

2.3 Scope Work Assignment

The next step in the scope management process is assigning the work to the responsible people. It is done after all the work needed to accomplish the project has been identified properly. The work breakdown structure and the project schedules are the inputs in this step which help to identify every activity or task that occur along with the Resource Requirement Matrix (RRM). It identifies the skills needed to complete the tasks. Basically the project team uses the matrix.

The instruments of this process involve the actions of assigning the scope work to the team through the work assignment sheet. It also assigns works to the consultants through the scope of the work document. One of the most important parts of this process will be to collect information regarding the completed work, and then receive the acceptance of the work from the employees or the beneficiaries. (Hwang and Low, 2012)

2.4 Work Assignment Sheet

There should be the date of assignment, the expected completion date, the beneficiaries involved and the locations of the activities along with the resources included in the assignment sheet. A brief description on the instructions or the approaches to be followed should be included in it. (Ponnappa, 2014)

2.5 Scope of Work

Scope of work has so many similarities with the previous processes. But the thing that’s different in here is the work is assigned to a consultant hired for the specific project. A Team of Reference is basically followed in the scope of work which helps to define the objectives. It also helps to select a consultant for completing the specific work. (Hwang and Low, 2012)

After completing the work, the consultant needs to present a document informing about the progress that has been made along with the result and output.

2.6 Work Verification

According to this step, actions are needed to ensure that the work that has been delivered ensures the specifications of the project as it is uses as a guarantee that the members are delivering the project with the promised quality in its work. At the very end of the project, the employees and the team members will be reporting on the activities accomplished, the deviations and changes on the plans and activities and also the needed information that played a helpful role in fulfilling the project. (Adler and Pittz, 2016)

The project needs to capture the lessons learnt at the end of each project phase or at the completion of a significant milestone. It may include the reasons as in why something went wrong, the contributing reasons towards success and also the activities done by the project.

Adler, T. and Pittz, T. (2016). The Importance of Managing Strategic IT Project Contracts Using a Business Process Approach. International Journal of Information Technology Project Management, 7(4), pp.52-63.

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