CHAPTER 5 Project Scope Management
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 What is the purpose of project scope management? Why is good project scope management important on technology oriented projects?
Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processed used to create them. Project scope management includes scope planning, scope definition, WBS creation, scope verification, and scope control.
Scope management is very important on technology projects because many projects suffer from unclear requirements and scope creep.
2 How can one control scope creep? When will scope creep be a good thing?
Scope creep can be controlled by Scope verification. Project scope statement,
WBS, WBS dictionary, project scope management plan, and deliverables are the main input for scope verification. It is important for scope verification to have strong user involvement. The main tool for performing scope verification is inspection. The main outputs of scope verification are accepted deliverables, required changes, and recommended corrective actions.
Scope creep can sometimes be a good thing. For example, if you are working for a consulting firm getting paid by the hour and a project continues to grow in scope, your firm will have more work and can therefore make more money.
This is one of the reasons why a project manager should do a good project scope management even when a project is out-sourced. Another example could be when scope creep results in a much-needed feature or product that wasn’t originally planned for. That is why a project manager should balance between scope control while at the same time encourage team members’ creative ideas.
3 Discuss the tools and techniques used in the following Project scope management processes : (Scope planning, scope definition, WBS creation,
Scope verification, and scope control)
Scope planning: templates, forms, and standards, as well as expert judgment.
Scope definition: analyzing products, identifying alternative approaches to doing the work, understanding and analyzing stakeholder needs, and using expert judgment.
WBS creation: using WBS templates, using decomposition.
A WBS can be organized by Product
A WBS can also be organized by its organization
It can also be in a Tabular Form.
Scope Verification: Inspection.
Develop careful procedures to ensure the customer is getting what they want and the project team has enough time and money to produce the desired products and services.

Scope Control: two important: change control system and configuration management. Others: re-planning project scope and performing variance analysis.