Scope definition, baselining & management

Once the requirements are collected, the next step is to analyse the requirements and arrive at the scope of the project and get it approved by the key stakeholders. Scope changes related disputes is one of the key reasons for project delays and litigations. Hence it is important to degine, beseline and manage scope from the start of the project till the completion of the project.

Scope definition starts with requirements collection. These collected requirements are analysed to arrive at the Product Breakdown Struture (PBS), which depicts the main component of the deliverables of the project.

Product breakdown structure (PBS)

Work breakdown structure

Once the Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) is finalized, it is time to think about the activities that need to be performed to build the product. By superimposing the product backlog with the activities that need to be performed to build them, one arrive at the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Work packages

  • The lowest level in the WBS is the work package . There will not be any packages below it.
  • By the rime we reach levels 2,3,4 we will start seeing more and more work packages
  • For large projects, the size of the work packages will be higher and for smaller projects, the size of the work packages will be smaller
  • 8-80 rule is a hureistic or rule of thumb which states that work packages must be between 8 hours and 80 hours chunks of work. For smaller projects, the afinity of the work packages will be around 8 hours and for larger projects it will be around 80 hours or anything in between.
  • If smaller projects have large work packages, then monitoring and controlling will not be efficient
  • For larger projects, if we have very small work packages, then we will end up doing micro management
  • It is at the work package level where the cost estimates are finalized
  • Each work package is linked to a control account (budget element)

Scope baseline

  • The deltailed scope document along with the work package form the scope baseline which is approved by the key stakeholders of the project
  • Scope baseline become the basis for all further estimation of the project
  • Once the scope is beselined, any further changes to the scope will have to follow the change management procedure of the project