Managing Scope for Project Success

June 24, 2009 from Project Times – “Ever start a project without a stable foundation for scope? How did it go? To ensure project success, it is essential that scope be unambiguous and carefully managed. This can be accomplished with the Scope Management Process, which provides a formal set of procedures for planning, executing, monitoring and controlling scope…

Basic functions in the Scope Management Process include reviewing the project charter and other documents such as the contract, statement of work and request for proposal…”

180 View – Anyone familiar with project management methodology will already know most of what’s in the article. The main reason for including it is the discussion of where scope is defined. The article suggests the contract and statement of work as a source. It is extremely unlikely that scope will be defined well enough in either of these documents. The article also suggests the request for proposal. I agree with that but it needs to be part of the contract, which it is usually not. If using the RFP as scope, the requirements in the RFP need to be defined specifically enough to avoid misunderstanding later. The requirements should also be prioritized to ensure focus on the most important requirements.