The importance of project scope management

According to the survey, the current failure rate of various IT projects in China is very high. Gartner Group conducted a survey of Fortune 500 companies in 2001, and the results showed that it projects. More than 72% is a failure. According to some recent statistics in the country, more than 90% of IT projects are ultimately unsuccessful if measured according to the rigorous criteria of project success. There are many factors involved in this situation, but one of the most important reasons is the lack of emphasis on project scope management.
　　 1 Project Scope Management
What is Project scope management? The concept of project scope encompasses two aspects, one is the product range, namely the feature or function contained in a product or service, and the other is the scope of the project, that is, the work that must be done to deliver the product or service with the specified features and functions.
In determining the scope, it is first to determine what is ultimately produced, namely the product range, which has clearly defined characteristics. It should be noted that the characteristics must be clear, in the form of recognition, such as text, graphics or a standard, can be understood by the project participants, must not be vague, ambiguous. On this basis, we can further clarify what needs to be done, that is, project scope management to produce the required products, that is, the scope of the product determines the scope of the project.
From the definition of project scope management we can see that project scope management is the foundation of all project management, because it determines what needs to be done to complete the project and does not need to do anything about it. Without defining the scope of the project, it is impossible to define what needs to be done, let alone manage the progress, quality, cost, risk, etc. of the project.
　　 2 Importance of IT project scope management
In real-world project management, you can see many examples of project failures due to project scope management not being in place. We can look at one of the following examples:
In 1992, a large enterprise in China decided to build a 38-storey building with an estimated investment of 200 million yuan and a two-year period. Six months later the company decided to change to 54 floors. Later, another city in the province was planning to build 63 storeys of the tallest building in the country, and in order to make the building a landmark in the city where the company was located, the enterprise was replaced by a 64-storey building. In 1994, some people thought that "64" was unlucky, then changed to 70 layer, and the investment increased to 1.2 billion yuan. In 1996, the building completed the foundation works, but at this time because the enterprise has transferred a large amount of funds to other industries, and the investment has failed, the building funds, the company has financial crisis. In 1997, as the building was not completed as scheduled, buyers demanded a refund and the building was shut down, eventually leading to the company's absence. This example is a typical performance of the project scope setting too large, an unrealistic project-the goal is much more than its own ability but also requires timely completion, is a major cause of project failure.
While there may be very few serious consequences in IT project management like those mentioned in the above example, it is not uncommon to know the various issues that result from project scope management. For example, it project management is the most likely to occur in the scope of the phenomenon, the general project managers are more easily aware of large scope changes, so as to take timely action, but for small changes are rarely so sensitive. In this case, there is a tendency to constantly add additional work to the project in the process without careful consideration. When the project accepted too many small changes and all of these small changes were combined, the project team realised that there was too much extra work to do, but it was too late to take action, over budget, and delays were inevitable.
This situation is often related to some of the mistakes in project management, usually everyone said "customer is God", so that the project team to the customer as a true "God", lack of courage to say "no", initially it is difficult to communicate on an equal basis, so that the demands, even to please users and do some extra work or "Gold-plated" project. This is actually the scope of projects that are repeatedly emphasized in project scope management. ' The work included in the project is limited to the work included in the project "there is great discrepancy. From here we can see that project scope management is an important factor that affects the success of the project. The importance of scope management is also reflected in another aspect, that is, project scope management is the management foundation of time, cost, risk and so on. We know that there are four mutually restrictive conditions that affect the success of a project, namely scope, time, cost, and quality. But for an enterprise's formal project, to meet customer requirements is the basic goal, in this premise, the quality of the project is difficult to cut corners, sacrificing the quality of the results, the light is not paid back, the serious loss of users, the most deadly is the overall image of the company's impact. Therefore, in the premise of the quality requirements can not be changed too much, the scope of the increase will directly lead to the extension of the duration, and in the actual project implementation process, the extension of project duration will directly lead to the increase in project costs.
In fact, if the scope of the project is not defined or the scope of the project is not within control, there is virtually no way to make a reliable project plan and project budget. In addition, for it projects, often users have no clear understanding of the entire project scope, how can you do a good job of project management? Only helping clients clarify the needs they really need and prioritize them will provide a solid foundation for the follow-up of the project. In turn, if the job is not done, Can have a significant impact on the entire project. So we say that scope management is indeed the first and most critical step in project management.
　　 3 Difficulties of IT project scope management
First, it is not a simple task to manage the entire process of project scope management, including startup, planning, definition, verification, and control, for IT projects.
Before the signing of the contract sales personnel in order to be able to sign quickly, often to the user will have some unrealistic commitment, until the contract, in the customer's impression that our products are omnipotent all-encompassing, so that customers have a lot of unrealistic expectations, which is actually the implementation of the follow-up project is quite unfavorable. After signing the contract if the project team and users do not have a gradual project scope of interaction, reduce the expected process, it is easy to have conflicting views of the situation, resulting in the impact of the project's advancement, serious or even stranded. I personally have encountered the user complained: "This seems to be not at all what you say when you sell", and do not agree with the system on-line on schedule.
Second, the domestic contracts are generally relatively simple, very few scope of the project will have a clear stipulation, especially the T software project, so that the scope of the project there is a great uncertainty, resulting in a large hidden risk. We often find that after the implementation of the project, the customer and the software company will have such differences and conflicts, such a situation, one may be the customer constantly asked the software company to complete beyond the original agreed to work, or with the original agreed scope of the work, Another possibility is that software companies refuse to provide the work they should actually do in order to exceed the scope of the contract, regardless of the circumstances that should be avoided, but in the case of unclear scope it is actually difficult to do so.
Again, because the acceptance criteria for the project do not have a very consistent statement, the timely acceptance of the project is a huge challenge.
Finally it scope of management more difficult reason is the SOFTWARE product itself is decided by the characteristics, unlike a color TV or refrigerator, look at what kind of, buy back is what, the function will not look at the time less, buy back also can not add new features. and software products are not the same, both invisible, but also touch, and is "soft", customers will be asked to add new features at any time. Thus to it items, especially pure software projects, the scope management becomes special another IL difficult, thus also appears special r important.
　　 4 How to do IT project scope management
So how do you manage the scope of it entry? The basis for a good project scope management is a scientific scope management process, which has been rigorously defined in the Project Management Association (PMI) Project Management Knowledge System Guide (PMBOK), which includes scope planning, scope definition, scope validation, and scope changes. Without a scientific methodology, it would be a difficult process to have a strict control over the entire scope of the project, and we found that the scope of the project could be easily managed in accordance with several processes stipulated by PMBOK. The scope of the project is determined through the scope management initiation process, the scope plan determines the project scope management plan, the scope definition develops a detailed project scope statement, provides the basis for future project decisions, and the Project verification and project control process ensures that scope management can be implemented on schedule. Through such a scientific management process to ensure that the scope of management can really effectively implement.
In the process of project scope management, I think the first thing to pay attention to is the project initiation process and scope planning process, the initiation process to determine the project charter, set the scope of the project framework, this is the project follow-up management of the important basis. The Project Charter also stipulates the rights of the project manager, the responsibilities of the members of the project team and other stakeholders of the project, which is also a clear stipulation of how each role in the project scope management work will be done in the future, ensuring that the follow-up work can be carried out in a more orderly manner. The scope specification and scope management plan defined in the scope planning process further clarifies the criteria for measuring whether a project or project phase has been successfully completed. The scope description confirms or establishes a project scope consensus among the participants in the day as a document benchmark for future project decisions. Usually it has a broad outline of the scope of the project has been agreed, the scope of the plan on this basis to further deepen and refinement. The old saying goes: "Pre-standing, not pre-waste!". The biggest risk for a project is in the early start and planning phases of the project, which is also the least expensive phase of the change. Through good communication and communication, on the one hand can clarify the objectives and scope of the project, in order to facilitate the follow-up work arrangements, on the other hand can make up for sales phase in order to achieve sales objectives of some unrealistic commitments, reasonably reduce customer expectations, and then be able to step through the implementation, gradually improve the force, law, Ensure that the system can fulfill the task according to the customer's requirement on schedule.
Of course, the start-up and planning work is only the first step, for some large projects, the implementation cycle may be very long, project implementation period with the objective conditions change and other factors, the scope of the project changes is almost unavoidable, it projects due to its invisible characteristics. Another good plan cannot be fixed, so the change is inevitable. Therefore, in the implementation process also need to do a good job scope verification and scope change control, through the scope of verification can ensure that the scope of the project can be better managed and controlled. Through scope change control, identify the factors that cause scope changes, so that measures can be taken early, if within the scope of the project, to assess the impact of the change and how to respond to the measures, the affected parties should clearly understand their impact, to influence the change to ensure that the change is beneficial to the project; If the change is outside the scope of the project, then it is necessary for the business person to negotiate with the user to see whether the fee is increased or the change is abandoned.
　　 5 Summary
Scientific scope Management is the first step in the success of the project, if you can do a good job of project scope management, it is believed that the whole cycle of IT project success is half. Because in the case of scope determination, the actual time and cost are both measurable and predictable. The project scope management is well established, which lays the foundation of time management, cost management and quality management. It is believed that the risk of the entire project will be well under control. Of course, in terms of a project, after all, is a whole process, just do the project scope management is not enough, only according to the requirements of the project cycle, do the various stages of the work to ensure the ultimate success of the project.

Original address: http://www.cnitpm.com/pm/136.html

The importance of project scope management