Handle Scope Change Requests with Appropriate Discipline

Handle Scope Change Requests with Appropriate Discipline

 

When a project begins, you must gain agreement with your sponsor on project scope. The scope is defined at a high-level in the Project Charter or Project Scope Statement. At a low-level, the scope is detailed through the approval of the business requirements. Once these two documents are approved, you have enough information to understand scope through the remainder of the project.

However, like death and taxes, change is inevitable. There are two reasons. First, it is almost impossible to define ahead of time exactly what the final solution should look like, and so the requirements may change as the solution starts to evolve. Second, overall business conditions change over time. Some of this business change will force changes to the project scope in ways that are not known ahead of time.

 

Therefore, what do you say when the inevitable changes start to come in? If you say yes without taking into consideration the consequences to the project objectives, you may increase your chance of failure. If you say no, you may introduce conflict with the client and run the risk of delivering a solution that does not meet the client’s needs or satisfaction.

 

The right approach to scope change management is to not say “yes” or “no”. The better response is to follow a scope changing management process. This process should include:

 

-          Evaluate and understanding the business value of making the change

 

-          Estimating the impact on the project objectives like cost, time, and scope….etc.

 

-          Taking the final information to the project sponsor (or their designate) for an approval decision.

 

Scope change management is really the process of letting the sponsor make the decisions – once they understand all the facts and implications.

 

You should establish scope change procedures based on the size of the project. For small projects (maybe less than 250 effort hours or 25 calendar days), you do not need to worry about scope change as much. The project will likely start and end before the business can change much and most of the requirements are probably fairly well known. The project manager can quickly evaluate a small change request and work with the sponsor to determine if it should be accommodated.

 

For larger projects, scope change is a big deal, and must be managed probably. All stakeholders, including the sponsor, must be sensitized or informed to understand when a scope change request made. The scope change request process may have a number of steps and require a template or two. If the sponsor approves the change, the budget and timeline are changed accordingly. If the change is not approved, it is noted as such and the project continues on its way. You might be surprised how often the sponsor does not approve the scope change, once they understand the impact to the project.

 

Summary

 

Many project managers do a poor job of managing scope because they do not want to offend the client. However, that should not be a part of the scenario at all. Instead,  the project manager’s job is to make sure the scope change management process runs effectively,  and that the project sponsor has the information they need to make the best decision possible on  whether the scope change should be accepted ,you as a project manager must believe this rule “at begins of any project you and project sponsor have a progress elaborated project scope ,so it can changed at any time”

By Ahmed Ibrahim ,PMP®,PMI-RMP®

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Handle Scope Change Requests with Appropriate Discipline

What to do when your project slips

What to do when your project slips…

Step 1: Focus the team

A common trend is that in the middle of a project, the team start to feel like they are under pressure and they lose sight of the end goal. The excitement of “project startup” is long since past and any team politics have kicked in. It’s now that you need to recognize and reward staff for good performance. And it’s now that you need to focus the team by restating the objectives, providing incentives and boosting morale. You need to be their shining star when things get dark and gloomy.

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Step 2: Prioritize

If there is simply too much to do in the timeframe you’ve been given, then prioritize all of your tasks. Identify the key deliverables that must be produced and then identify the tasks involved with producing them. It’s those tasks that you need to focus on now. Then get the priority list approved by your project sponsor, so that you have their buy in. Only with their acceptance, can you confirm that the tasks you’re working on, are the most important tasks required to deliver your solution.

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Step 3: Reduce Scope

After you’ve focused the team and prioritized your work, then update your schedule. If you’re still likely to deliver late, then request approval from your Project Sponsor to leave the low priority tasks to after the project deadline. This will reduce the scope of your project. It will also boost your chances of delivering the high and medium priority tasks by the deadline date. Reducing scope is by far the best option to take, as the smaller the project scope, the lower the risk of project failure.

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Step 4: Increase Resource

If your Project Sponsor will not extend the end date of the project or reduce the scope, then ask for more resource to help you complete it. With more resource (people, money, equipment and materials) you will be able to complete more tasks in parallel and boost your chances of success

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Step 5: Communicate

Ok, so if you’ve tried all of the above and there is no hope—your project will be delivered late regardless of what you do. You then need to accept it and communicate this to as many project stakeholders as possible. Set their expectations as early as possible that you will be late. If they understand the reasons for late delivery and they know it’s coming, then it will be less of a shock when it happens. And if you are able to miraculously deliver it on time, then your team will be seen as hero’s!

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Note: I found this document without the author information, all the credit to the original writer of this useful document.

My comment: I recommend to perform step number 4 (Increase the resources) before the step number 3 (Reduce the scope). However, in the construction projects to tell the client that you will reduce the scope because you cannot meet the project died lines won’t be acceptable solution. Alternatively, you can agree with the client to prioritize the project into 2 or more milestones. For example, rather than finishing the whole project you could recommend certain areas to be completed and perform soft opening. Then, the rest of the project.

What to do when your project slips