Important Terms & Definitions - Project Scope Planning

Let us wrap up the Project Scope Planning topic by reviewing the important terms and definitions we have learnt as part of this topic.

• Alternatives identification - A technique used to apply nonstandard approaches, such as brainstorming and lateral thinking, to perform project work.
• Baseline - A reference plan for components, such as schedule, scope, and cost, against which performance deviations are measured. The reference plan can be the original or the modified plan.
• Brainstorming - A creative technique generally used in a group environment to gather ideas as candidates for a solution to a problem or an issue without any immediate evaluation of these ideas. The evaluation and analysis of these ideas happens later.
• Code of accounts - A numbering system used to uniquely identify each component of a WBS.
• Configuration management - Refers to controlling the characteristics of a product, a service, or a result of a project. It includes documenting the features of a product or a service, controlling and documenting changes to the features, and providing support for auditing the products for conformance to requirements.
• Control account - A node in the WBS that acts as a management control point where scope, schedule, and actual cost are integrated and compared to the earned value to measure the project performance.
• Decomposition - A planning technique to subdivide the project scope, including deliverables, into smaller, manageable tasks called work packages.
• Deliverable - A unique and verifiable product, a capability to provide a service, or a result that must be produced to complete a project or a process or phase of the project.
• Lateral thinking - Thinking outside the box, beyond the realm of your experience, to search for new solutions and methods, rather than only better uses of the current solutions and methods.
• Planning package - A WBS component that is below the control account that has a well-defined work content but does not yet have a detailed schedule.
• Product scope - Features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result to be delivered by the project.
• Project management plan - An approved document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled, and closed.
• Project scope - The work that must be performed (and only that work) to deliver products, services, or results with specified features that were promised by the project. The project scope draws the boundaries around the project—what is included and what is not.
• Project scope statement - A document that defines the scope of a project by stating what needs to be accomplished by the project.
• Requirement - A condition, characteristic, or capability that a specific outcome of the project must have.
• Rolling wave planning - A case of progressive elaboration in which the deliverables about which full information is available are decomposed to the lowest level, whereas the deliverables for which full information is not available are left at higher levels until the information becomes available.
• Scope baseline - The reference scope against which all the scope deviations are measured. It consists of the scope statement, the WBS document, and the WBS dictionary.
• Scope definition - The process used to develop the detailed project scope statement.
• Scope planning - The process of developing the project scope management plan.
• Subprojects - Parts of the main projects that are independent enough that each can be performed by separate project teams.
• Work breakdown structure (WBS) - A deliverable-oriented hierarchical structure that displays the decomposition of deliverables into work, which must be performed to accomplish the project objectives and create the project deliverables.
• Work package - A deliverable or a task at the lowest level of each branch of the WBS.

Previous: Summary - Project Scope Planning

Next: Introduction to Project Schedule

Chapter 14: Other Terms Related to Project Management

As part of your preparation for the Project Management Professional certification, you will be encountering terms like Probability, Baseline, Project Team, Project Management Team etc. Even though these are straight forward terms and a majority of us already know what these are, it is best to cover them to help those few of us who don't know these terms.

So, lets get started!!!

What is Probability?

I do not want to relive the pain of studying Mathematics in School or College because math wasn't my strongest subject and most importantly I did not like my Math teacher. Jokes apart, certain terms related to probability are part and parcel of the life of a project manager. So, if you are someone like me who doesn't like math, just learn the basics that are required to carry out your job as the project manager and move on. Atleast that's what am gonna do!!!
Probability is defined as a chance that something will happen. The simplest example of probability is tossing a coin. The question is, when you toss a coin, what is the probability that the coin will land heads up? When you toss a coin, there are only two possibilities: It will land either heads up or tails up. So, either heads or tails will come up unless you cheat. The probability here is a 50-50 because there are only two options. In general, if there are ‘N’ possible outcomes of an event, and each outcome is equally likely, then the probability of one specific outcome is 1/N. So for 2 outcomes it is ½ or 0.5

Another useful concept in probability is the combined probability of several events. For example, if you toss two coins, the probability that the first coin will land heads up and the second coin will land tails up is 0.5×.05=0.25.

In general, to calculate the combined probability, you multiply the individual probabilities. If the probability that an event X will happen is a, the probability that event Y will happen is b, and the probability that event Z will happen is c, then the probability that all the three events (X, Y, and Z) will happen is a×b×c.

To summarize, the probability that a number of independent events will occur is calculated by multiplying the probabilities of occurrence of all the individual events.

Some other Probability Related Terms:

Random variable

A random variable can acquire any value within a given range or out of a set of values. For example, you can use a random variable to represent the results of rolling a fair die, which has six sides numbered by dots from 1 to 6. The possible outcome of rolling a die could be any number from the set of outcomes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Expected value

This is the expected value of an outcome. As an example, assume you get into a bet that you will win $10 if a coin toss results in heads, and you will lose $5 if it results in tails. Given that the probability for heads or tails is 0.5 for each, the expected value for the money that you will win is $10×0.5=$5, and the expected value for the money that you will lose is $5×0.5=$2.5.

Variance

The variance of a random variable is the deviation from the expected value. It is computed as the average squared deviation of each number from its mean. For example, assume that the values of a random variable are 2, 4, 5, 7, and 2 in five measurements. The mean value for these measurements is:
(2+4+5+7+2)/5=4

The variance of the spread of these values is:

V=σ2=[(2-4)2+(4-4)2+(7-4)2+(2-4)2]/5=3.4

Standard deviation

This is the square root of the variance—that is, σ. So, in our example, the standard deviation is the square root of 3.4—that is, 1.84.

Algebraic equations

Some questions in the PMP Exam will assume that you can do simple mathematical calculations. You should also have a very simple understanding of algebraic equations. You should be able to make simple manipulations, such as the following:

x = y/z implies y = x * z


Global Project Variables

There are some significant factors in projects and project management that vary their values throughout the project lifecycle. You must keep your eyes on these variables from the very beginning of the project:

Cost and number of team members (staff)

1. Usually Low in the beginning, maximum when the project is being executed, with a rapid drop when the project draws to a close.
2. Ability to influence the characteristics of the project product without significantly changing the cost.
3. Highest in the beginning and gradually decreases as the project progresses.

Risk and stakeholder influences.

Highest in the beginning and decreases as the project progresses. This is true about uncertainty, too, as risks arise from uncertainty.

Baseline

The project baseline is defined as the approved plan for the cost, schedule, and scope of the project. The project performance is measured against this baseline. The project baseline is also referred to in terms of its components:
1. cost baseline
2. schedule baseline and
3. scope baseline.

How would you know how your project is performing? You compare the performance against the baseline. Approved changes in cost, schedule, and scope will also change the baseline.

Previous: Relationship between Project, Program and Portfolio

Next: Project Management Office