Chapter 26: Scope Management during Monitoring & Controlling the Project

Aim: To understand the following two processes related to Project Scope Management Knowledge Area in Monitoring & Controlling Phase.

• Verify Scope
• Control Scope

Verifying and Controlling Project Scope

The scope management knowledge area defines two processes in the monitoring and controlling process group. The first process, verify scope, is the formal process of accepting project deliverables. It provides a mechanism to verify that deliverables meet or exceed project requirements. The second process, control scope, is the process of managing the project’s status and any changes to the scope baseline. Let’s look at each of the processes individually.

The verify scope process provides the project manager with the formal process to classify deliverables as acceptable or unacceptable.

The table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the verify scope process.

Verify Scope
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project management plan Requirements documentation Requirements traceability matrix Validated deliverables	Inspection	Accepted deliverables Change requests Project document updates

One output of the verify scope process is the collection of change requests. These requests are individually addressed through the “Perform integrated change control” process and might result in approved change requests.

Exam Trivia:

Pay close attention to how the outputs of processes are used as inputs to other processes. When I took the exam, the questions were not only about identifying inputs/tools/outputs of a single process but about entities that were a common input/tool/output of multiple processes. I do understand that memorizing all these inputs, tools & outputs is difficult, but, if you understand what they are and how they are related to one another, it will be easy to crack these questions.

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The next process in the monitoring and controlling process group is the control scope process. This process monitors and controls all changes to the scope baseline to ensure the changes are being handled in a structured manner.

The table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the control scope process.

Control Scope
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project management plan Work performance information Requirements documentation Requirements traceability matrix Organizational process assets	Variance analysis	Work performance measurements Organizational process assets updates Change requests Project management plan updates Project document updates

A primary component of the project management plan is the scope baseline. The scope baseline defines the project scope and its associated deliverables, and documents the acceptance parameters of the final product. This baseline helps in clarifying any details that might have been left in a to-be-determined (TBD) mode during the project initiation phase or items that require further clarification with the project sponsor or its stakeholders. The project process indicators in this process are
• The work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Work package progress reports

Exam Trivia:

Do you remember what a work breakdown structure is? A work breakdown structure (WBS) decomposes the project work into manageable chunks or work packages.

The idea behind effectively defining the WBS is to create the roadmap that defines all the activities that will be executed to accomplish the project goal.

The WBS is one of those elements that changes as time and resource utilization passes. Why? As you perform the tasks outlined in your baseline, the recorded changes accommodate any differences between the planned theory and the actual execution.
An effective WBS assists the stakeholders to understand the activities and events that help in delivering the project promise, as well as outlining internal and external resource use. The entire project execution team looks at the WBS to inquire about present, past, and future deliverables and their effectiveness.

Due to its nature and importance, the creation of the WBS should not be taken lightly. It must be considered as the one element that all project participants might want to be considered when formulating an opinion.

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Prev: Chapter 25

Next: Chapter 27

Chapter 84: Controlling Scope

Controlling the project scope includes influencing factors that create changes to the scope, as well as managing change requests and controlling their impact when the change actually occurs.

While controlling the scope, you focus on the following tasks:

• Watch out for scope creep - Determine whether it has happened and correct the situation. Scope creep refers to scope changes applied without processing them though the change control process.
• Process the scope change requests through the integrated change control process for approval.
• Manage the implementation of scope changes after approval, as well as their impact across the project.

Trivia:
In real life, scope creeps occur for various reasons. For example, perhaps a development engineer thought something was a cool feature to implement, or the customer spoke directly with the engineer to make a request for a minor additional feature, or various other similar situations occurred. If scope creep has taken your project off track, you need to take corrective actions to get the project back on the track. You should also investigate how the scope creep happened and take steps to prevent it in the future; for example, by educating team members about the proper scope change process.

The Control Scope Process can be explained using the picture below:

The obvious input items to the scope control process are the elements that define the scope, such as the project scope statement, the scope baseline, the WBS, the WBS dictionary, and a scope management plan that describes how to manage the scope. The performance reports might help to detect a scope change, and some change requests in other areas can result in scope change, as well.

The main output of the scope control process is the update to scope-related input elements, such as the project scope statement, the WBS, the WBS dictionary, and the scope baseline. The components of the project management plan affected by these changes might also need to be updated. Change requests and recommendations for corrective actions are other obvious output items from the scope control process.

The main tools used in the scope control process are the change control system and the project performance analysis, including the scope variance and the schedule variance. Schedule variance can have an effect on the scope if you want to finish the project on time and there are no additional resources available. The change control system of an organization is a collection of formal documented procedures that specify how the project deliverables and documents will be changed, controlled, and approved.

You monitor the project by watching its progress, which is a measure of its performance. Therefore, performance measurement and analysis make up an important category of tools and techniques in monitoring and controlling the project.

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