Project Scope Management

A project may be defined as an activity involving the conversion of material or data resources over a constrained time frame. The need to focus on ways of improving performance and utilization of resources has increased the demand for and the use of project-based approaches. According to Cleland and Gareis (1994), projects should transform an unsatisfactory (existing or future) state to a better state within a certain time, using a limited effort. Rationally, project management plays an important role in the process of the project because it is the only way to organize the activity process within the project effectively. Project management is simply the process of managing, allocating, and timing resources to achieve a given goal in an efficient and expedient manner (Badiru, 1993).

Projects come in simple or complex. The objectives that constitute the specified goal may be in terms of time, costs, or technical results. Several techniques have been created in order to execute this type of management with ease. But before any further execution of the plans, it is important to initially draw the boundaries that the project will affect so as to determine the concerns and limitations of the projected goals and outcomes of the project. As such evaluation of the success of the project will come with ease since expectations have been enumerated from the beginning. This paper presents a checklist of actions that will be undertaken for the efficient and effective scope management of projects in the future.

Design Projects

· Complete a detailed situation analysis to examine the context of the environment and to determine the need for the project.

· Involve the stakeholders of the project so as to consider their needs and preferences.

· Identify alternative options of the organization so as to exhaust the available alternatives.

· Set the assumptions and objectives of the project to distinguish the direction as well as the standards for project assessment.

· Determine project size in order to limit the concerns of the project, identify the necessary resources, and evaluate its feasibility.

· Examine the available resources whether material or human that should be acquired to meet the goals of the project.

· Analyze the risks, benefits, and costs of the project so as to ascertain the project's financial return that will assist to the long-term goals of the organization.

· Develop a master plan that details the focus and concerns of the project's goals.

Manage Projects

· Document all the development and changes of undertaking the project at all its stages.

· Coordinate planning and project efforts between all of the project participants.

· Effectively and efficiently manage information, technology and people.

· Monitor and regularly evaluate the development to ensure the timely completion of the project.

· Ensure a logical intervention strategy to minimize the unnecessary impact of undertaking the project.

· Identify cross-cutting objectives to be able to work on the project based on the assumptions considered.

· Prepare back-up plans to supply assist for the possibility of unforeseen difficulty during the course of the project.

· Plan for capacity development and sustainability to ensure the continuous implementation, control, and evaluation of the project.

Close Projects

· Detail activities undertaken to close the project.

· Outline outstanding issues, risks, operational matters and recommendations.

· Determine if the objectives of the projects were met.

· Deliver all the outputs generated by the project.

· Enumerate the significance and benefits to justify the cause and rationale of undertaking the project.

· Prepare a report or presentation that will detail the accomplishment of the project.

The art of planning for the future has always been a human trait as humans are thinking individuals. In essence a project can simply be captured on paper with a few simple elements: a start date, an end date, the tasks that have to be carried out and when they should be finished, and some idea of the resources (people, machines etc) that will be needed during the course of the project. When the plan is one which involves different things happening at various times, some of which are interconnected on each other, plus resources needed at varying times and in different quantities and perhaps working at different rates, determining the scope of the project is required for its successful and timely completion.

References:

Badiru, A B 1993, Quantitative Models for Project Planning, Scheduling and Control, Quorum Books, Westport, CT.

Cleland, D I and Gareis, R (eds) 1994, Global Project Management Handbook, McGraw-Hill International Editions.