Emily Walsh, Director
As every project manager knows a clear project scope definition is one of the most important aspects of managing a project—clearly identifying boundaries of what is to be implemented and key work products to be produced. In this blog post, I will be discussing Project Management Governance Framework Scope Management best practices.
Overview of scope
The intention is not to rewrite the scope of work. But you do need to list what is being implemented and any deliverables such as customizations, documentation, training, support, etc.
As changes to scope arise during project execution, it is important to follow a disciplined scope change management process to ensure agreement on the following:
Required adjustments to schedule and/or cost
Incremental resource requirements
Business/project impact
Adherence to contractual requirements
Change Control Process
The Change Control process provides the high-level process on how scope change will be managed and should include a sample change request tracker template or fields to be included in the tracker to provide exposure and agreement to the project management team. Below is a guide of what information should be included in each process step.
The Creation of Change Request
Identify and include the following information in the framework.
Who is the initiator? Which project team members can formally make a change request. For example, is it Business owners? Is it anyone on the project team?
How will the change request be submitted? Can the initiator submit via a web form, email, or another communication method?
Who will ensure that the change is correctly logged (i.e. manage the log)? Most of the time it is the project manager.
What details will be logged? A change order tracker to be created to track the request, date of the request, description of the change, business impact, value, prioritization, status, requestor, assignee, hour estimation, and other details as required.
Who will assess the impact of the project change? This could be the project manager or another resource.
Assessment of Impact of Proposed Changes
Define who will make the analysis of the change request. As well as define the acceptable timeframe for the proposed change request. The framework should state how long the length of the change response is, with an estimated cost either for the implementation of the Change or performance of the initial analysis. Change requests should not linger as they could greatly impact the project delivery as well as dependencies.
Approval of Change Requests
Define who can approve the change requests. Is it solely the Project Steering Committee? If a smaller project or under a certain value is it the project sponsor, or even the project manager or business lead? Determine if change requests can be approved over email (if below a certain dollar value) or does it require a formal change request document with a signature.
Reminder to review, the SOW, and the agreed governance documents with the internal team and client team prior to project kick-off.