Question

Changes in project scope might affect the project’s schedule. Discuss this statement. How would a project manager formally can inform and communicate such adjustments to project stakeholders?

need to state and discuss PM will inform and communicate.

Answer 1

Projects are about change, and strangely enough, lack of change control is one of the biggest barriers to project success. If project managers do not take advantage of the best practices for documenting and controlling the scope of work on their projects, they are doomed to be controlled by:

1. The whims of stakeholders and project team members
2. Stakeholders with bad memories about what was (or was not) in scope
3. Stakeholders with good memories that know exactly what was originally approved but choose not to remember
4. Great ideas that can have serious consequences to the project's schedule, cost, and final benefit

Just as the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, the best approach for controlling project scope is with a direct, simple method that project stakeholders understand and can follow. Of course, to draw a straight line, you have to know where to start and where to finish. Do you know your “points?”

Why Do Projects Fail?

A simple internet search on “Why Projects Fail” will produce thousands of results that include articles, papers, published research, and blogs that attempt to answer this question. According to the “The Chaos Report” published by The Standish Group (1994), incomplete requirements, changing requirements, and unclear objectives were three of the top 10 factors contributing to challenged projects. The AST Group (2001) lists incomplete project scope and a lack of formal project management methodologies as two of the top 10 reasons that projects fail. Eric Rosenfeld (n.d.), with Adaptive Consulting Partners, LLC, states that vague, unstable requirements will reduce any project's reasonable chance for success.

Of course, we do not need to rely on published research to get a list of leading causes for project failure. Discussions with students, peers, and practitioners have led to a similar list of causal factors for project failure. A Pareto analysis conducted on survey results from over 500 professionals from the Greater Louisville area from February 2005 through June 2008 led to the following list of the four top causes for project failure:

1. Poor or incomplete requirements
2. Scope creep
3. A lack of a structured project management methodology
4. Lack of change control

Either through published, professional research or through information solicited from local practitioners, whenever a list of reasons that projects fail is being developed, scope change control is certain to be on the list. Common causes, such as incomplete requirements, poorly defined requirements, no scope verification, and scope creep all point back to a lack of structured scope management and scope change control.

The Impact of Change on Projects and the Project Manager's Credibility

Scope change is inevitable. Scope change is natural. It is important to understand that our job is not to stop scope change, but to successfully manage that change.

What do all projects have in common? We only need go to the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)---Third edition to find the textbook definition of a project (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2004), but most will agree that all projects share some basic characteristics. First, there is a definable objective. More formally, projects are a temporary endeavor undertaken to provide some unique product or service (PMI, 2004). Second, projects have boundaries and constraints as related to costs, schedules, and resources. There is an additional commonality that is not a part of the formal definition of a project, but heavily influences project-related decision making. This unspoken common factor is based on Albrecht's Theory of Service Relativity. The Theory of Service Relativity states that your customer's perception of value is equal to the delivered reality less expectations (Albrecht, 1998). Like it or not, our stakeholders will develop a value perception of the project deliverable(s), the project management processes, and the project manager. Our ability to manage scope, and their expectations as related to scope, will directly influence this perception.

Our customers base their opinions about the quality of the project outcomes on their expectations as compared the actual delivered product or service, or V = R – E. Where V is value, R is reality, and E is expectations (Albrecht, 1998). If the delivered product or service does not meet their expectations, then the E value (expectations) is greater than the R value (reality), which leads to a negative value perception. If the delivered product or service exceeds their expectations, then the R value is greater than the E value, which leads to a positive value perception. This paper suggests that the best target perception value for project managers to strive for is zero or slightly positive. This indicates that the project has either perfectly met expectations or slightly exceeded expectations. One could argue that more would be considered gold plating if there was a cost associated with the delivery.

If we accept that project management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources in such a way that the project is completed within defined scope, quality, time and cost constraints (PMI, 2004), then it is not a stretch to accept that one of our primary roles as project manager is to manage that defined scope, while ensuring that we are meeting expectations. Here is another thought provoking question… Which of the elements of Albrecht's Theory of Service Relativity, as related to projects, is easiest to proactively manage? Consider these statements;

• Even the most talented, effective project managers cannot control a customer's perceptions. (Note: controlling perceptions and managing perceptions are not the same concept.)
• The final product or service, or the delivered reality, is a function of the many factors that influence what, when, and how we deliver and is frequently beyond a project manager's control.
• Statements (a) and (b) would lead one to conclude that influencing the customer's perception of value can most easily be achieved by managing expectations to ensure that those expectations match what will be delivered.
• Hmmm … this sounds like integrated change control!

Poorly managed change control has a negative influence on our customer's expectations and their opinions about our effectiveness as project managers. Of course, this is just scratching the surface of the cascading impacts of a lack of change control. Although many of the additional impacts, such as cost variance, schedule variance, team morale, resource management, and so on are inseparable from perceptions of a project's success and the project manager's effectiveness, these are outside the scope of this paper. (No pun intended.)

Build Your Home on a Strong Foundation: The Underpinnings of Scope Change Control

Do you think that the architect planned for the Torre pendente di Pisa, or the Leaning Tower of Pisa, to have a southeast lean while adding height and weight to the first floors? How many of us as children asked our parents or teachers, why is the tower leaning? The answer is simple. The foundation was weak. The loose rock and soil allowed the foundation to shift, or change, direction. The tower now leans to the southwest. So what is the monumental lesson learned? Build your house on a strong foundation to prevent unplanned changes, whether sudden and obvious changes or slow and undetectable changes. Notice that the emphasis here is on a strong foundation, not a complex foundation.

You cannot have accurate speed control without defining the speed limit. The same is true with scope. The true value of a structured approach to scope change control is realized when there is a process in place to define scope. The foundation for scope management is scope definition.

One of the primary benefits of defining scope is to ensure that everyone is on the same page. We generally do not just hop into our vehicles and start driving without knowing where we intend to go. We may not know the exact route we plan to take, but we know where we want to be when we have reached our destination. Scope definition is similar to determining where you want to go. By defining scope, you are clarifying objectives and setting the exit criteria for project completion. During the decomposition process, as you develop your work breakdown structure (WBS), you may change how you plan on meeting the objectives, but the objectives remain constant.

Uh-oh … what if we change our mind about our destination? Scope change management addresses this very issue. Remember, change is natural; change is expected. The best of the best project managers seek not to stop change, but to control change. Add a new destination or determine the new objective; complete an impact analysis to ensure that everyone understands what the change request does to the project; get approval for the change (there's no such thing as informal change control); and then update your plan to include the new objectives.

Can you get into your vehicle to drive somewhere and end up in a place that you want to be without determining ahead of time where you want to go? Absolutely …if you are lucky! However, is that the most effective way to plan your travel? How could you increase your odds of ending up where you want to be? Or, how would you increase your chance of being lucky? Determine your destination before leaving the driveway!

Now, absent of analogies, what does this mean? Simply stated, “Charter your projects.” Define the business problem that you are attempting to solve. Break the issue down into objectives that can be measured. The goal is not to develop a complex metric that requires statistical analysis to provide evidence of success. A simple “one” or “zero,” or “yes” or “no,” will do in some cases. The point is that a project objective should have an associated metric or measurement to determine completion. This is where we begin to manage expectations to ensure that the final deliverable's reality is considered to be of value. Remember, V = R – E. There are many more elements to a fully developed project charter, but the end-state goal is to have a documented, agreed upon preliminary scope to serve as the foundation on which to build.