Managing scope on a project is one of the most difficult and demanding jobs of a project manager. Pinning down the project scope starts with a clear understanding of the needs and expectations of the key stakeholders. It involves more than just knowing what needs done. It also requires knowing what not to do and how to manage the changes that inevitably come up during a project.

Students will work in teams to develop a project charter, gather requirements, write a scope statement and create a WBS as well as learn to manage scope once the work begins.

• Understand the importance of scope management for project success
• Learn techniques to elicit requirements
• Learn to identify critical project stakeholders
• Recognize the variety of resource constraints that can affect a project
• Gain the knowledge pillars of defining and organizing project goals and objectives

Quick review of the basics

• The competing demands of a project
• Defining success
• Project charter

Clarifying needs and expectations

• Stakeholder analysis
• Collecting requirements
• Constraints and assumptions
• Tools for success

Creating a scope baseline

• What’s in and what’s out
• WBS – breaking it down
• WBS dictionary
• Influence of the competing demands

Collecting requirements

• Plan for elicitation
• Prepare for elicitation
• Conduct elicitation
• Document outputs from elicitation activities
• Selecting and practicing elicitation techniques

Managing scope & requirements

• Validating and accepting deliverables
• Managing changes – preventing scope creep
• Evaluating the impact of scope and requirements changes

“I really enjoyed this class and it helped me to better understand project scope and requirements management. Anita did a great job explaining things. She also kept everyone involved so we got to understand others work environments and issues. I learned a lot and hope to incorporate many of the topics into my project work. I really enjoyed the class. Anita was very good about having everyone share about their experiences and giving feedback when necessary.”  Tricia Moore, Pfizer in McPherson, KS

This class will be beneficial for project team members, project team leaders, and the supervisor or manager that directs the activities of project team members, and project team leaders.

Anyone in management positions that have responsibilities for project teams, and their results, can gain expertise in coaching the project teams.