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Gathering the inputs

Gathering the inputs

The Plan Scope Management process will guide you in establishing exactly what work your team needs to carry out in order for the project to be successful. The purpose of this process is to create a scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, validated, and controlled. The scope management plan is a component of the overall project management plan, and provides guidance and direction on how scope will be managed throughout the project.

In order to begin planning the scope of your project, you must gather the information you will require.

The inputs to the Plan Scope Management process are:

• project management plan – The project management plan is a critical input to any of the planning processes. Early in the planning phase it contains a rough estimate of the budget allocated for the project and a general timeframe. These parameters contribute to determining the scope of the project. It also contains a description of the processes that will be used to create the product.
• project charter – Planning scope management begins with an analysis of the information found in the project charter. It provides the rationale for the project and how it will meet the customer's business need. It also contains the project's objectives, and a general description of the anticipated product and its features. Considering business need and desired features are the first step in determining what the product will look like and plotting the scope of the project.
• enterprise environmental factors – The enterprise environmental factors that influence scope management planning include infrastructure that may impact how the work is carried out or what work can be carried out, as well as marketplace conditions. For example, the availability of raw materials could determine whether certain product features are included in the scope.
• organizational process assets – In planning scope management, the project manager will need to comply with the organization's policies and procedures, which will always influence how work is planned and carried out. Any historical information and lessons learned from previous similar projects will also be useful in determining scope.

Creating the outputs

Once you have gathered the inputs, it is time to prepare the planning documents. The tools and techniques for the Plan Scope Management process are expert judgment and meetings.

Use expert judgment to determine how scope was managed on similar projects and to capitalize on the expertise of others. Based on the information about your current project found in the project charter and project management plan, you'll examine records from similar past projects. You may also want to hold planning meetings to draw on the expert judgment of others. Meeting attendees may include the project sponsor and other stakeholders who have insight into what the project's scope will be and how to best manage it.

The goal of the Plan Scope Management process is to produce two key documents: the scope management plan and the requirements management plan.

The scope management plan may be broadly based or detailed, depending on the needs of the project. At the very least it should describe

• how the scope statement will be prepared
• the process for creating, approving, and maintaining the WBS
• how the acceptance of deliverables will be obtained, and
• how scope change requests will be handled

The second key output is the requirements management plan, a component of the project management plan. It describes how the project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed. Project requirements are the specifications the product or service must meet in order to satisfy stakeholders' needs and expectations.

How requirements are managed depends largely on the phase-to-phase relationship chosen for the project. In a project where phases overlap, requirements may be carried over from phase to phase and managed throughout the life cycle of the entire project. Some projects may be a combination of both situations.

In addition to describing how requirements will be managed across project phases, the requirements management plan includes

• activities related to creation of the requirements and how they will be planned and tracked
• the configuration management process that will control and report changes to the product
• the process for prioritizing requirements
• metrics for evaluating requirements

Plan Scope Management is the first process in the Project Scope Management Knowledge Area. The inputs to this process include the project management plan, the project charter, and various enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets. The tools and techniques used for the Plan Scope Management process are expert judgment and meetings. Both are used to create the outputs: the scope management plan and the requirements management plan.