PRESENTED BY MATTHEW HUNT & DAVID YARDE

YOUR STRATEGY GUIDE TO MANAGING PROJECT SCOPE

WHAT IS THIS TALK ABOUT?

A GUIDE TO BETTER PROJECTS

▸ How to avoid project armageddon

▸ Improving project team experiences

▸ How we can prevent gaps in your scope of work and project requirements.

▸ The risk of not capturing requirements early and how to reduce the risk

▸ Improving profitability with a simple solutions.

WHAT IS PROJECT SCOPE?

‣ “Project scope is the part of project planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines”.

‣ It is simply, “The work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions”.

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/project-scope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_(project_management)Source:

Source:

WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THIS?

CHANGE IS NEEDED

▸ Without a good plan to prevent and control scope risk, projects could fail miserably.

▸ A better strategy is needed for managing scope creep and other risks to the project.

▸ Technical projects too often go over budget.

PROJECTS DOOMED TO FAIL

WHAT WAS IN THE SCOPE OF WORK

WHAT WE MIGHT END UP WITH

- AND -

SCOPE RISK

SCOPE ISSUES CAUSE MAJOR PROBLEMS

▸ Can derailed project timeline and conflicts with other project timelines.

▸ Drains project management time and affects project profitability.

▸ Cause unhappiness, unnecessary stress on you and your team. Developers often have to redo or undo work.

WHAT LEADS TO A FAILED PROJECT?‣ The scope of work is not clearly defined.

‣ Missing requirements in your scope.

‣ Underestimating of our client’s understanding of the technical nature of the project

‣ Not qualifying the project or client properly.

‣ Underestimating the effort and time needed.

STANDISH GROUP 2015 CHAOS REPORT

Source: https://www.infoq.com/articles/standish-chaos-2015

SCOPE RISK

TYPES OF SCOPE RISK‣ Scope Creep: Significant scope change for non-

mandatory reasons

‣ Scope Gap: Legitimate scope requirements discovered late in the project

‣ Dependency: Scope changes necessary because of external dependencies

‣ Defects: Deliverable problems that must be fixed

Source: http://www.failureproofprojects.com/Risky.pdf

WHICH TYPE OF SCOPE RISK IS THE WORST?

TOTAL PROJECT IMPACT BY SCOPE ROOT-CAUSE SUBCATEGORIES

Source: http://www.failureproofprojects.com/Scope2.pdf

SCOPE GAPS

SCOPE GAPS ARE THE RESULT OF COMMITTING TO A PROJECT BEFORE THE PROJECT REQUIREMENTS ARE COMPLETE. WHEN LEGITIMATE NEEDS ARE UNCOVERED LATER IN THE PROJECT, CHANGE IS UNAVOIDABLE.

Tom Kendrick Identifying and Managing Project Risk

SCOPE RISK

Source: http://www.failureproofprojects.com/Scope2.pdf

SCOPE CREEP

INTRODUCING SCOPE CREEP

Source: http://dilbert.com/strip/2001-02-05

“UNCONTROLLED CHANGES OR CONTINUOUS GROWTH IN A PROJECT’S SCOPE. THIS CAN OCCUR WHEN THE SCOPE OF A PROJECT IS NOT PROPERLY DEFINED, DOCUMENTED, OR CONTROLLED. IT IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED HARMFUL”.

Wikipedia

SCOPE RISK

WHEN DOES SCOPE CREEP HAPPEN?‣ When Small improvements internally or client requested

changes seems harmless or minor until later on.

‣ As the project progresses, you learn more about how to fulfill the technical requirements. This leads to unexpected work.

‣ Overlooked requirements happen as a consequence of thinking the project was not that complex as it really is.

‣ Unanticipated change requests are brought up

PROJECT SELECTION

PROJECT SELECTION

PICK A GOOD ONE

▸ Do you have the availability?

▸ Is there enough funding?

▸ Are the deadlines realistic?

▸ Are you over estimating the team’s capabilities?

▸ Is the project right for you?

▸ Will you like working with the client?

EDUCATION

EDUCATION

EDUCATE YOUR PROJECT TEAM

▸ Everyone should have a good understanding of what the effort takes.

▸ Small changes can cause problems.

▸ The process for receiving and accepting change requests.

▸ Make sure your client has read and understands the scope of work.

▸ Introduce the idea of a backlog or phase 2 for additional work

EDUCATION

EDUCATE YOUR CLIENT

▸ Educate your client about their role and expectations you have of them.

▸ Explain the design process and how it works

▸ Make sure they understand the effort involved in the project.

▸ Technical knowledge is required on some projects

PROJECT PLANNING

PROJECT PLANNING

THE ART OF ESTIMATION

▸ Development is usually underestimated. Plan carefully.

▸ Project management is usually 30% of the project budget.

▸ Set reasonable timelines and delivery expectations. If it doesn't work, don’t commit to it.

▸ Match up project tasks and milestones with payment milestones

▸ Steps: SOW, Estimate, Proposal.

PROJECT PLANNING

PREVENTING SCOPE CREEP

▸ Make it clear that hourly charges are in effect for change requests.

▸ Let clients know in the beginning that they can use your change request form to submit changes.

▸ Use an agile development process in your project.

▸ Assess the probability of the risks and their impact level.

PROJECT PLANNING

QUALIFYING RISK ASSESSMENT

https://books.google.com/books?id=BnuZBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=risk+assessment+table+kendrick

Source:

PROJECT PLANNING

SETTING CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

▸ Clearly define the SOW. Avoid ambiguity and vagueness.

▸ Ask stakeholders the right questions early on to obtain requirements.

▸ Set solid expectations about the process and make sure your team understands.

▸ Be specific about the expectations for deliverables. Define the dates for deliverables and what included.

SCOPE CONTROL

IS SCOPE CREEP A BAD THING?

NOT ALWAYS!Change requests could lead to needed improvements. Unearthing issues can shed light on opportunities to fix problems before they occur.

MANAGING ISSUES BEFORE THEY AFFECT THE SCOPE1. A problem is reported that requires a change to how

something functions.

2. Your client identifies what’s wrong and recommends a path to take in order to make it right.

3. You evaluate the issue and discover a couple of ways to remedy the problem.

4. One option puts the project out of scope and the other does not.

SCOPE CONTROL

CONTROLLING SCOPE CREEP

▸ Collaborate early on and establish a good relationship with your client. Have weekly design deliverables. Keep to your process. Remind everyone of the process.

▸ Communicate well and stand firm as to what is outside of scope. Refer your agreement.

▸ Have a clearly defined SOW that everyone understands completely. This includes you, developers! Don’t let the team go out of scope!

▸ Limit point of contact to no more than 3 people. If your contact is replaced, have them read through the SOW.

SCOPE CONTROL

MANAGING CLIENT REQUESTS

▸ Use the delivery date to your advantage. It may prevent incoming requests.

▸ Always quote additional work. Be ready to explain the differences between in-scope and out-of-scope requests.

▸ Track out-of-scope hours separately.

▸ Be vigilant with requests. Too many freebies add up.

▸ Use the strong SOW document you created as a reference.

MANAGING CLIENT REQUESTS IN BASECAMP

“WE’D BE HAPPY TO EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITY OF BUILDING A SHOPPING CART FUNCTION, BUT THAT WILL PUSH THE DELIVERY DATE BACK ABOUT FOUR WEEKS AND WILL ADD SIGNIFICANT COSTS TO THE PROJECT”.

SCOPE CONTROL

MAKE IT CLEAR CHANGES CAN AFFECT TIMELINE AND COSTS

TRACKING & DOCUMENTATION

TRACKING AND DOCUMENTATION

LEARN FROM YOUR PROJECTS

▸ Document your main deliverables as they are completed.

▸ Document all change requests. Use a tool for this. (trello, basecamp, jira)

▸ Identify the items that come up the most in your projects

▸ Track your time based on type of task, use in estimates later

▸ Track how well your projects meet the budgeted hours.

TIPS

USEFUL & PRACTICAL TIPS

▸ Projects that are stalled, postponed or delayed put the project at increased risk for scope creep

▸ Define the theme and plugins before signing off on the project.

▸ Define a clear end to the project. Avoiding perpetual bug fixing and committing to change requests after final delivery. Get a sign off at the end.

TIPS

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

▸ https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/how-to-identify-good-clients-avoid-bad-ones/

▸ http://creativewebsitedesign.us/qualifying-clients/

▸ http://www.villanovau.com/resources/project-management/project-management-scope-creep

▸ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYULWCLlxOI

▸ https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/05/how-to-get-sign-off-for-your-designs/

▸ https://barn2.co.uk/wordpress-web-design-scope-creep/

▸ http://www.slideshare.net/sevenality/managing-project-expectations-and-roadblocks-55118896

▸ https://poststatus.com/wordpress-website-cost/

DAVID YARDEMATTHEW HUNTafteractive.com sevenality.com

sevenalityafteractive

THANK YOU!