Scoping your project

Project Scope: What type of breadbox are we building?

A fancy breadbox

As a project manager, one of the hardest periods in a new project is figuring out what the project is supposed to deliver. If you are lucky and are working with a product manager, she may have defined it already. I have not been so lucky and have had to figure it out on my own.

So, what kind of breadbox are we building, one like the one above or the one below? One will take more time and effort than the other one and, unless you find out, you may build the wrong one or not have enough time and resources to build it.

A simple breadbox

Let me explain what I mean via some examples. In a prior life, when the earth was young, I was asked to build a system for our internal IT customers to be able to order IT products and services, such as laptops, phones, routers, printers, etc. That was it. No other information! And no project charter, budget, or other documents. Go forth and be successful! Naah!

I had to go out and meet with people to first determine what this thing they wanted looked like. I also had to find out who the various “stakeholders” (those who have a say, or think they should have a say 😊, in your project) were and what they wanted. As a good IT person, then I decomposed the pieces to figure out what was needed. Well, this was before eCommerce so a lot of the basics would have to be built: a product/service catalog, a “shopping cart” (not that we knew that was a term for this kind of thing), an order processing system, a fulfillment system, etc.

So, well on my way, right? No! As part of the effort I found out that there were two other projects chartered with doing the same thing! So, since there’s always more work to do than there’s time for a successful PM, I asked the sponsor who should lead the effort (not that he knew he had three projects doing the same thing! The beauty of large organizations!) He pointed at someone else so I bailed out gracefully (and thankfully).

So, what do you do? Here are some steps I follow:

1. Ask whoever asked you to lead the project, the project sponsor in many cases, what this breadbox looks like to him. Expect it to be vague and that it will change over time.
2. Ask who else you should ask about this breadbox. Expect similar but possibly very different answers when you ask.
3. Ask if they know of any other project or projects that would be related to yours. Not that they necessarily overlap, doing the same thing, but there may be some dependencies involved that you need to know about.
4. Take a crack at describing this product. If possible, structure it in such a way that it can be decomposed into parts, as you may have to cut.
5. Ask how much money and resources you have. Are they sufficient? Possibly no.
6. Guesstimate effort and duration. Remember this rule: at this point, your estimates are +400%/-200% (depending on your industry, there are a number of references that may be helpful).
7. Develop a project charter. It’ll make you think about a number of other things. There are numerous sources in the Internet for project charters. Pick one you like. The key is for it to remind of you of things you would easily forget otherwise. It should include a ballpark schedule and budget (something you’ll be asked for as soon as the next step). Remember, you may call it an estimate; your audience will see it as firm.
8. Present to your sponsor and stakeholders. Get agreement and funding before proceeding. Adjust your product description, plans, and schedule based on feedback.
9. Plan your effort in more detail. I prefer a rolling (Agile) plan.
10. Revisit your product vision as things will change (scope creep and resource reductions are two major enemies of most project managers).
11. Execute.
12. Keep your stakeholders informed and, if possible, show them progress on a regular basis (if you are doing Agile software development, the review/demo is a good opportunity for them to see your progress and give you feedback.

Being a project manager is very rewarding but it has its challenges. One of the first, and biggest, is getting agreement on what you are doing. The above steps are a starting point. You will come up with others. Here’s to project success!

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