Transcript:

Hi all! I'm Jami Yazdani. Welcome to our Impactful Projects and Planning Microtraining series. In this session, we'll talk about project scope and how we can use it to engage stakeholders and maintain project team focus.

So what is project scope? Project scope answers these questions. First, what is the purpose of the project? Essentially, why are we working together? Why have we started this project? What is our purpose? Scope also answers the question of where we will focus our energy and attention during the project. So what is relevant to the project and our work what isn't relevant to the project or our purpose. Often the project's scope is determined very early in the project, typically during project initiation. It may come from the business case or justification for the project or from a project proposal. Scope may also be set by leadership as part of strategic or other planning or simply as a directive. Because scope is often determined, at least as a draft, before the project manager or project team is even involved, scope is often ignored or given minimal consideration during the project, as folks assume it is clear to everyone involved. But scope should be a common thread throughout the project, connecting project initiation to the outcomes or deliverables of the project and taking us through project closing.

Scope is also one of the five key elements of impactful project management. Along with stakeholders, outcomes or deliverables, schedule and communications, a focus on scope can greatly impact your project's success. These five elements can help us plan our projects, create a more collaborative project environment and strategically deliver successful project outcomes. Scope establishes the project's purpose and helps create a shared vision of success among stakeholders and project team members. In my experience, a lack of understanding about scope derails many projects. Team members don't understand their purpose and stakeholders have different expectations about what is relevant to the project, leading to conflict and disappointment. A more collaborative and strategic approach to scope sets up a project for success. So let's talk about four ways we can use scope to support more successful projects.

One pretty simple way is to clearly define the scope. As I've mentioned, lots of angst, disagreements, hard feelings and delays can come from not having a clear scope and shared understanding of that scope. So write the scope down, discuss it and share it. A simple approach to writing a scope statement is to briefly articulate the project goal or goals, the project outcome or outcomes, and a project deadline. A simple scope may sound something like, "In support of some broader goal or larger mission, this project will take some type of action - to build, create, design, accomplish - some type of outcome by a specific date." As you can see, scope statements tend to go beyond the project scope or purpose, and will include at least a broad outcome or deliverable and a project deadline. In going beyond our purpose, our scope statement should also tie your project to some larger mission, even if you believe that connection should be clear. If the scope is the common thread throughout a project that establishes a purpose we can rally around, it helps with buy-in to connect the project scope to an even larger purpose, like a strategic priority or a user need, or your organizational mission.

Creating scope statements is a great way to kick off planning. You can develop more complex scope statements that include additional information about the project - a project justification or more details about what is in and out of the project scope, or acceptance criteria for the final deliverables. Regardless of the complexity of your scope statement, we want to discuss the scope early on with our team and key stakeholders. We can introduce the scope during project kickoff and discuss it during initial planning. Our goal here is to make sure that the scope is clearly understood and that we are all on the same page about the project's purpose and any additional project parameters, like the deadline or outcomes. Again, even if you think the scope should be understood - perhaps because it was shared via email or during a staff meeting or in invitations to participate in the project - we still want to make it a topic of discussion with our team and key stakeholders. Allow folks to ask questions and get clarification.

And then we want to remind folks of the scope often, to encourage continued effort throughout the project, and to avoid scope creep. We can add the scope to the top of our project meeting agendas, reminding us of our purpose when we are discussing the project and planning our work or dealing with challenges. We can post it in our physical or digital workspace, whether that's on a team whiteboard or in a project or team management tool. We can also add it to our project reports to make sure it's clear to decision-makers and other key stakeholders what we are working towards. Our goal here is to keep the purpose front and center, to drive continued effort throughout the project but also to make sure we are staying within scope as the project moves forward so that we can avoid scope creep. Scope creep is when additions are made to the project that detract from the project's goals and delay outcome delivery. These additions could be additional outcomes or features or elements to the project that take time and effort away from the project's purpose. By reminding our teams and stakeholders of the scope throughout the project we can try to avoid scope creep.

But in a collaborative project environment, even if we remind folks about the scope, stakeholders and team members may still suggest increases or additions to the project scope. I've found that asking three questions about these additions can be really helpful. First, is this new outcome or activity relevant to the project? Often that answer is yes or it wouldn't have been suggested. But is it also achievable within the project's existing budget, timeline, and resources? Maybe it is, but it may not be. If you decide to add it to your scope, you may need additional resources. Also, is this edition better served as a new project? Perhaps this new outcome or feature really needs to be its own project, Maybe one that runs parallel to this project or after this project ends. If you do decide that this new element should be part of the project scope because it is relevant and achievable or worth the additional time and resources, you will want to revise the project scope and communicate that revision with your team and stakeholders.

So that's a really quick introduction to project scope. We want to clearly define the scope, documenting and then sharing it. We want to tie it to a larger mission, even if that connection should be clear. We should discuss it early, even if we think it's understood. And remind folks often, to encourage that continued effort and to avoid scope creep. We can use our project scope to engage stakeholders and team members around a shared vision of success and maintain our project's focus from initiation to closing. If you want more information on scope and the five key elements of impactful project management, download our five key elements worksheet. This free download of our simple worksheet is a great start to project planning and is available at yazdaniconsulting.com/resources.

Great, so I'm happy to take any questions you have. Please add those questions in the comments. If I haven't answered your question live, I'll respond later in the comments. Also, you can find all of the ways to reach me at yazdaniconsulting.com/contact. So a common question is, "What if the scope isn't clear when the project comes to you from leadership?" If the scope you receive is vague, I think it's going to be very important that you get that clarity as soon as possible. Whether you go back to leadership to ask some questions or you go to key stakeholders to get their input, you want to engage decision-makers on scope right away. This could be through a simple discussion where you ask some questions about their goals and what they hope to see from the project, or you may need to draft a scope statement, perhaps with help from stakeholders or your team, and present that draft for feedback. Creating a draft may involve some decisions, some leaps, on your part to even get to a simple scope statement. But this draft can serve as a starting point for your leadership and revising it to their vision for the scope.

Another question is, "What if my stakeholders can't agree on the scope?" This is a real challenge and how you approach it will depend on who the stakeholders are and the level of disagreement. Perhaps drafting a scope together with all parties might work - as everyone's concerns and needs can be heard, which is often the source of the disagreement anyway, when folks don't feel heard - and you will hopefully reach consensus. If the disagreements are more about project outcomes than purpose, it may be useful to remind folks of that common purpose and tie to the mission or of the intended user before deciding on outcomes. You may also want to adapt that third scope creep question, "Is this better served as a new project?", and consider whether their disparate needs and vision might actually require different projects.

Again, please feel free to comment or reach out and message me with additional questions. Thanks! So if you need support leading projects and teams, visit our project strategies page at yazdaniconsulting.com/projects to learn more. Thank you for participating in our Impactful Projects and Planning Microtraining series! Visit yazdaniconsulting.com/ipp to view all of the sessions in the series and learn about upcoming microtrainings. Thanks!