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 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  yazaniconsulting.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! [music]