Projects fail at the beginning, not the end. As a project management consultant, the biggest problem I’ve seen in organizations is a lack of understanding what the project is to achieve. I don’t mean just the big picture of the project, I mean the specific things that will need to be created, implemented, and configured in order for the project to be done. These little things pile up. And piles get ignored. And the deadline isn’t moving. If you want your projects to be more successful, and I know you do, then you need to define exactly what the project is to achieve and then go do it. I’m really talking about defining the project requirements and the project scope as early in the project as possible. The project scope statement is a document that defines what the project is, the project deliverables, and the work that the project team (and likely contractors) will have to do in order to create the identified project deliverables. The major purpose of the document is to communicate with the project team, the project customers, and the project stakeholders a common understanding of the project’s purpose, goals, and objectives. The project scope statement, as I’ll dive into one moment, also serves as a launching board for additional Page 13
planning by the project team and the project manager. The project scope can be a large document or a simple one or twopage manifesto. So how big does this thing have to be? Here’s a heuristic you can rely on: larger projects typically require more detail than smaller projects. In other words, the bigger the project the longer it’s going to take to create the project scope statement, and the more information you’ll need to include in the document. I admit I’m painting some large brush strokes here. Most organizations are going to have project scope statements available from past projects – that’s part of your organizational process assets. There’s nothing wrong with using a past project’s documents as templates for your current project – work smart not hard. And if your organization has never, ever completed a scope statement before? You’ll need some additional planning time to create the project scope statement. Don’t be surprised if your project scope statement goes through several rounds of revisions – it should. So what exactly does a project scope statement include? I’m glad you asked, otherwise this list would be just silly.