Article

A Scoop on Scope: A Process-Driven Approach to Avoiding Challenged Projects
By Rudolf Melik, Article published in DM Direct Newsletter, June 10, 2005

"Outright failures of projects have declined from 40 to 23 percent during the past five years, but challenged projects swelled from 33 to 49 percent in the same period. That's bad because challenged projects often are more painful than projects that simply fail. And they are often just failures-in-waiting, dallying dismally until the patience (or the money) for getting them right runs out." - CIO Magazine

The most commonly cited issues for challenged projects:

• Lack of executive support
• Lack of stakeholder input
• Incomplete or changing requirements, specifications and objectives
• Unrealistic expectations

Project scope control and management is an often-ignored topic in the management ranks. However, the impact of lax scope control on the organization, its clients, its projects and its employees' careers can be devastating. As the opening analyst commentary clearly demonstrates, scope management is not someone else's problem. Management must recognize this threat and establish effective internal controls that deal with this often invisible and consistently underestimated risk.

This article provides a concise definition of scope management, discusses the focus of traditional project management, the importance of a disciplined and repeatable approach and the benefits of working towards process-driven project execution. The article presents key scope-related processes that need to be automated and shows how scope control substantially facilitates project governance. Finally, a quick scope management test helps you assess your team's scope maturity.

Click here to read the entire article.

Rudolf Melik, CEO of Tenrox, has more than 12 years of experience in the
workforce and project management industry. For more information call Tenrox
at (626) 796-6640, ext.1000 or send an e-mail to info@tenrox.com.