Discussion question post

Initial Postings:

Please respond to the following discussion with a well thought out response with relating to at least one source (cite using APA).

Consider a past situation where you were a member of a team that was involved in a project. Ideally, this situation should be where you currently work. However, you can use any situation or experience in your personal life as well. If you are at a loss of thinking of a scenario – then you may choose to make up a project that may be of interest to you instead.

• Describe the overall project goals and your role in the project.
• Explain how the project scope was clearly defined at the beginning of the project or how it was not clearly defined.What do you think could have been improved relating to scope management?
• Prepare and share with us a listing of deliverables from your project. Offer at least 5Execution deliverables and two work packages per deliverable.Identify the WBS code accordingly. For example:

Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student’s own words – do not provide quotes nor use ChatGPT or other tools to write on your behalf!

Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA/Plagiarism review. Use the reference below.

Module Overview:

Project scope in simplest terms is all the work that needs to be done for the project to be considered complete. Once the scope is baselined during planning, the Project Manager must continually monitor that the scope is being adhered to as the project progresses. Often, scope creep may come up, where a resource may want to expand the scope. If this occurs, such request must go through a change control process to have the change formally approved into the project, causing a review of how the change will impact the project triple constraints.

Module Objectives:

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Students will be use variance analysis to monitor the performance of project scope
• Students will create change control processes to document when changes are recommended for a project; how such changes are then approved or denied.

Learning Materials:

Study the following learning materials this week:

Recap of Scope Management

As we learned about scope in relation to the triple constraints in the prior week, scope management entails ensuring an adequate understanding of the work that needs to be performed during the project and further controlling that the scope does not ‘creep’ or become expanded causing the project success to be in jeopardy. Scope management further supports the project plan and specifies work content, outcomes, the activities involved, the resources needed, and the quality standards. There are multiple elements as related to scope management, including: conceptual development, the scope statement, work authorization, scope reporting, control systems and project closeout.

A statement of work is a narrative description of work required for a project and will contain numerous elements including (but not limited to):

Developing a WBS:

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the central ingredient of scope management.A WBS divides the project scope into its deliverables and activities in order to begin establishing critical interrelationships among activities. Accurate scheduling can begin only with an accurate and meaningful WBS.

A WBS has six main purposes:

1. It echoes project objectives
2. It is the organization chart for the project
3. It creates the logic for tracking costs, schedule, and performance specifications for each element in the project
4. It may be used to communicate project status
5. It may be used to improve project communication
6. It demonstrates how the project will be controlled

A WBS is broken down into deliverables and work packages (activities). When looking at the example WBS below, the highest level (1.0) is the Project. The next level (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5) are deliverables or major project components. The next level is either Sub deliverables (if applies) or work packages, which are the individual project activities (1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.3, etc.). Note the work activities is the work that is completed to support completion of the sub-deliverable or deliverables.

Take a moment to review the following YouTube videos as related to a WBS (note the audio is a bit animated on the first one- but the video has good content):

Baselines

After project planning is completed and signed off by the project sponsor, the Project Manager will formally set project budget, timeline (schedule), and scope as a baseline for moving forward. Any future changes to the project, will cause a variance from the baseline. The baseline allows us to track changes from original estimates to current estimates (as it relates to costs, scope, time). Some software tools actually allow you to baseline your project, otherwise, the baseline can just be an archived copy of the approved budget, schedule, and scope. It is possible to re-baseline a project after changes are approved, thus you may end up with numerous project baselines or comparison points for the project. However, you should always have the original baseline which is your true comparison point to the original plan.

Scope Validation & Control

Scope Validation includes the formal acceptance of deliverables throughout the project. This acceptance is a sign-off by the sponsor and/or end-user who will be handed over the project once completed. Formal acceptance ensures that quality expectations and the scope of work meets their expectations.

Further we will monitor that we are adhering to the baselines set forth in the project through continued review of work being completed as compared to the WBS and scope statement. This is a critical piece as often a project, especially one that might be multi-year and complex, will have challenges where stakeholders may want to include additional items into scope. The team needs to monitor that this doesnt occur and push any changes through the integrated change control process.

Variance Analysis

Throughout the monitor/control of the project, the Project Manager will do multiple variance analysis to monitor the differences between planned budgets, schedules, and scope and what is occurring in the project. This variance is then reported to the applicable stakeholders and changes implemented as determined by the project team to get the project back on track. In relation to costs, we use the theories related to Earned Value Management, discussed in a future week, to present the relationship between planned work, work performed to date, and the costs occurred to date.

Integrated Change Control

During the duration of the project, if any changes are proposed to the scope, timeline, budget, resources, etc. the requestor of the change should submit a change request through a formalized change control process. This process will be unique per organization, but generally includes an intake form to request information about the change, some levels of approvals, a definition of how the change may impact the triple constraints, and ultimately either approved or rejected. Any approved change must be then adapted into the project plan (including the schedule, resource allocations, budget, etc.).

Take a moment to review

Additional Resources

Please read the following articles:

References