Planning the Scope

The first step in planning the scope of a project is to identify the requirements. Let’s take an office building. The customer [user] wants to hold its important meetings in the building (obviously). So, we need to have a conference room. What are the requirements for the room? For example, what’s the required capacity?

Then, we have to identify the building elements of the product. My preferred way is to use a mind-map. It starts with the final product, and then shows the main elements of the product in the next level. Those elements are broken down into smaller ones, and so on.

This is a great way to identify the scope, because that breakdown helps you find the gaps. You don’t have to use a mind-map (though I highly recommend it), but whatever you do use should be a hierarchical list. That hierarchical list of the building elements (deliverables) is called a WBS.

WBS stands for Work Breakdown Structure, and it is a terrible name for this concept! It’s misleading because of the word “work”. Most people think it’s a grouping for project activities, but that’s not right. If you see it like that, and probably deal with a WBS only in the scheduling software, please stop. Just try it once. Identify the building elements of a product with a mind-mapping software in a facilitated workshop. You’ll be amazed by the number of problems you prevent.

So, to understand the product, we need to define its scope and quality. How should we plan quality?