Project Scope - Your Destination
Carl G. Fsadni, M.Sc., B.Sc., CISM, CCSK, PMP, Author
M&A Advisor for IT Infrastructure and Cybersecurity - IT/Cyber Program Manager
As a program or project manager, you need to know the destination of what we are working towards. Before a pilot takes-off, a flight plan is filed… the pilot knows the point of origin as well as the destination.
That destination is the scope of the project or program. The components of the project or program contain milestones, tasks, and dependencies which are defined by our technical team in conjunction with our governance team to make sure what is being implemented meets our corporate standards as well as meets all regulatory requirements.
Without a defined scope or destination, you will have a never ending, and expensive project. A ship without a rudder never gets to its destination.
As a PM make sure you have a destination to avoid a project that will go on for perpetuity. Your first question should always be, what is the scope? As a PM you may have to help facilitate what the scope of the project is or you need to the right individuals involved that can communicate clearly what that scope is or the project has failed before it has started.
Please send me your thoughts, comments, and/or experience with this topic! Thank you for reading this!
Carl G. Fsadni
Project team resourcing will be my next topic.
Carl, well written! I would also like to add a point on the need for constant communication between the Program Manager and technical team and having a regular meeting cadence established between them to specifically go over the tasks in scope, what’s coming up in the next few days/weeks. I have experienced that the participants of such discussions appreciate the sync up (since everyone is so busy with multiple tasks) as it helps everyone get to the destination with minimal challenges.
PMO Director | Release Train Engineer - RTE | SAFe Certified - SPC 6.0 | Program Manager | Servant Leader | Coaching and Mentoring | Stakeholder Management | Lean Agile | Transition and Transformation
4 年Carl: nice job and thanks for sharing.
DevOps Manager at Hard Rock Digital
4 年Blue Lagoon
Extending the flight analogy you make, just as pilots must be ready to make mid-course changes, PMs must be ready to accept changes to projects under execution.?But a big part of the value we bring is to enforce use of change control processes, the lack of which leads quickly to scope problems - and a destination a lot less inviting than the blue shoreline of Malta.?
Technology, Business, Systems
4 年Scope creep has always been a nemesis for me. Good change control process and procedures are important so you know what is expected to be delivered at the specified time. Even with using agile methodology, what goes into the next sprint to be delivered?