Scope Matters: Navigating Challenges and Uncovering Opportunities

Scope Matters: Navigating Challenges and Uncovering Opportunities

Business Bullet Newsletter 5

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter, where we explore the importance of scope and how to get it right. In this issue, we're excited to share insights from three thought-provoking articles from BusinessBullet.co.uk, a treasure trove of knowledge for professionals in the field.

  1. Technique for Identifying Project Scope: Every successful project begins with a clear understanding of its scope. This article emphasizes the importance of defining the project's vision, goals, objectives, and stakeholder involvement right at the start. It highlights the need for a well-documented scope statement, agreed upon by all stakeholders, to ensure alignment with the project’s vision and success criteria. The use of visual aids, such as diagrams, is suggested to effectively communicate the scope and involve all relevant stakeholders from the outset.
  2. A Collaborative Pre-Project Approach: Before diving into a project, it's vital to ensure that it is set up for success. This article outlines the benefits of a collaborative pre-project approach, emphasizing the identification of key stakeholders and roles in the early stages. It discusses the necessity of understanding current processes, defining clear problem statements and success criteria, and ensuring alignment with enterprise objectives before project kickoff. The article suggests limiting pre-project work to prevent overlap with the project phase and highlights the importance of impact assessment for understanding the work's scope and priority.
  3. Understanding Problems and Opportunities in Change Projects: A crucial aspect of initiating change projects is comprehensively understanding the underlying problems and opportunities. This piece explores techniques for identifying these elements, such as process modelling and analysis. It stresses the importance of revisiting problem statements post-requirements gathering and aligning the scope with the identified problems and opportunities. The article also provides an illustrative example of how reviewing current business processes can reveal potential improvements and opportunities for more effective targeted marketing strategies.

We trust these articles will provide you with valuable insights and strategies for your projects. Remember, effective project management and business analysis are not just about following processes but also about understanding and aligning with the broader business objectives and stakeholder needs.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and questions. Happy reading, and here’s to your success in all your project endeavours!


A technique for identifying project scope

Scope must be identified at the beginning of a project regardless of the methodology being used. ?It is to ensure the breadth of the project is agreed before going into any detail.

Without doing this it would be impossible to:

  • Plan what is required and by when.
  • Estimate costs.
  • Manage change.
  • Understand whether the project has delivered what is required.

Scope should be identified by speaking to the sponsor first to ensure his/her vision for the project is captured.

Questions to ask are:

..read more


A collaborative pre-project approach for finding the root cause of the problem

It can be more difficult to turn a project around if it is not defined accurately up front.? The more we can do to ensure the project starts out in the right direction at the beginning the bigger chance of success.? Some companies are taking a collaborative approach at the pre-project stage to ensure the real problems are identified up front.

Otherwise, a project could be defined that solves the wrong problem or does not tie back with the business objectives or success criteria.? Another bad scenario could be getting so far with implementing a solution to discover that not all the right stakeholders were involved, and the complete solution cannot be implemented.

This article sets out additional activities pre-project that could benefit your organization if not currently in place:

  • Identification of those involved in pre-project work and a look at what teams benefit from being involved
  • Processes and documentation to define the problem and success criteria

..Read more..


NEW ONLINE COURSE COMING SOON: Setting Business Context and Vision. To join the waiting list and register an interest click here

Understanding the problems, opportunities and its importance when initiating change projects

Introduction

It is important to understand the problems to be resolved and opportunities at the early stages of a project.? These will build the foundations for understanding and prioritising requirements, design and implementation. ??If requirements do not relate back to a problem or opportunity, then the objectives of the project may not be realised.? It is the responsibility of the business analyst to ensure traceability throughout a project and understanding the problem is one of the first stages that needs to be understood.

Some typical questions to ask the sponsor and other stakeholders are:

  • What problems do you want resolved?
  • What does it affect and when?
  • What is the impact and the size of the impact?
  • What would a successful solution look like?
  • What opportunities do you want the project to achieve?
  • What stakeholders do you envisage being impacted?
  • What systems are impacted?

? ..Read more..


Thank you for being part of our community. We look forward to sharing more valuable insights with you in our next newsletter

For those inspired by our discussion on the importance of identifying project scope, you'll find our online course 'Setting Business Context and Vision' to be an invaluable resource. It dives deeper into the principles outlined in our articles, offering expert guidance on effectively establishing scope and vision for your business projects. Explore more at Setting Business Context and Vision.

Want more in-depth knowledge and tools to excel in business analysis? Be sure to check out 'The Business Analysis Handbook, 2nd Edition'. The Business Analysis Handbook was ground-breaking in providing a hands-on guide to the business analyst role. This second edition reflects key developments and new career pathways in the profession


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