Scope in the Planning Phase (Part 1)

00:02 Welcome. Are you ready to see how a project manager plans a project? Excellent. Over the next few lessons, we're going to discuss every step of the process, and by the end, you'll be more than aware how essential the planning stage is in the project lifecycle.

00:20 At this point, the project manager should have what they need to begin planning.

00:26 And this stage the planning has its own structure.

00:30 So the project manager can cover all areas because as we know, the more thorough the plan, the less likely the project manager will end up needing to spend resources fixing something later in the project.

00:43 Breadth and depth, remember? So where do we start? That's right. Scope.

00:51 The project manager needs to know exactly what her or his project will involve before any work starts.

00:58 Sensible thinking of our laboratory project in order to prepare what you need to build the showroom and for it to be a trendy new building setting the standard for all other car showrooms.

01:11 You need to know exactly what this project will involve.

01:18 What should the showroom building look like? How many floors? What cars are you producing? What color scheme will you go for? Which angle will the building face? This is why scope is the first thing you have to plan.

01:32 You are accountable for translating the goal of the project into deliverables and then into tasks or sets of tasks.

01:41 Collectively, these represent the scope.

01:44 And the scope answers one question and one question only.

01:49 What exactly does the project team need to do? I never said it was an easy question.

01:56 So our goal.

01:58 Is to have a new top of the range showroom in a new retail park showcasing our newest, most state of the art cars with well-trained staff and setting the standard in terms of showroom architecture.

02:11 Deliverables are the building blocks of the project.

02:15 They all come together to reach the goal.

02:21 One deliverable.

02:23 Is construction of the showroom.

02:26 And the set of tasks needed to reach this deliverable are the following.

02:30 One. Lay the foundation.

02:34 To erect the walls and core structure.

02:38 Three fit the floor and four paint the outside.

02:45 And that is just one part of the scope.

02:48 Remember, the scope is the broader concept.

02:52 It's not just the product or in our example, the cars, the showroom and staff themselves.

02:59 It includes all the additional work that needs to be done to ensure the product is not only created but meets the requirements and expectations of the project stakeholders. Now what if you find out there's a building already on the piece of land that you want to build the showroom on? You'll have to demolish it.

03:20 This is not part of the construction deliverable, but needs to be done before anything else can start.

03:26 Therefore, is part of the scope.

03:29 If this had not been thought of, construction would be delayed.

03:33 Costs would be above what had been planned.

03:35 And stakeholders expectations would not be met.

03:40 So you will need to think of the product scope that is the tasks that need to be done in order to produce the product.

03:49 The showroom, in our case.

03:51 Also, you will need to think of the project scope, which is all that you need to do in order to achieve the project goal, including the product scope.

04:02 Say there is a small street next to where the showroom is to be built, and the residents on that street are of the clear opinion that it is the responsibility of the company that is building the showroom to renovate the street.

04:16 Is that a responsibility of the company? The answer is in the scope statement of the project.

04:23 If it's not specifically included, you cannot spend resources on this costly work.

04:29 This is why scope needs to be described in detail, including what is not in the scope.

04:37 Of course, a little common sense goes a long way here.

04:40 If you forgot to put door handles in your showroom project scope, but included windows and doors, we would not deny the showroom 20 or so door handles. However, a few million dollars on a brand new road that hasn't even been signed off by the city.

04:58 Well, that's just bad planning.

05:02 Of course, this is something that must be agreed between the construction company and the city when the construction rights are being signed, which is part of the initiation task.

05:14 If there is an agreement for partnership and the company needs to work on the street, this must be formally added to the scope so you can assign the relevant resources.

05:27 Now. To sum up the scope stage, the project manager starts by assessing the information she or he has on the project, scope being what they gained during the initiation.

05:40 Then they gather detailed information on the requirements and expectations on the project. They used their expertise and that of their team members to cover all the grey areas of the scope that can and will affect their project.

05:55 And finally, they document everything.

05:58 If something arises, there needs to be an easy reference point for the project manager or other stakeholders to check in order to determine if something is worthy of their time and resources.

06:11 Awesome. In the next lesson, we will look at these three steps in more detail how a project manager analyzes the high level information, deals with stakeholder expectations, and how they document the scope in a user friendly way.

06:28 See you there.