There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop.

—Author Unknown

Last week, you explored how balancing the “triple constraint” is crucial in the execution and control phase of projects. In particular, controlling the scope of a project can often cause issues for project managers. For example, a hospital’s administration may want additional features added to the new EHR system, or a head nurse may ask for additional training in using a new system for her department. In each case, the expansion in scope will also increase the project’s cost and timeline. In order to guard against such issues, project managers need to familiarize themselves with techniques for determining the appropriate scope during a project’s planning and management phases.

This week, you evaluate techniques for managing project scope and begin to compile your Portfolio.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Evaluate techniques for managing project scope
• Generate a Microsoft Project plan
• Determine and schedule resources for a project plan
• Assess the successes and challenges in creating a project plan
• Synthesize insights related to evaluation and lessons learned
• Construct a schedule in Microsoft Project that illustrates dependencies
• Assess lessons learned in an HIT project closeout *

* The Assignment related to this Learning Objective is introduced this week and submitted in Week 11.

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Coplan, S., & Masuda, D. (2011). Project management for healthcare information technology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

• Chapter 3, “Project Management”
  • • “Scope Management” (pp. 50–58)

  This section of Chapter 3 focuses on the planning and controlling of what a project includes and excludes. The text describes how to manage project scope so that it remains within project parameters.

Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® guide) (6th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Author.

• Chapter 5, “Project Scope Management”This chapter focuses on the processes used to manage project scope. The chapter also describes a variety of tools and techniques that support the management of project scope.

Herrmann, R. F. (2012). The pitfalls of “scope-creep.” Architectural Record, 200(1), 29.

In this article, the author explores cases in which a project can expand in scope without changes to letters of agreement. The author makes recommendations concerning amending letters of agreement to avoid lawsuits.

Hunsberger, K. (2011). Change is good. PM Network, 25(2), 48–53.

The author of this article explains how scope creep often becomes a focal point of project management teams’ approaches to a project. The author also describes how scope creep may be controlled through change management.

Khan, A. (2006). Project scope management. Cost Engineering, 48(6), 12–16.

This article emphasizes the importance of managing a project’s scope. The author also specifies how a project’s scope can be subdivided into more specific areas.

Mohan, S. (2008). Schedule acceleration: What, why and how? AACE International Transactions,PS.13.1–PS.13.5.

In this article, the author describes the significance of accelerating a schedule on a project’s cost. The author also specifies two types of schedule acceleration.

Nekrasova, E., Griffiths, J., Bleen, J., Nelson, T. K., & Hewett, J. (2012, May). (2012, May). Command and control. PM Network, 26(5), 24.

This article focuses on how a project manager may avoid scope creep. The article also stresses the criticality of change management.

Simms, J. (2008, February 5). Forget everything you’ve learnt about project delivery, part 1: Scope management. CIO (13284045), 1

This article specifies the two different types of scope (problem scope and solution scope) and how they may affect scope management. The author describes how being aware of these two different types of scope may prevent issues in scope management.

Simms, J. (2009, July 7). The self evident truths of project management: Truth # 11: “Project scope is a weapon of opportunity not control”. CIO (13284045),  1.

In this article, the author describes the dangers of seeking to control a project’s scope too tightly. The author distinguishes the initial scope and the final scope of a project.

Turk, W. (2010). Scope creep horror. Defense AT&L, 39(2), 53–55.

This article examines the impact of scope creep on a project. The author also describes some of the causes of scope creep.

Smith, S. E. (2012). What is scope creep? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-scope-creep.htm

This article defines scope creep. The author describes how scope creep can arise and how it may be remedied.

Document: Project Management Tools Available for Apple/Mac Computers (PDF)

This document contains a list of Project Management tools that are compatible with Apple/Mac computers.

Discussion: Managing Scope

Imagine approaching the completion of a clinical provider order entry (CPOE) system implementation, only to have key stakeholders require the addition of clinical decision support (CDS) in the system. The additional CDS and its associated training will considerably increase the scope of the CPOE system implementation. As in this example, a project’s scope can easily grow larger as stakeholders continually ask for “just one more thing.” This expanding scope is often referred to as “scope creep.” If more items are added to the scope, project managers have the often daunting task of ensuring that a project still remains within budget and on time.

In this Discussion, you evaluate techniques for managing project scope.

To prepare Discussion: Managing Scope Paper NURS6441:

• Consider a work-related project that suddenly expanded in scope. If you have not experienced scope creep in a work-related project, reflect on personal experiences instead. For example, you may have planned a wedding, built a house, remodeled a kitchen, etc.
• Think about the purpose of the project, the number of people involved, and their responsibilities.
• Reflect on what caused the project to expand in scope and how you handled the expansion.

By Day 3

Post a description of the project, including its purpose, the number of people involved, and their responsibilities. Explain what caused the project to expand in scope. Describe how you managed the expansion in the context of project management principles and practices. Explain how you can mitigate or prevent this type of problem in the future.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days, using one or more of the following approaches:

Submission and Grading Information

• Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research.
• Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
• Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research. Discussion: Managing Scope Paper NURS6441

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION;

Discuss the successes and challenges in creating a project plan

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will discuss the successes and challenges in creating a project plan.

Gantt charts

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart used to illustrate the progression of work through time. The bars in a Gantt chart show the start and finish dates of tasks and their durations, which can be useful when planning large projects with many moving parts. It’s named after Henry Gantt, who developed it in 1910 while working as an accountant at the Carnegie Steel Company (now U.S. Steel).

The idea behind this type of visual display isn’t new: Julius Caesar used one for his famous Gallic Wars campaign and even Alexander Hamilton had one on his desk when he created America’s first treasury department! But what makes Gantt Charts so useful today? In short: They allow us to see how much work we’ve completed so far against what we’re aiming for (or not).

Swimlanes

A swimlane is a process or task that has a specific time frame. A swimlane can be as simple as “Write the blog post” or as complicated as “Sell product X to customer Z, who will use it on their website.”

The purpose of creating swimlanes is to make sure you’re working on the right thing at any given moment in your project. For example, if you’re writing a book but haven’t started yet? Your first step might be to write a chapter outline; then once you’ve got that written down and edited, move onto writing individual chapters; finally finish off with some formatting and uploading comments until everything looks pretty polished.

Creating swimlanes gives each step of this process its own label so that there’s no confusion about what exactly needs doing next (and makes tracking progress much easier).

Stakeholders

Stakeholders can be internal or external to your organization, but they must have a vested interest in the project. They might be individuals or groups—for example, users and customers are stakeholders of a product release.

The level of influence that each stakeholder has on the project will vary depending on their role within your organization and how much time they’ve spent working on it before you started planning it. For example, if you’re creating an application for mobile devices, then developers would likely have more influence than end users do because they know how to build software for new platforms (and maybe even run tests).

RACI

• Responsible: The person who is responsible for ensuring that a task is completed.

• Accountable: The person who will be held accountable for the completion of their part of the project.

• Consulted: The person consulted on decisions or made aware that others are making decisions based on their input.

• Informed: The person who understands what needs to be done and why it needs to be done so that they can work collaboratively with other team members toward completing tasks in accordance with your goals and objectives.*

Milestones

Milestones are a great way to measure progress and track key accomplishments. They can also be used to communicate the status of your project with stakeholders, team members, and the project manager.

In order to use milestones effectively on your project plan:

• Identify what each milestone means (e.g., risk reduction, delivery date). You’ll want this information in order for you to know what needs to happen for each milestone before moving onto the next one; otherwise it may cause confusion when planning out your schedule or setting expectations based on previous experiences with similar projects (if any).

• Establish good communication channels between participants involved in reaching that particular milestone this includes both internal communication (between team members) as well as external communication (with stakeholders outside of your organization).

Project schedule

• List of tasks with due dates and their dependencies

• List of tasks and their resources (e.g., people or materials)

• List of tasks and their owners (who are responsible for them)

• Status for each task, e.g., “underway” or “completed” or “in-progress” or “waiting on xyz” etc., with an explanation if applicable (e.g., why was it not done yet?)

Creating a project schedule will help you understand the goals and timeframes of your project.

In order to create a project schedule, you need to define the problem before starting on a solution. This is important because it will help you understand what your goals are and determine how much time and effort it will take to achieve them.

To keep yourself focused, don’t worry about what other people’s goals are or how realistic they might be only think about what YOU want to accomplish in your life! You may decide that becoming healthier is something that needs immediate attention (and possibly some new clothes), but if this isn’t something that’s really important for YOU right now then don’t stress over trying too hard at first. Just focus on making healthy choices every day until they become second nature; then once those habits have been established there’ll be less pressure involved when working toward bigger dreams later down the road.

Conclusion

Creating a project plan is an important step in the project management process. It’s not just about tracking what you’ve done; it’s also about thinking creatively, identifying priorities and making sure that you have enough time to get everything done.