12. Hidden Scope Statement

Symptoms: The Project Scope a vital and critical component to the success of a project which documents the project’s deliverables and output is outdated, stored in multiple locations, or stored “somewhere” in many SAP implementations. It is natural that given this scenario many SAP projects experience scope creep, or create much confusion over what SAP functionality needs to be delivered for the customer.  

I have witnessed many SAP projects that engaged in either gold plating or fail to deliver needed functionality because the functional and technical team did not have access to the project scope or the project manager failed to maintain the project scope in a single location with version control. 

An inaccessible, “hidden”, or outdated project scope has the potential to increase project costs, decrease project quality, increase delivery times, and fail to meet customer expectations.  

Suggestions:  

Place the scope statement in a single repository with a version control tool that is readily accessible to all project team members. The rule of thumb is that anything not documented within a scope statement is not considered part of the project scope.  The PMBOK recommends that as the project progresses, the scope statement may need to be revised or refined to reflect changes to the scope of the project.  

The scope statement should be reviewed and approved by the project sponsor and the customer 

Scope statement is a documented description of the projects’ output or deliverables.  

According to the PMBOK from PMI:

“The scope statement forms the basis for an agreement between the project team and the project customer by identifying both the project objectives and the major project deliverables.”

The scope statement as described by Jeb Riordan,

·         forms the basis for agreement between customer and supplier

·         will be the basis for all project related decisions

·         Will be used to determine whether the project has been completed.

In relation to the knowledge areas in the PMI PMBOK © ™, developing the scope statement is included in and the most important output from the scope planning process.

According to PMI a scope statement should include, either directly or by reference to other documents: project justification, project product, project deliverables, and project objectives.