Project scope management (プロジェクトスコープマネジメント) sets the boundary, or scope, of the deliverables a project produces and the work needed to complete them, and keeps the project inside that boundary.
Collect requirements
Define the scope
Break down the work
Verify and control the scope
Check that finished deliverables match the agreed scope, and watch that the scope does not quietly grow.
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Scope has two sides: product scope (成果物スコープ), the things handed over (for a training session, the handouts and the final report), and project scope (プロジェクトスコープ), the work carried out (booking the venue, setting up reception). Record the agreed scope in a scope statement (スコープ記述書) and spell out what is excluded, so nobody can later claim they assumed something was included.
AnalogyIt is like getting a quote for a house move: you settle up front which belongings go on the truck, which stay behind, and whether packing is included. Ask for more later and the price and date have to be negotiated again.
How to rememberScope comes from a Greek word meaning "to look", the same root as the -scope in telescope. Think of it as a field of view: whatever lies outside the view is outside the project.
Exam points
ExamScope is the deliverables the project produces and the work it decides to do; it is set before the schedule and cost plans so that the work to be done is clear. Tools that are merely used, documents received from outside and work after the project ends are not in scope.
ExamA scope change means the deliverables or the work grow, shrink or change in content; a change of only the people, the location or the contractor is not one. Updating the WBS for an approved change is scope management, while adjusting deadline and staffing is the job of integration management (統合マネジメント).
ExamA request to change the scope is neither accepted nor refused on the spot by whoever receives it; it goes into change control (変更管理). The board or manager with authority over changes weighs the effect on cost and deadline before deciding, and may turn it down.
A WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) is a chart that takes a project's deliverables and the work that produces them, breaks them down level by level from the whole, and arranges them as a tree.
Running an in-house training session
Preparation
Book the venue
Meet the instructor
Create the materials
Make the slides
Print the handouts
On the day
Reception
Deliver the lectures
Wrap-up
Tally the survey
Write the report
Split creating the materials into making the slides and printing the handouts. Leave the other branches at level 3.
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Higher levels of the tree are larger groupings, and lower levels come closer to the individual tasks someone actually carries out. Only creating the materials goes down to level 4, because slides and printing lumped together are still too large to assign an owner and a number of days. The lowest unit is called a work package (ワークパッケージ), and a document called the WBS dictionary fills in what each element contains.
AnalogyIt resembles a toolbox with many compartments. Open a big drawer (a group) and you find small slots (individual tasks), so you can see at a glance where everything is and what is missing.
How to rememberBreakdown means an itemised split, as in a breakdown of household spending by category. A WBS is the project's own breakdown, drawn as a tree.
Exam points
ExamA WBS breaks the deliverables and the work down level by level, listing everything without gaps, and gives the basis for estimating each task's effort. It does not show the order or duration of the work.
ExamDecomposition runs from the whole downward and stops at the level where cost and duration can be estimated and managed. No fixed rule sets the lowest level by task size, headcount or days, and the branches need not all reach the same depth.
ExamThe WBS dictionary is a document that states, for each element of the WBS, what the work is and what counts as finished, so that the content of the work is clear.
An arrow diagram (アローダイアグラム) is a scheduling chart that draws activities as arrows and the points between them as circles, linking them to show the order of activities and their durations on one page.
Change a duration and the critical path and the total are recalculated at once.
Total duration: 13 days
Critical path: A → B → E
The arrows are called activity arrows and the circles at their ends nodes (結合点); an activity leaving a node cannot start until every activity entering it has finished. The path from start to finish with the largest total of days is the critical path (クリティカルパス), and that total is the shortest possible duration of the whole project (13 days in the figure, via A→B→dummy→E). The dotted line is a dummy activity that makes E wait for B; it takes no days and only expresses the order between activities.
AnalogyThink of cooking dinner: while the rice cooks, you make the soup and grill the fish. The tasks run side by side, yet nothing reaches the table until the slowest of them is done.
How to rememberArrow versus bar: the arrow diagram is named after its arrows, and the Gantt chart is built from bars. Pair the two shape words, arrows for connections and bars for duration.
Exam points
ExamThe arrow diagram draws the links between activities as a network and is used to find the longest path, the critical path. It comes in once the work broken down in the WBS is put in order to build a schedule.
ExamWhere paths merge at a node, the next activity starts when the later incoming path finishes. The slack of an activity off the critical path is the difference in days between the longest path through it and the overall longest path.
ExamAny delay to an activity on the critical path delays the whole project by the same amount. To shorten the project, compress activities on that path or run sequential activities in parallel, but if another path becomes the longest, the total shrinks by less than the time saved.
A Gantt chart (ガントチャート) is a schedule table that lists activities down the side and time across the top, showing each activity's period as the length of a horizontal bar.
Activity (□ planned ■ actual ・ none ◆ milestone)
Week 1
Week 2 (now)
Week 3
Week 4
Book the venue (planned)
□
・
・
・
Book the venue (actual)
■
・
・
・
Create the materials (planned)
□
□
□
・
Create the materials (actual)
■
・
・
・
Materials finished (milestone)
・
・
◆
・
Meet the instructor (planned)
・
□
□
・
Meet the instructor (actual)
・
■
・
・
Hold the training (planned)
・
・
・
□
Hold the training (actual)
・
・
・
・
Planned bars (□) and actual bars (■) are drawn side by side, and checking whether the actual bar reaches the planned one up to the current point shows at a glance which activities are on track and which are behind. In the figure, the actual bar for creating the materials stops at week 1 and falls short of the plan for week 2, so that activity is late. The ◆ in week 3 is a milestone (マイルストーン) marking when the materials are due to be finished, and unlike a bar it has no length.
AnalogyPicture a school timetable turned on its side, with tasks in place of subjects and dates in place of class periods. The filled-in cells tell you how far things have come.
How to rememberThe name comes from Henry Gantt, the American engineer who spread this chart through factory production control in the early 20th century.
Exam points
ExamThe Gantt chart shows each activity's period as the length of a bar, so you can see at a glance whether work is ahead or behind. It is distinct from the arrow diagram, which shows order.
ExamA milestone is not a process or task that spans a period, but a point in time such as the day a phase starts or finishes.
ExamProgress control (進捗管理), which uses the Gantt chart to compare plan with actual, checks whether deliverables will be ready on time and how far a delay would push back the overall schedule. Rising costs belong to cost management and the quality of deliverables to quality management.