5 Steps For A Successful Project Scope of Work

In helping you get focused, get on track, and get back to profitable growth this blog is part 7 of a 12 part series providing more detail supporting the Business Change Flow presented on my web site, Center for Managing Change.

The previous blog in this series talked about 3 Reasons For Having Technical Goals, Test Plans, and Design. Now, let’s turn our attention to what can be done to underpin those technical aspects of the change project, 5 Steps For A Successful Project Scope of Work.

All that technical specificity needs expressed in a comprehensive, all-inclusive project plan – the Project Scope of Work. This Project Scope of Work contains everything that needs to be completed in order to achieve the desired goals.

This includes how the work will be integrated into the organization and any associated organizational changes. It can include the Quality Plans and Risk Management Plans.

The scope of work is broken down into manageable chunks called work packages. These work packages include who will perform the work.

Typically the Scope of Work comprises:

1. Product Scope. The features, functions, etc., that define the process or product deliverable that meets your client’s needs.
2. Risk Management Plan. Knowing what can go right, what can go wrong, how good it can get, and how bad it can get is important information to have and these events need to be planned for ahead of time. The plans may vary based on whether you are using a traditional approach to making the changes or doing something similar to an Agile approach where the final deliverable may not be fully defined up front when the change management project begins.
3. Organizational and Enterprise Change Management Plans. In working to get back to profitable growth it is reasonable to assume that in addition to operational processes the entire organization will be impacted. Consequently, it is important to factor in the associated  political considerations. This can, in some cases, become a substantial subproject if long-standing practices are being considered for change and resistance is met.
4. Work Breakdown Structure (Traditional PM approach) or a Release Plan (Agile approach). Regardless of which approach is used it is critical to use a method that drills down to the work that needs to be done in order to achieve the goals of the business plan through a measurable acceptance test.
5. User- and Technical Acceptance Tests and Quality Management. Ultimately, it is the user acceptance test (UAT) that determines if the project has been successful since the UAT embodies the specific functionality your product or service must have to keep the customer happy and achieve stated business goals. Underpinning all this is the level of sustained quality your product or service needs to have for your customer to be satisfied.

By embracing this frame-of-mind you can be more present and aware of whether or not work is going well or poorly and gauge what, if any, changes are needed.

It is realistic to expect unforeseen events will surface both good and bad. Having this discipline, flexible approach will help the team hang together and figure out just what needs addressed when and by whom in order to stay focused, on track, and return to profitable growth.

In order to have a good Project Scope of Work a User Acceptance Test is needed. To learn more about this read the next blog in this series, 5 Tips For Creating A High-Quality User Acceptance Test.

Also, for more information regarding change management and how you can get your arms around it download my free e-book, Mindset – 5 Simple Ways To Look At Complex Problems.