Scope Confirmation

Solution Planning Series

Last week, we commenced a series on solution planning where we made the point that a solution approach is required when attempting to solve business problems with technology. In that initial post, I defined solution planning as a collaborative process that entails engaging with relevant business and technology stakeholders in order to determine the solution and delivery approach that is best suited for solution implementation. Here is the post on solution planning if you missed it.

We also touched briefly on the 4-step solution planning process. This post discusses the first step of the solution planning process: Scope Confirmation.

One of the fundamental questions that has to be answered before commencing any engagement is: what is the scope of work? Very simply, the scope of work is the work to be done. Scope confirmation then refers to establishing the work to be done and verifying the completeness of these from relevant stakeholders. As with everything solution planning, confirmation of scope happens at the very beginning, before solution implementation commences.

It is extremely important to involve the right business and technology stakeholders in scope confirmation. The people who do the work, understand the process, issues and objectives, who support or will support the technology should be part of the conversations. It is also important to have individuals with the authority to make decisions be a part of this process. Not having the right stakeholders in place could result in incomplete or inaccurate definitions of scope.

To buttress the point in the last paragraph, I have experienced a project where business stakeholders communicated scope items and business objectives that were only a subset of what the business needed to achieve to get maximum value from the solution. This was only discovered a few months into the project after some project resources - resource time, spend - had been consumed, leading to discontent from the project sponsor.

The entire solution planning effort, including scope confirmation, is led by a Solution Architect. The Solution Architect establishes the solution scope by asking questions to determine the vision and business objectives, and using these as material to document scope details. When properly done, the typical outcomes of the scope confirmation exercise should include the following:

• High-level requirements

• In-scope features and out-of-scope items

• Prioritization of in-scope features

• Dependencies between in-scope features

• Risks associated with including or removing items from scope

There are several benefits to establishing the scope of the solution early in the solutioning process. Having a clear definition of scope will:

• Ensure stakeholder alignment on expected project outcomes

• Ensure clarity on the boundaries of the project

• Inform allocation of project resources

• Guard against scope creep

• Generally reduce risks on the project

Join us next week for the next post in the series where we continue the discussion on solution planning.

Have you had any experience where incomplete or inaccurate definition of scope led to challenges on the project? Please share your thoughts and comments below. Follow Virtro on Social Media