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Six Constraints: An Enhanced Model for Project Control - Scope

April 8, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Scope Management, Scope Management

Six Constraints: An Enhanced Model for Project Control - Scope (#3 in the series Six Constraints: An Enhanced Model for Project Control)
By Jay Siegelaub - MBA, PMP, PRINCE2

PRINCE2™ employs “tolerances” – its term for these six constraints – as key project controls. They are dimensions of the project for which ranges of acceptability are defined, which are monitored to identify or anticipate when a plan has entered “problematic” or “exception” territory. They are needed and used at all three planning levels of a project – the project as a whole, any one stage or phase of the project, and at the detail work package level.

The Six Constraints are:

  • Time
  • Cost
  • Scope
  • Quality
  • Benefits
  • Risk

This article discusses Scope.

Scope

Scope doesn’t have the same ease of definition – ie, as normally being defined through “ranges”. Scope refers to the particular deliverables (“products” in PRINCE2™ terminology), which have been agreed to by the project’s owners. In most cases there are no “ranges of acceptability” for scope: we asked for particular items, and we expect to get them – neither more nor less. We can, however, represent scope as a range, and it might look like the following. I typically would ask the project manager to produce Item A. With “scope tolerance” I might say “I want Item A – that’s a must. if you have enough time or money left (ie, you can afford it) I’d also like you to build me Item B. But if you can’t, I can live with only getting A.” With this kind of scope tolerance, the project manager has flexibility on what is to be delivered, but within strict and agreed limits. Scope tolerance could also show up as a “negative” range as well: “I would like you to develop items C and D, but if you are running short on time or money, it’s acceptable if you don’t produce D”. Either of these situations might occur when there are essentials that the project must deliver, but there are other items which are discretionary, or can be delivered at a later date without compromising the project’s key objectives.

In the classic model, Risk and Benefits constraints don’t even exist, so they are certainly not under consideration. We will soon see the importance of the four other factors that make up the six constraints.

Jay Siegelaub has over 30 years of professional experience delivering and supporting projects in information technology, insurance systems, banking, and nonprofit strategic planning, as well as in the pharmaceutical, financial service, consulting, and consumer products industries. As a recognized educator he has trained thousands of project managers over the past 23 years, including 13 years as the Project Management tutorial instructor for the Drug Information Association.

Jay’s recent responsibilities included leading the North American Change Management and Training practices for a UK-based management consulting firm, training corporate consulting professionals in project and program management, and supporting clients in managing the “people” issues of their business change initiatives. He has authored articles on training, project management and information technology for various publications, and often presents at conferences, including the PMI North American Congress (1999, and 2004 – 2007), ProjectWorld and ProjectSummit.

In addition to his PMP® certification, Jay has his MBA in Organization Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and is an accredited PRINCE2™ Practitioner, Instructor and Examiner. He has taught and consulted in PRINCE2™ in North America for 10 years (the first US-accredited PRINCE2™ instructor), and worked for the company (and with the authors) that wrote the PRINCE2™ Manual for the UK government.

He has provided Change Management and Project Management consulting and training (including PRINCE2) to companies such as Sun Microsystems, NATO, the United Nations Development Programme, Bechtel, IBM, Philip Morris, Credit Suisse, JPMorganChase and Diageo.

Jay also consults in Organizational and Professional Development.

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