Here are 2 problems:
1. Mismanagement of the Scope and, 2. Have a plan to eliminate / mitigate this problem. I’m partying, “redesigning project management processes to minimize problems”, together as a plan (even call it a response plan if you like)
Well there are 2 ways to handle this. One is to declare some kind of crisis, summon your team, brainstorm or use other techniques to find a way out so that the damage can be controlled to the extent that it has. The other way is to apply pre-planned responses to situations as and when they arise, which is more in line with prevention, before it becomes a problem. This is a proactive approach versus a reactive response as in the first.
Although we have planned Scope well, we have to attend to adverse situations that may arise. A collaborative environment during planning can help here, but we need to plan for these situations.
It is a contingency plan for an eventuality in which poor scope management can lead to problems. For this reason it can also be classified as Risk. For example, in the Risk Identification process, the description of this risk will be “Cost and / or Time Impact due to poor or inadequate Scope Management. This description identifies the risk issue (poor or inadequate scope management). and mentions the likely impact on the project (cost and / time)
What are the likely causes of poor scope management? Now this is project specific and the project team has to sit down and record, in a Risk Register, all the areas within scope that could be potential trouble spots. For example, on a construction project, the customer might want you to arrange the excavated earth at a greater distance than specified in the contract, adding costs (more fuel, more dump trucks, etc.). What will your response plan be? Would you accept this risk and provide a contingency cost, or will you try to mitigate / eliminate by asking the client to hire another party, or some of those measures?
Experienced team members or subject matter experts (SMEs), whether internal or external, will contribute ideas during this collaborative exercise. It is also important to identify areas or items where positive “opportunities” or risks may arise, where items related to scope can save time or money.
Lean practices, such as weekly iterations of a large itemized plan, and micro-planning and executing activities at the level of daily items, can offer better scope control. Micro-activities planned in weekly plan and daily item list allow 2 levels of scope verification with previously created WBS. This helps to identify deviations from the WBS with a call for an immediate response.
