Manage Scope by Assessing Ownership

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When project ideas flow freely, managing scope can challenging. One sure way to manage scope is to assess ownership. Unless the identified owner is appropriate, that element shouldn’t be part of your project. An owner is appropriate when:

They can provide funding. An appropriate owner will fund the development of their scope item. In addition, they can increase the funding (within business case parameters) if the cost of delivering the scope increases.  If the identified owner must go elsewhere to obtain or release funds, they aren’t an appropriate owner.

They can provide resources. Appropriate owners provide capable resources for requirements, verification, and implementation of scope items. Providing new or lower-level resources could indicate a lack of dedicated ownership. Delays in getting resources could indicate that other scope items have higher priority, in which case you should evaluate whether the scope element should really be out of scope.

They can make decisions. Scope item owners can make decisions regarding how the scope will be built and implemented. While others may be involved in decision making, an appropriate owner is the final arbiter.  In instances where scope decisions affect others, the appropriate owner has the means to consult with and influence others regarding the scope element (to resolve potential stakeholder conflicts).

They defend the business need. Project constraints can require scope prioritization. An appropriate owner can articulate and defend the business need for their scope items. As the project progresses, they make themselves available to discuss required changes, and assess the impacts of those changes to their business.

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How a Project Manager Adjusts to Agile

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Experienced project managers can manage agile projects — IF they make the necessary adaptations! Here’s how you need to adjust when managing agile projects:

Ditch the Gantt Chart. Agile is a fluid production approach based on progressive learning and adapting to business priority changes. As a result, the pre-planned tasks in a Gantt chart aren’t relevant. Instead, you manage a fluid set of design, build and test activities by measuring production for the client.

Revise your view to change management. In agile, change is the norm, not the exception. Project managers need to be comfortable with continually revising scope and priority to meet client needs. Change management is not a separate and distinct control process in agile; it is inherent to the agile approach to delivering client value.  

Use a different status report format. Agile emphasizes velocity – the rate at which functions are produced and the productivity of each sprint. Your status reports should include these elements along with feedback from the end users who are using the functions the agile team has produced.

Rethink “project controls.” Project managers need to direct their efforts to eliminating obstacles that impede the agile team. Resource retention and team and client personnel engagement are paramount. An agile leader must ensure that the team’s capabilities are fully utilized, instead of managing a set of control processes that traditional project managers embrace.

Enjoy the differences! Agile’s focus is on collaboratively creating content that is most useful to the client – even when the client can’t describe what they need in detail! The benefit – and fun – of agile is that you can enjoy the discovery process and deliver capability in the shorter term!

For more on agile, check out the LinkedIn Learning Become an Agile Project Manager learning path.