Project Management Stack Exchange
Project Management Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [scope]

The scope tag is used for questions about how to effectively manage the scope of a project. Also, use this tag for scope-reduction questions.

77 questions
32
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10 answers

What's the difference between Scope Creep vs Scope Change?

Not a beginner question. I've seen too many otherwise competent PM's that don't know the difference, and I'm curious how others define it. Bear in mind, Scope Creep and Gold-plating are not the same either.
Trevor K. Nelson
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27
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8 answers

De-scope vs push back timeline vs overtime?

When it becomes apparent that your project is running behind, what considerations should be made when deciding to cut scope, push back the timeline, or ask for overtime? Or is it purely up to the customer?
CraigV
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25
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9 answers

Adding new team members to a late project

According to Brooks' Law, adding more people to a late project will make the project later (or by analogy, nine women cannot have a baby in one month). The increased lateness is due to the fact that productive team members must now invest time in…
Sean Earp
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23
votes
10 answers

Is estimating a project without basic requirements or user stories a good idea for a fixed cost proposal?

I am currently trying to create an estimate for a software proposal. In this context, we are requesting a fixed cost amount of funds. I personally lean toward Agile development practices. I, however, can not find a way to negotiate a "not fixed…
Michael Rosario
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20
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9 answers

Managing scope creep in Agile

I often get asked this question in the interview, and no matter what I answer the interviewers do not seem to get satisfied. So, they start with asking how to manage scope creep in Project Management? I usually answer by telling that the…
rosebrit3
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17
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5 answers

How can I help my project manager deal with schedule pressure?

Often the project manager in my team is under severe pressure to commit to and deliver to a particular schedule, when this looks unlikely they get stressed and this has an impact on the whole team. What can I do as a developer on the team, to help…
marcj
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16
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5 answers

Should I remove a User Story from a Sprint in progress if I know we can't complete it?

In the sprint can we remove (move to the upcoming sprint) the planned stories (mid sprint), if we are 100% sure we can’t complete them? Example given: Suppose we planned to 5 stories to be completed in an sprint. Midway the sprint we are sure one…
Lalit Singh Rana
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14
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6 answers

How do you manage conflicting stakeholder demands?

Occasionally, key stakeholders of a given project (perhaps those with organizational authority several levels above that of the project manager) will have conflicting requirements or demands of the project manager. How can a project manager…
Sean Earp
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13
votes
9 answers

What is the difference between requirement and scope?

Scope is divided into two categories: Product scope, which is the features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result, and; Project scope, which is all the work needed to deliver a product, service, or result as defined in…
CS Lewis
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12
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5 answers

Can we add more user stories to the Sprint Backlog if the requirements change during a sprint?

We are currently working on a project where we receive a lot of change requests, and the client insists that we should deliver the changes in the current sprint! Can I add the new work to the sprint backlog as a new task? Sometimes the tasks' effort…
Harish
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10
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2 answers

Ongoing Development and Maintenance: Should I break it up into small projects, or keep one open project and keep adding milestones?

I have to manage ongoing development and maintenance of a client's web domain. There are many ideas for features to add in the future. I was wondering what the best practice would be for an ongoing project. Should I keep one project open, and keep…
neildaemond
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6 answers

Managing Gold Plating Scope Creep

Although scope creep often comes from stakeholders, it can also come from project team members in the form of Gold Plating ("when technologists augment the original requirements because of a bias toward "technical perfectionism" or because the…
Sean Earp
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8
votes
7 answers

Estimating when my project will be done

Suppose my project has 150 story points of work remaining to be done. Over the last 10 iterations the team has achieved the following velocities of 16, 12, 13, 5, 14, 7, 6, 12, 16, and 14. Assume two-week iterations and a team of four developers.…
Suraj Krishna Kokkirala
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8
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5 answers

Is a project without defined completion criteria really a project?

A general direction has been set, a team of people assembled, they know what their first deliverables are, and they are off and running. They don't know what the end deliverable will look like, nor do they have a set of satisfaction criteria.…
Iain9688
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7
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3 answers

How do you set an initial duration for agile projects?

I am researching agile methodologies for my organization. My question is this: How do you prevent a project from running for far too long while using agile? You can be writing requirements while feeding into a product backlog, the dev team can run…
dbobrowski
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