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manager is his main point of contact for any problem or issue with the project. He should
feel that the project manager understands his needs, and that he will work to make sure
that those needs are addressed in the software. He should be comfortable going to the
project manager with any problems or changes at any point during the project’s duration.
This sort of goodwill from a stakeholder can often be established in a single conversation
or an initial meeting at the beginning of the project. The project manager can do this by
blocking out time to meet with the stakeholder, leading him through a conversation about
his specific needs, and then showing that he really understood those needs. The way the
project manager shows the stakeholder that his needs are understood is by writing a vision
and scope document, and then having the stakeholder review it.

Write the Vision and Scope Document
The vision and scope document is one of the most important tools that a project manager
has; it is also one of the easiest to implement. A good vision and scope document will help
a project avoid some of the costliest problems that a project can face. By writing the docu-
ment and circulating it among everyone involved in the project, the project manager can
ensure that each of the stakeholders and engineers shares a common understanding of
the needs being addressed—and that the software must address them.

Some of the most common (and expensive) problems that a project can experience are
caused by miscommunication about the basic goals of the project and about the scope of
the work to be done. (The scope of a project usually refers to the features that will be devel-
oped and the work that will be done to implement those features. It often also includes an
understanding of the features that will be excluded from the project.) By controlling the
scope, the project manager can make sure that all of the software engineers’ activities are
directed toward building software that will fulfill the needs of the stakeholders.

The “vision” part of the vision and scope document refers to a description of the goal of
the software. All software is built to fulfill needs of certain users and stakeholders. The
project manager must identify those needs and write down a vision statement (a general
statement describing how those needs will be filled).
Many software engineers will recognize the sinking, pit-of-the-stomach feeling when, upon

seeing the software for the first time, a stakeholder or customer says, “But I needed the soft-
ware to do this other thing, and I don’t see that anywhere.” The vision and scope document
helps project managers avoid that problem by catching misunderstandings early on in the
project, before they have a chance to influence the code and send the project down the
wrong path.

When a project is initiated, the project manager should take the lead, talking to the stake-
holders and creating a vision and scope document before the first line of code has been
written. However, sometimes project managers must take over projects on which the pro-
gramming has already been started. This is never an easy situation—senior managers
don’t usually change project managers unless the project is already in trouble. But even
when a project manager has to take over a project that has already been started, it’s still a

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