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5 - PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT

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PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT

Most of the material in Section 5 of the PMBOK Guide is applicable to scope management for software projects. 5
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This section of the Software Extension presents additional considerations for managing software project scope.

As stated in the introduction to Section 5 of the PMBOK Guide: Project Scope Management includes the
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processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to
complete the project successfully. This section of the Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide presents additional
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considerations for managing the scope of a software project.

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Also from the introduction to Section 5 of the PMBOK Guide:
“In the project context, the term scope can refer to:
• Product scope. The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result; and/or

• Project scope. The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and
functions. The term project scope is frequently viewed as including product scope.”

For software, product scope includes features and quality attributes that are needed and desired by users,
customers, and other stakeholders. Product scope can be used to estimate project scope (i.e., schedule, budget,
resources, and technology). Alternatively, constraints on project scope may determine product scope (features and
quality attributes). Constraints on both project scope and product scope may require trade-offs among features,
quality attributes, schedule, budget, resources, and technology.

Project and product scope determine the effort needed to develop or modify a software product. Effort is the
primary cost factor for most software projects, because software is the direct product of effort. Additional costs
may include the cost of elements such as user training, product documentation, hardware and software platforms,
and perhaps a dedicated testing facility. Team effort is also used as the basis for determining the schedule for a
software project; a project estimated to require 60 person-months of effort might be scheduled as 10 months for
6 people. Teams for adaptive life cycle projects often have a fixed number of team members and a fixed duration
for each iteration cycle; the scope of work to be completed during an iteration is thus adjusted for the duration, the
number of team members, and availability of other resources. See Sections 6 and 7 of this Software Extension for
cost and time management considerations for software projects. Although presented in separate sections of this
Software Extension, schedule and cost (effort) are closely intertwined for software projects.

Section 2 of this Software Extension presents the continuum of life cycles for software projects that lie within a
spectrum from highly predictive life cycles to highly adaptive life cycles. This section describes the common elements
of and the distinctions between project scope management for predictive and adaptive life cycles for software projects.

Figure 5-1 provides an overview of Project Scope Management in this Software Extension.

©2013 Project Management Institute. Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition 63
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