Project scope management is a critical part of any team’s project management plan, no matter what combination of methodologies or techniques it uses. But of course, it’s one thing to say that your scope needs to be managed, and another to actually manage it. Management is an art, science, and skill, and it can be very difficult for managers, seasoned or green to handle.
Thankfully, this is the 21st century, and just as advancements in technology have made projects able to get larger and more complicated, they’ve also helped facilitate the creation of software specifically designed to assist in setting up and managing projects of all kinds. Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the features that project managers could use to help them manage scope, and software available to them to help them do just that.
Project Scope Management Components
Project scope management is all about defining, controlling, and monitoring the boundaries of a project. That can be an overwhelming task, with many components to it.
Projects need a few foundational documents, such as a project scope statement, and project charter in order to define its high-level scope, primary objectives, boundaries, and expected deliverables. While this can be created easily enough using word processing software like Microsoft Word, ensuring the most important parts of these are easily accessible is important, and a project management suite that allows for their constant communication would be beneficial.
The WBS, or Work Breakdown Structure is the meat of project scope management, and where software can really help alleviate the burden of making one by hand. Project managers must break the project down into more manageable components, splitting each chunk into smaller and smaller tasks until they are easily categorized and assigned. Once done, these work packages have to be organized based on several characteristics, like what has to be completed before they can be worked on, with the project manager carefully assigning employees to each task, or assigning them to teams first.
Even once the work has been determined, workers assigned, and deadlines set, project managers still have to manage the scope of the project by ensuring that it doesn’t creep too wide while the project is actively being worked on. Project management software can really help with this by not only offering managers a detailed schedule of who is working on what, and when, but also by providing a formal interface for requesting and approving changes for authorized users, something easily managed through the software.
Finally, good software for scope project management provides lots of quality charts and visuals for sharing with stakeholders. Meetings are common in Agile development, and stakeholders need to be able to see data clearly. Good software can offer many ways to visualize the project and export this data for use in presentations and reports.
Project Management Software
Alright, with all that said, we have a pretty good idea of what sort of features would be helpful in project management software for aiding with scope management. Communication between team members and managers, workload management, task breakdowns, and charts are all useful features common in project management software. Below are just a few examples of feature-rich software that could be used to assist managers, available on a variety of platforms.
Wrike
[Figure 1]
Wrike is a project management platform that goes beyond just scope management, it’s got plenty of features in that department too. It offers a clean and modern interface for creating and viewing Gantt charts, workload charts for allocating and adjusting task distribution, a work breakdown for easily viewing how much work each task entails, and how much each task is split up in order to be tackled. These and many more features make it a respectable entry in this list.[2]
Wrike’s clean and appealing user interface is easy to use and integrates features across all fields that would be involved in a project, no matter what size. In addition to the features natively offered by the application, it also includes support for external apps, allowing you to more easily automate tasks by integrating all sorts of other third-party applications.
Wrike also attempts to be usable anywhere by offering both mobile and desktop apps, for Windows and Mac, Android and iOS, so that your team is never without the tools they need to succeed. Having been given numerous awards in business, Wrike is quickly rising to become a major competitor in the field of project management software.[2]
Microsoft Project
[Figure 2]
Microsoft Project is a veteran in project management, having originally been designed for DOS in 1984, and Windows releases since 1990. Its age and the support of the software giant that maintains it have allowed it to accrue a sizable user base. Perhaps that’s why its official website is just part of the main Microsoft domain, and barely bothers to advertise features within it- it’s Microsoft’s software that everyone uses, isn’t that good enough for your team?
Well, regardless of whether or not it is, it offers many of the features standard to project management software. Project offers Gantt charts, kanban boards, roadmaps, a resource management interface, and a built-in communication platform. Microsoft Project has remained popular for a reason and continues to be a top choice for project managers.
Trello
[Figure 3]
Trello might be a bit of a surprise for those familiar with it to see here, as it doesn’t offer features anywhere near the scale of some of the others listed in this post. But it’s an honorable mention nonetheless, powering many smaller teams or even so projects, no matter the methodology utilized.
Trello boards are similar to Kanban boards, offering a quick and simple way to break down tasks over multiple phases, assigning deadlines and team members to them as you go. They quickly show anyone viewing them what work remains to be done and if any administrative approval needs to be given before work can continue on any particular tasks.[5]
While it may be small and simple, Trello works best for such projects that don’t have large worker bases or large quantities of work to be done.
References
[1] Figure 1. (n.d.). Wrike. https://web-static.wrike.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,quality=80,width=728,dpr=1/tp/storage/uploads/c7c279c7-94e0-454e-8daa-c245345a61ed/product-screenshot-gantt-chart-table-creative-team-new-header.png
[2] Project management software features by Wrike. Wrike. (n.d.). https://www.wrike.com/features/
[3] Figure 2. (n.d.). Microsoft. https://cdn-dynmedia-1.microsoft.com/is/image/microsoftcorp/Blade006_Plan-project_830x675_x2?resMode=sharp2&op_usm=1.5,0.65,15,0&wid=1920&qlt=100&fmt=png-alpha&fit=constrain
[4] Figure 3. (n.d.). Trello. https://trello.com/teams/product
Figure not embedded as an image
[5] Trello brings all your tasks, teammates, and tools together. Trello. (n.d.). https://trello.com/
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