Scope Management : A case that sailed the seas of change

We all hear stories about failed IT projects and how hard it is to manage those projects properly. But we hardly hear why those projects failed. Many IT projects fail because they had to live up to unrealistic expectations. A lot of research has been done about the dynamics of software projects and a great deal about the dynamic behaviour of software projects is already known. All too often we do not use this knowledge and all too often succeeding software projects goes wrong. With the northernSCOPE approach we are able to manage the scope of a software project by making sensible use of experience from the past and what research has taught us about the dynamic behaviour of software projects.

In 2008 I have written a paper that I presented at the SMEF conference that describes the journey of a project across the seas of change, all the way from idea to implementation. In this paper I demonstrate that northernSCOPE is not a complicated academic endeavour, but a straightforward, down-to-earth approach that helps the project manager manage the scope of a software project the same way explorers like Columbus managed their journeys into the unknown.

For each of the twelve steps of the northernSCOPE approach the practical steps that have been taken to navigate the project out of possible danger zones are described. For each step the underlying theory is translated to practical use to the project manager and his customer. Each time the project ran into new requests that were out of scope or added new requirements or constraints to the project, the northernSCOPE approach was used to demonstrate the effect of giving in to these new requirements and of not giving in. It is not a story of a great success with a textbook project, but that of a project that could prove all along the way to deliver value for money for the customer.

You can download the paper from my LinkedIn profile.