Why is scope so important?
Anyone who has ever completed a project will surely have tales of how scope changes have had a negative overall effect. Scope change is bound to happen and is expected in most cases, but the goal is to keep your scope as focused as possible in hopes of creating as straight of a line to you and your client's goal as possible. Thomas Cutting of The Project Management Hut had this example: "My father is semi-retired, which means he would rather be working than sitting around. He now drives a tractor for a potato farm in western New York State. In order to plow a straight line he focuses on a point at the far end of the field and aims for it. One time he finished a row and found that the point he had picked was the head of a duck that was walking back and forth along the edge of the field. Needless to say, that row was not even close to straight. If you allow your scope to waddle back and forth your project will experience similar consequences." (17) If a projects scope is clearly identified and properly associated to the resources, time and budget throughout the project lifespan the likelihood for success is greatly improved. Allowing your scope to move around like a ducks head may get you to your goal eventually, but not very efficiently. Going deeper reveals that scoping can be broken down to 5 step by step components to guide you through the process smoothly. These components are project initiation, scope planning, scope definition, scope verification, and scope change control (17).