Project scope management

Question 1

Differences between Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Answer 1

• The WBS could be regarded as exactly the same as the PBS except instead of considering the breakdown structure in terms of outputs, it considers it in terms of activities. For example, if ‘Fitting Door Frames’ is the WBS Work Package, ‘Door Frames’ would be the PBS equivalent.
• The PBS could be solely used if it is more useful to the project team to visualise the project in terms of the intermediate deliverables that need to be created to complete the project. These could be for projects with more tangible outputs or where the activities are hard to express in a WBS.
• The WBS could be solely used on the other hand where the project could be better expressed in terms of activities required. These could be for more intangible outputs such as process improvement projects.
• The WBS could sit at a level below the PBS with individual work packages used to describe the activities that need to be completed to produce an intermediate deliverable in the PBS.

Question 2

Requirements Management Process

Answer 2

1. Capture
2. Analyse
3. Justify
4. Baseline

Question 3

Configuration Management Process

Answer 3

1. Planning
2. Identification
3. Control
4. Status Accounting
5. Verification and Audit

Question 4

Change Control Process

Answer 4

1. Request
2. Review
3. Assessment
4. Decision
5. Implementation

Question 5

Causes of Change

Answer 5

An omission, by the customer, in the original specification.

• An omission, by the project team, in the original work definition.
• An unforeseen external event.
• A request, by the customer, to make an addition/alteration to the specification.
• Personnel changes.
• Advancement by competitors.
• New government regulations
• New ideas being included

Question 6

Advantages of Change Control

Answer 6

• Control and reduce scope creep
• Control and reduce cost and budget overruns
• Reduce project delays
• Avoid poor quality of the project deliverable
• Assist the project team to focus on project deliverables
• Keep stakeholders informed and involved in decision making
• Enhance project manager’s ability in managing the project

Question 7

Disadvantages of Change Control

Answer 7

• Impede fast decisions as it needs all members of the change control board to be present
• May impact schedule by taking allocated resources to evaluate the change.
• Time consuming to update all documents especially when changes are coming regularly

Question 8

Differences between Change Control and Configuration Management

Answer 8

• Configuration control is about the management of the deliverable whilst change control is about management of the project.
• Configuration control manages changes to the deliverable’s baseline, whilst change control manages changes to the project’s baseline.
• Configuration control applies throughout the lifecycle of a product from concept to termination, whilst change control applies during the project life cycle only

Question 9

Configuration Control includes:

Answer 9

• Using the latest approved version of the component at all times
• No changes made to the baseline without proper authorisation
• A clear audit trail of all proposed, approved or implemented changes.

Question 10

Change Control includes:

Answer 10

• Proposed changes are properly evaluated and their impact analysed before approving or rejecting them.
• All requests and changes are properly documented to provide a clear audit trail.