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About this lesson

Traditional projects often require tailoring during planning and adaptive projects require tailoring throughout the life of the project. When tailoring is required with respect to the deliverables, it will affect the project scope or quality.

Quick reference

Tailoring Scope and Quality

Because of the uniqueness of each project, the scope and quality requirements for each project must be tailored. 

When to use

Tailoring is done during the initiating and planning phases of a project.  In adaptive projects, these activities happen on an iterative basis so the tailoring is happening throughout the lifecycle of the project.

Instructions

The unique nature of projects is the reason why tailoring is needed.  A project management methodology will be based upon a hypothetical standard project, but since each one is unique, the actual project management of a project should be tailored based upon the uniqueness.  This tailoring starts at the time of project initiation with the setting of project boundaries.   The unique deliverables, the organizational context, the skills and capabilities of the project team members, and the stakeholder’s expectations lead to a unique set of requirements for each project.

The project manager and core team will need to accommodate this uniqueness within the project plan which means that the plan must also be tailored based upon the project boundaries and requirements.  The team must integrate the aspects of scope, cost, quality, resources and risk to create a viable project plan that meets the project objectives.  This includes the selection of the tools and techniques used to complete the project management processes and the areas of increased focus in the project due to project risk.

Tailoring of scope occurs during both initiation and planning.  As the project charter is approved, stakeholders have an opportunity to agree with the high-level tailoring of boundaries and deliverables.  As the detailed project plan is developed by the team and implemented, scope tailoring between tasks is agreed upon by the project team.   Adaptive project management methodologies embed this tailoring into the project management methodology.   This is done using the principle of progressive elaboration which clarifies activities in a project based upon recent project experience and results of project actions.  There are often some constraints on scope tailoring due to contract or compliance requirements.  

Tailoring of project quality is related to the project scope training.  There are quality requirements associated with each task and deliverable in addition to quality requirements on project management execution.  Depending upon project uniqueness and the required levels of precision and accuracy, different quality tools and techniques will be used.  The project must tailor the quality approach to address the unique quality issues.  The quality requirements may be constrained by contractual or compliance requirements.  One other area that often leads to tailoring of quality requirements is the implementation of lessons learned findings from both the current project and other related projects. In this case the tailoring is to incorporate best practices.

Prototypes

A concept associated with tailoring of scope and quality is prototypes.  These are a preliminary version of a product deliverable that is shared with selected stakeholders in order to get their feedback.  The purpose of the prototype is to get feedback, so expect both positive and negative comments.  Those are used to tailor the remaining work of the project so that the most important issues are addressed.  In many cases, the stakeholders don’t really know what they want until they can see a prototype.  But after seeing the prototype, hidden assumptions or requirements are discovered.

Hints & tips

  • Adaptive projects are well-suited for tailoring scope and quality requirements
  • When the requirements are uncertain, start with broad and general requirements and then progressively elaborate them using prototypes and early project work
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  • 00:04 Hi, this is Ray Sheen, and I'd like to talk with you about some principles to use
  • 00:09 when tailoring a project especially tailoring scope and quality.
  • 00:14 To understand the principle of tailoring, we first need to explain why it is needed.
  • 00:19 Projects are unique, it's right in the definition,
  • 00:22 a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.
  • 00:26 This uniqueness means that each project is special.
  • 00:29 The uniqueness could be the deliverables, the organizational context,
  • 00:33 the stakeholders and the expectations, or the project team and their skill sets.
  • 00:37 The point is, that since each project is unique,
  • 00:40 the management of that project must accommodate that uniqueness.
  • 00:44 But our project management methodologies are normally structured around the common
  • 00:49 or generic elements of a project.
  • 00:51 Even though most of the standard elements of a project management methodology
  • 00:55 may apply to most of the projects most of the time,
  • 00:58 there will always be differences due to the uniqueness.
  • 01:01 So during the project initiation and project planning, the project manager and
  • 01:06 core team members tailor the project and
  • 01:08 the project management to fit the unique elements of each project.
  • 01:12 The boundaries of the project charter are unique to the project.
  • 01:15 The scope, schedule, cost, resources, and quality are tailored to fit the project
  • 01:19 boundaries, deliverables and organizational constraints.
  • 01:23 The tools and techniques selected for managing the project will be based upon
  • 01:27 the unique capabilities of the organization and
  • 01:29 the personal preferences of the project team members.
  • 01:32 And it's quite common to tailor the project management approach to
  • 01:37 provide focus on critical risk events that are unique to the project.
  • 01:41 Let's look at the tailoring of project scope.
  • 01:44 Of course, some of the scope tailoring occurs during initiation when the project
  • 01:48 boundaries are set.
  • 01:49 The deliverables are identified and the criteria for
  • 01:52 each deliverable is specified.
  • 01:54 The entire project plan is tailored to create those deliverables.
  • 01:58 These scope boundaries are approved by stakeholders and sponsors, and
  • 02:02 sometimes they're specified by contract or regulatory requirements.
  • 02:06 Adaptive projects often start with vague or just general scope requirements,
  • 02:11 and these are progressively elaborated during the project.
  • 02:15 The scope on these projects is flexible, the schedule or
  • 02:18 cost is normally the fixed constraint.
  • 02:20 Within the project, task level scope is often tailored by the creation of
  • 02:25 the detailed project plan, the identification and selection of specific
  • 02:30 tasks or tools to complete those tasks is part of that detailed plan.
  • 02:34 This is often negotiated between the project management and core team members,
  • 02:39 based upon the strengths and weaknesses of the team and the risks and
  • 02:43 quality elements of the tasks and deliverables.
  • 02:45 There are often many ways to accomplish the same end result, and
  • 02:49 the project team tailors the project details to use the methods that they
  • 02:54 believe will lead to the best result for the project.
  • 02:57 In adaptive projects, the task level scope is usually progressively elaborated.
  • 03:02 The results of earlier activities will determine the specific work and
  • 03:06 the best way to accomplish later activities.
  • 03:09 Let's take a moment to discuss a technique that's been gaining popularity,
  • 03:13 the use of prototypes within a project.
  • 03:15 A prototype is a method of obtaining early feedback on requirements, but
  • 03:20 providing a working model of the expected product before actually building it.
  • 03:24 There is an old saying that a picture's worth thousand words and
  • 03:28 the 3D picture is even better.
  • 03:30 The customer stakeholder can get a better idea of what is being created and
  • 03:34 can then provide their feedback.
  • 03:37 And that is the purpose of the prototype, feedback.
  • 03:40 It's not a qualification test where everything is working exactly according to
  • 03:44 specification.
  • 03:45 It's a preliminary version of the deliverable,
  • 03:48 the draft copy of a report that is used to get comments and feedback.
  • 03:53 So that the final version will fully meet the expectations even if those were not
  • 03:57 adequately defined at the beginning of the project.
  • 04:00 Expect comments on your prototypes directing changes.
  • 04:04 In fact, we often have questions in mind that we want to have answered
  • 04:08 about the requirements or deliverables and
  • 04:11 we use the prototype to illustrate those questions.
  • 04:13 One of the best times to use prototypes is when the requirements are vague and fuzzy.
  • 04:18 The prototype will help the customers or stakeholders to understand the features,
  • 04:22 functions, performance, and options.
  • 04:24 Adaptive projects often plan to create a prototype at the end of each phase,
  • 04:29 iteration or sprint.
  • 04:30 And get comments and
  • 04:32 feedback that they can incorporate into the scope elements of the next iteration.
  • 04:37 The prototype evaluation will expose hidden assumptions made by stakeholders
  • 04:41 and team members and it creates data useful for
  • 04:44 the next tasks to define the quality requirements.
  • 04:47 Prototypes help us understand future scope.
  • 04:52 I just mentioned quality, so let's take a look at tailoring that on a project.
  • 04:56 Quality attributes of a project are often tailored.
  • 04:58 Now, I'm not talking about tailoring, the use of quality assurance principles.
  • 05:03 But just like with the scope discussion, the specific tools used and
  • 05:07 the specific definitions of acceptable quality are unique for each project.
  • 05:12 A deliverable can have several different attributes of quality that can be
  • 05:16 negotiated.
  • 05:17 A very simple example would be the quality attributes of a report.
  • 05:21 Details like page count, font and font size,
  • 05:23 the use of graphics and illustration, distributing electronically or physically.
  • 05:28 All of these are elements of quality and can be uniquely defined for
  • 05:33 each deliverable report in the project.
  • 05:35 In addition, different quality tools will give different levels of accuracy and
  • 05:40 precision.
  • 05:41 For instance, statistical tools are normally more accurate but
  • 05:44 they take more time and effort.
  • 05:46 So the tailoring would be to decide where in the project is the value of accuracy so
  • 05:51 high that will spend the effort for
  • 05:53 statistical tools and where is it not worth the effort.
  • 05:57 In some cases, quality tailoring must require approvals.
  • 06:01 Projects, there are compliance project or based upon a contract may have
  • 06:05 specified quality tools and quality performance levels.
  • 06:09 Tailoring those will require approval from the responsible agency.
  • 06:13 And in some cases, a stakeholder will have their own unique quality expectations or
  • 06:18 requirements.
  • 06:19 Tailoring that will require approval from the stakeholder.
  • 06:21 Don't assume they will give it.
  • 06:23 They probably have a very good reason for their demands and you'll need to provide
  • 06:28 an even better reason for them to change their expectations.
  • 06:32 One other reason for tailoring quality requirements on a project is to
  • 06:36 incorporate best practices, as lessons learned and
  • 06:38 continuous improvement activities identify best practices.
  • 06:42 A project team may tailor the quality elements of a project to take advantage of
  • 06:47 those until the formal methodology can be updated to reflect this new best practice.
  • 06:52 In addition, technology and data management tools are changing rapidly.
  • 06:56 It's almost impossible for a methodology to stay current on everything.
  • 07:00 So as new capabilities become available,
  • 07:03 the use of these can be tailored into a project as a prototype to evaluate whether
  • 07:07 they are helpful or a hindrance to the overall project management.
  • 07:12 Every project is tailored for scope and quality as part of the charter and
  • 07:16 planning processes.
  • 07:17 Be proactive to tailor your project in order to lower risk and
  • 07:22 improve the probability of success.

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