Scope describes the detailed projections of day to day activities in a project. It outlines the steps and process leading to the completed project. Basically, the scope shows the expected outcome. The project scope requirements are important as they keep the project time lines on track and reduce delays or mistakes in the final product. There are various ways that the project manager can ensure that the project scope requirements are met. This is done through planning, monitoring and evaluation.
The project manager must make sure that the initial scope sets realistic goals and targets. This is because unrealistic expectations will lead to wastage of financial and human resources. The project may also be under funded because of inaccurate projections. The project manager must then make sure that the duties are allocated to the people with the ability to execute them. Once this is done, the manager must put in place measures to ensure that each participant has clearly outlined targets. Their role is to determime whether this targets are met. This evaluation can also lead to an ammendment of the scope once some challenges are identified. Finally, the project manager must keep communication lines open among the different departments in the project (Whitaker, 2016).
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A potential ethical dilemma that may arise during a project is the unequal distribution of men and women. The presence of women in a male dominated project will attract a lot of attention towards the woman. This kind of situation often leads to two scenarios. The first is favoritism. The women may be assigned smaller amounts of work or even given lighter chores. This will lead to disgruntled team members as the men will do more work for the same amount of money. The second scenario that may unfold is belittlement. The men may disregard the women and therefore make their work environment unpleasant. This may include verbal abuse and sexual harassment. Such a situation may quickly escalate into open hostility (Too et al., 2017).
To avoid or mitigate against such a situation, the project manager must lay out the acceptable terms and conditions governing professional conduct. Offenders must be punished and repeat offenders excused from the project. The entire team must also be aware of the requirements needed to keep the project civil. This ethical dilemma must not be compromised by personal attitudes and cultural inclinations. It must comply with the professionalism standards of the project completely (Crawford, 2014).
A project manager must evaluate every request for scope change based on its merit. This is because change may be requested for various reasons. A customer may request for changes due to their newly developed interest in a certain feature. Workers may also request change to improve their working conditions. The sponsor may also request change in order to facilitate variances in his cash flow. All these changes must be carefully considered because they may lead to a reduction in productivity. This may also alter the pre set time lines and affect the projected date of completion (Pheng, 2018).
The approach is used to address change requests from any of the stakeholders will be based on respect and professionalism. Each change request will be approved or denied after its merit has been established. The change will also be explained in the bigger picture of how it will affect the entire project. Upper management may be handled differently if the changes required are supported and financed by the customer. Other considerations include changes instigated by legal restrictions or disputes that have arisen in the work place. In a nutshell, the overall process of change must be in the best interest of the project.
References
Crawford, J. K. (2014). Project management maturity model . Auerbach Publications.
Pheng, L. S. (2018). Project Scope Management. In Project Management for the Built Environment (pp. 63-77). Springer, Singapore.
Too, E., Le, T., & Yap, W. (2017). Front-end planning-The role of project governance and its impact on scope change management. International Journal of Technology , 8 (6), 1124-1133.
Whitaker, S. (2016). Scope Management. In Pass the PMP® Exam (pp. 91-131). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
