CPA Exam For Dummies with Online Practice
Book image
Explore Book Buy On Amazon

The scope management plan and the requirements management plan are the two outputs from the Plan Scope Management process covered on the PMP Certification Exam. These outputs have a number of characteristics you should familiarize yourself with for exam purposes.

Scope management plan

The scope management plan describes how the rest of the scope planning processes will be managed. As such, it is an input to the other scope planning processes.

Scope Management Plan. A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and verified.

The scope management plan defines

  • Techniques that will be used to define the project scope, such as product analysis or structured workshops

  • How to structure the work breakdown structure (WBS)

  • The elements in the WBS dictionary

  • Methods that will be used to validate deliverables

  • The process for managing and controlling scope change, including membership on the change control board, the change submittal process, and so forth

Requirements management plan

Any project manager can tell you that one of the most common reasons for project failure is the lack of requirements management. This is a key contributor to scope creep. Missing requirements, changes to requirements, and losing control of requirements all lead to failure in meeting project objectives. Therefore, you should establish a plan to manage them.

Requirements management plan. A component of the project or program management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.

Your requirements management plan should describe

  • How you will elaborate your existing requirements (if needed)

  • The method for documenting requirements

  • How you will show traceability

  • Relationships among requirements and methods for verification

Your requirements management plan should also contain a section on configuration management. For purposes of this process, though, you should establish a system that will do or have the following:

  • Define an identification system, such as a numbering system that allows for parent/child relationships

  • A traceability structure that tracks specified relationships

  • The authority levels to add, delete, or change requirements

  • A system to audit and determine whether the process is being used and is effective

Some projects assign a Requirements Manager to control requirements. This person is in charge of documenting, managing, tracking, controlling, and verifying requirements. In some organizations, a Business Analyst performs this role.

The PMP exam assumes that to collect and manage requirements effectively, you have an understanding of configuration management principles.

About This Article

This article can be found in the category: