A good project has a small scope

In the previous article , I promised to explain the 10 points of a good project. Below is the fourth point:

A good project has a small scope

The scope is the research area of your project. What do you include in your research and, more importantly, what don’t. To complete a project quickly, it needs a small scope. The smaller the scope, the sooner the project is ready, the sooner you can reap the benefits.

So choose to run the project not for “tig” machines, locations, products or departments but on one first. You can then quickly leverage the gains (time, money or quality) of the new process, and when you then start implementing the improvements on the other parts, you can do it much faster. After all, you already solved all the problems on the first project.

There is a law that says everything always takes longer than you think, even taking this into account. So a project you think you can complete in three months takes five or six months. A month-sized project is likely to last at least three months….

During the execution of your project, various stakeholders will come to you to bring some additional issues to your project, “while you’re at it.” Don’t fall for that! Scope-creep is the ever-growing size of your project, this is the main cause of delay and eventually not finishing a project because it has just gotten too big. To avoid this Scope-Creep, however, you will have to practice saying the following text regularly: “That’s a good idea to take up after we finish this project.”

Adjusting the scope is of course possible, provided the stakeholders think it is a good idea. This is typically something that is decided during a Gate review, after analyzing the pros and cons.

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Do you have questions about how to properly define your project’s problem? Or would you like help selecting or implementing your project? Then contact us, using the form below or call us at 053 – 20 30 240