Scoping a Project

Introduction

Project Scoping Report

Mission & Objectives

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Top-Level Plan

Project Organisation

Risk Analysis

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Lindsay Sherwin

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Scoping a Project

Implementation Issues and Risks

In spite of all the planning and thinking done, all projects face unforeseen pitfalls. Experienced Project Managers know this and will try to look ahead and predict such pitfalls beforehand and find means to avoid them.

Having planned the project in some details, the next step is to carry out a risk assessment to see how robust the plans are. The three steps are:

1. Brainstorm the Risks and Implementation Issues
   Identify the risks and implementation issues with a straightforward brainstorm of all the things that could disrupt the project - things that could cause problems when you start implementing the project.
    
   • Best done with the project team and relevant others.
   • Sometimes called creating a "risk register"
      
2. Prioritise them on a Hi-Lo diagram
   From that register, identify those that are high priority - items, which are both likely and would have a major impact.
    
   • Best done by mapping them on a Hi-Lo diagram - see below.
      
3. Develop actions to reduce the risks
   For each of the high priority items (highly likely to happen and with a high impact on the project), identify ways to defuse them and reduce the risks: -
    
   • either changes to reduce the likelihood of them happening
   • or changes to reduce their impact on the project if they did happen.