CHAPTER 5
Project Scope Management
In this chapter, you will
• Understand the six project management processes in the Project Scope Management knowledge area
• Identify the inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs defined in the six processes in project scope management
• Identify key concepts and tailoring consideration for project scope management, as well as the key roles
• Identify the purpose and elements of a work breakdown structure (WBS) for both product and project scope
• Understand project scope management for agile/adaptive projects, including the use of prototypes
Project scope encompasses the entirety of all work that needs to be done in a project to bring the deliverables of the project to life. The Project Scope Management process group is responsible for identifying all the work the project team must accomplish in order for the project to be successful. It is in this process group that the requirements are created. Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) candidates are tested on five objectives that demonstrate the candidate’s understanding of the concept of scope creation, scope change, and scope modification during the project.
The 27 practice questions in this chapter are mapped to the style and frequency of question types you will see on the CAPM exam.
Q QUESTIONS
1. Which document establishes a collective understanding of the project among the project stakeholders and can assist you in managing stakeholder expectations?
A. Stakeholder management plan
B. Project scope statement
C. Scope management plan
D. Program charter
2. If you are in the process of defining and controlling what is, and what is not, included in the project, what process are you performing?
A. Project documentation management
B. Project change control
C. Plan scope management
D. Formal acceptance documents
3. Which statement best describes the scope management plan?
A. The scope management plan provides guidance on how project scope will be defined, documented, verified, managed, and controlled.
B. The scope management plan documents how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project.
C. The scope management plan describes in detail the project’s deliverables and the work required to create those deliverables.
D. The scope management plan is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team.
4. As you develop the project scope statement as the foundation for work your company is performing, you should:
A. Ask the project team to list the major project milestones
B. Identify any new job seekers for open positions
C. Use the resource traceability matrix in your data analysis
D. Include acceptance criteria to use as closure guidelines
5. Your contracted project is running behind schedule, is over budget, and is failing to deliver the features originally promised. As the project manager, you hold a team meeting to reinforce with all project members that all work between now and the completion of the project must focus on a prioritized list of activities. What best defines this list of activities?
A. Shortest-duration tasks
B. Requirements documentation
C. Critical-path tasks
D. Lowest-cost tasks
6. Which of the following is the process of formalizing acceptance of the project’s completed deliverables?
A. Control Scope
B. Define Scope
C. Validate Scope
D. Verify Deliverables
7. Which statement describes the purpose of the requirements traceability matrix?
A. It describes in detail the project’s deliverables and the work required to create those deliverables and includes product and project scope description.
B. It ensures that requirements approved in the requirements documentation are delivered at the end of the project and helps manage changes to product scope.
C. It is a narrative description of products or services to be delivered by the project and is received from the customer for external projects.
D. It provides the necessary information from a business standpoint to determine whether the project is worth the required investment.
8. Which of the following would you use to help clarify technical details that you were not familiar with and their impact on the project scope?
A. Experienced managers
B. Special interest groups
C. Expert judgment
D. Similar project plans
9. Your current project has produced a requirements management plan. What is the purpose of this document?
A. The requirements management plan links requirements to their origin and traces them throughout the project.
B. The requirements management plan documents how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project.
C. The requirements management plan describes how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
D. The requirements management plan provides guidance on how project scope will be defined, documented, verified, managed, and controlled.
10. Which three Project Scope Management processes use the project charter as an input?
A. Plan Scope Management, Create WBS, and Validate Scope
B. Create WBS, Validate Scope, and Control Scope
C. Control Scope, Define Scope, and Collect Requirements
D. Plan Scope Management, Collect Requirements, and Define Scope
11. Which Project Scope Management process uses only data analysis as a tool and technique?
A. Plan Scope Management
B. Collect Requirements
C. Define Scope
D. Control Scope
12. Which Project Scope Management process creates the scope baseline?
A. Plan Scope Management
B. Control Scope
C. Create WBS
D. Validate Scope
13. Your current project has multiple stakeholders representing each of the departments. In this case, who would approve the scope statement that you develop?
A. The project team members
B. The project sponsor
C. The project manager
D. The financial manager
14. What action should the project manager take when finding out the organization lacks a formal requirements management process that can accommodate the current project?
A. Pause the project and create a formal requirements management process.
B. Tailor the way the Project Scope Management processes are applied.
C. Purchase a commercial off-the-shelf requirements management tool.
D. Add requirements to the SharePoint repository as an alternative.
15. What is the project manager tailoring if he or she is deciding to use an adaptive, predictive, or hybrid approach?
A. Validation and control approach
B. Governance approach
C. Procurement approach
D. Development approach
16. Which of the following can help unstable requirements move to the point of being stable and well defined?
A. Lean techniques
B. RACI chart
C. Project management plan
D. Root-cause analysis
17. When examining the validation and control mechanisms in place for the current project, what should a project manager be looking to tailor if appropriate for the project?
A. Governance approaches
B. Control-related policies, procedures, and guidelines
C. Change control for requirements
D. Matrix management
18. Which of the following is considered a primary purpose of a project’s WBS?
A. Clarify the responsibility for project tasks.
B. Communicate with all stakeholders.
C. Define the business need for the project.
D. Detail the dates for the work packages.
19. Project management office support deliverables should be considered which of the following in the WBS?
A. Top-level milestone
B. External deliverable
C. Work package
D. Project management artifact
20. Your project requires that you hire multiple third-party vendors, and you are considering elements to include in the procurement management plan for the project. Before completing the procurement management plan, you should first:
A. Review project assets on procurement
B. Develop activity cost estimates
C. Prepare a prequalified seller list
D. Review the WBS
21. What does the 100 percent rule refer to?
A. The ratio of requirements that need to be implemented for the project to be a success
B. The sum of quality tasks in a project together with the administrative tasks
C. The presence of all product and project work in the WBS with nothing left out and no extra work included
D. The ratio of stakeholder engagement required for the project to move to the Executing phase
22. Which of the following is a generally accepted business practice used in creating a project’s WBS?
A. Structure it so product scope and project scope are easily managed.
B. Set it up to show the complete scope of the work to be carried out on the project.
C. Use it to define the management control points for each of the major deliverables.
D. Define the solution to the problem in terms of a product, service, or result.
23. Your team has chosen a user story to prototype for an area of high risk in the project. Which of the following best describes the process in which you are involved?
A. Calculating the total duration of the project from the start
B. Counting the total number of work packages in the project
C. Allocating responsibilities for the project work to individuals in the team
D. Subdividing the project work into smaller, more manageable components
24. In an agile project, who decides who will perform the work for the next period’s defined scope?
A. Product owner
B. Project manager
C. Scrum Master
D. Team members
25. Which of the following allows agile teams to see what they’ve accomplished and shows changes in scope during an iteration?
A. Product backlog
B. Burnup chart
C. RACI chart
D. Control chart
26. In developing project scope, one approach is to:
A. Describe scope in user stories
B. Determine scope through high-level infrastructure
C. Use the project’s budget to set a financial baseline
D. Include nonfunctional requirements for products, services, or results
27. You have made the decision to control risk through planning on your current project and therefore conclude that your scope management approach should be:
A. Predictive
B. Adaptive
C. Iterative
D. Lean
QUICK ANSWER KEY
1. B
2. C
3. A
4. D
5. B
6. C
7. B
8. C
9. B
10. D
11. D
12. C
13. B
14. B
15. D
16. A
17. B
18. B
19. C
20. D
21. C
22. B
23. D
24. D
25. B
26. A
27. A
A ANSWERS
1. Which document establishes a collective understanding of the project among the project stakeholders and can assist you in managing stakeholder expectations?
A. Stakeholder management plan
B. Project scope statement
C. Scope management plan
D. Program charter
B. The PM ensures that the context and framework of the project are properly defined, assessed, and documented in the form of a project scope statement. Project stakeholders should verify and approve the project scope statement.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because the stakeholder management plan has been replaced with the stakeholder engagement plan. C is incorrect because the scope management plan is an input to defining the scope, which produces the project scope statement. D is incorrect because the project charter ensures a mutual understanding of deliverables and milestones.
2. If you are in the process of defining and controlling what is, and what is not, included in the project, what process are you performing?
A. Project documentation management
B. Project change control
C. Plan scope management
D. Formal acceptance documents
C. The Plan Scope Management process defines and controls what is, and what is not, included in the project.
A, B, and D are incorrect. A and B are incorrect because project documentation management and project change control are procedures to allow the control of changes to scope only. D is incorrect because formal acceptance documents are part of the Close Project or Phase process.
3. Which statement best describes the scope management plan?
A. The scope management plan provides guidance on how project scope will be defined, documented, verified, managed, and controlled.
B. The scope management plan documents how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project.
C. The scope management plan describes in detail the project’s deliverables and the work required to create those deliverables.
D. The scope management plan is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team.
A. The scope management plan provides guidance on how project scope will be defined, documented, verified, managed, and controlled. It may be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed, based on the project needs.
B, C, and D are incorrect. B is incorrect because detailed requirements are not part of a project charter. C is incorrect because it describes the project scope statement. D is incorrect because it describes the WBS.
4. As you develop the project scope statement as the foundation for work your company is performing, you should:
A. Ask the project team to list the major project milestones
B. Identify any new job seekers for open positions
C. Use the resource traceability matrix in your data analysis
D. Include acceptance criteria to use as closure guidelines
D. Acceptance criteria are documented in the project scope statement. Acceptance criteria are also considered an important part of contractual agreements on external projects and used as project closure guidelines.
A, B, and C are incorrect. A is incorrect because major deliverables are sometimes tied to major milestones and are displayed in a milestone chart, which is an output of developing the schedule. B is incorrect because new team members are added as part of acquiring the project team. C is incorrect because resource traceability matrix is a made-up term. A responsibility assignment matrix shows the project resources assigned to each work package.
5. Your contracted project is running behind schedule, is over budget, and is failing to deliver the features originally promised. As the project manager, you hold a team meeting to reinforce with all project members that all work between now and the completion of the project must focus on a prioritized list of activities. What best defines this list of activities?
A. Shortest-duration tasks
B. Requirements documentation
C. Critical-path tasks
D. Lowest-cost tasks
B. The requirements documentation helps define the priorities of the requirements as part of the Collect Requirements process. This is where the project team determines how resources can be best used to obtain contract acceptance.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because shortest-duration tasks will give an impression of progress, but that focus may be on the wrong tasks. C is incorrect because focusing on critical-path tasks will preserve or shorten the duration but may not ensure meeting the overall contract. D is incorrect because focusing on lowest-cost tasks will help short-term cash flow but may not meet the contract or stakeholders’ expectations.
6. Which of the following is the process of formalizing acceptance of the project’s completed deliverables?
A. Control Scope
B. Define Scope
C. Validate Scope
D. Verify Deliverables
C. The Validate Scope process formalizes acceptance of completed project deliverables using verified deliverables from the Control Quality process as an input.
A, B, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because Control Scope is about monitoring the status of the project and product scope, not getting the deliverables accepted. B is incorrect because Define Scope is done early in the project to create a detailed description of the project. D is incorrect because Verified Deliverables is not a process; rather, it is an output from the Control Quality process used as an input to Validate Scope.
7. Which statement describes the purpose of the requirements traceability matrix?
A. It describes in detail the project’s deliverables and the work required to create those deliverables and includes product and project scope description.
B. It ensures that requirements approved in the requirements documentation are delivered at the end of the project and helps manage changes to product scope.
C. It is a narrative description of products or services to be delivered by the project and is received from the customer for external projects.
D. It provides the necessary information from a business standpoint to determine whether the project is worth the required investment.
B. The requirements traceability matrix ensures that requirements approved in the requirements documentation are delivered at the end of the project. The requirements traceability matrix also provides a structure for managing change to product scope.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A describes the project scope statement. C is the project statement of work used in developing the project charter. D describes the project business case.
8. Which of the following would you use to help clarify technical details that you were not familiar with and their impact on the project scope?
A. Experienced managers
B. Special interest groups
C. Expert judgment
D. Similar project plans
C. The use of expert judgment is recommended when a project manager comes across an area that is unfamiliar.
A, B, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because “experienced managers” is ambiguous, as you cannot tell if they are business managers, secretarial managers, quality managers, etc. B and D are incorrect because special interest groups (SIGs) are a possibility, as are similar project plans, but expert judgment is considered the best answer because of the technical detail that can be provided by a subject matter expert.
9. Your current project has produced a requirements management plan. What is the purpose of this document?
A. The requirements management plan links requirements to their origin and traces them throughout the project.
B. The requirements management plan documents how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project.
C. The requirements management plan describes how individual requirements meet the business need for the project.
D. The requirements management plan provides guidance on how project scope will be defined, documented, verified, managed, and controlled.
B. The requirements management plan documents how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed throughout the project.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because it is the definition of the requirements traceability matrix, not the requirements management plan. C is incorrect because it describes the requirements document. D is incorrect because it describes the scope management plan.
10. Which three Project Scope Management processes use the project charter as an input?
A. Plan Scope Management, Create WBS, and Validate Scope
B. Create WBS, Validate Scope, and Control Scope
C. Control Scope, Define Scope, and Collect Requirements
D. Plan Scope Management, Collect Requirements, and Define Scope
D. The three processes that use the project charter as an input in the Project Scope Management process group are Plan Scope Management, Collect Requirements, and Define Scope.
A, B, and C are incorrect because each contains the wrong combination of the exact three processes that use the project charter as an input in the Project Scope Management process group: Plan Scope Management, Collect Requirements, and Define Scope.
11. Which Project Scope Management process uses only data analysis as a tool and technique?
A. Plan Scope Management
B. Collect Requirements
C. Define Scope
D. Control Scope
D. The Control Scope process within the Project Scope Management process group uses only data analysis as a technique to perform variance analysis and trend analysis.
A, B, and C are incorrect because while each of these processes within the Project Scope Management process group uses data analysis techniques, they also use additional techniques; Control Scope is the only process to use only data analysis as a technique to perform variance analysis and trend analysis.
12. Which Project Scope Management process creates the scope baseline?
A. Plan Scope Management
B. Control Scope
C. Create WBS
D. Validate Scope
C. The scope baseline is an output of the Create WBS process within the Project Scope Management process group.
A, B, and D are incorrect because the scope baseline is created as an output of the Create WBS process within the Project Scope Management process group and is not an output of Plan Scope Management, Control Scope, or Validate Scope.
13. Your current project has multiple stakeholders representing each of the departments. In this case, who would approve the scope statement that you develop?
A. The project team members
B. The project sponsor
C. The project manager
D. The financial manager
B. The project sponsors or initiators drive the business need for the project, and they approve the project scope statement.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because while project team members may provide input to the project scope statement, they are not approvers. C is incorrect because the project manager has created the project scope statement and must seek approval from the project sponsor. D is incorrect because while the financial manager has input to creating the scope statement, approving their own input would be inappropriate.
14. What action should the project manager take when finding out the organization lacks a formal requirements management process that can accommodate the current project?
A. Pause the project and create a formal requirements management process.
B. Tailor the way the Project Scope Management processes are applied.
C. Purchase a commercial off-the-shelf requirements management tool.
D. Add requirements to the SharePoint repository as an alternative.
B. The project manager has latitude to tailor the way the Project Scope Management processes are applied to accommodate both formal and informal requirements management processes.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because pausing the current project to take on a different project (one to create a formal requirements management process) is not recommended, as there is no business need stated, nor is this the project manager’s decision. C is incorrect because simply purchasing a software tool will be inadequate to the task of formalizing the requirements management project; it requires a cultural change. D is incorrect because the question does not indicate that SharePoint is an option, nor is SharePoint alone a solution to formalizing a requirements management process.
15. What is the project manager tailoring if he or she is deciding to use an adaptive, predictive, or hybrid approach?
A. Validation and control approach
B. Governance approach
C. Procurement approach
D. Development approach
D. The development approach involves deciding among agile, predictive, and hybrid approaches.
A, B, and C are incorrect. A is incorrect because the validation and control approach talks about how to do the specific parts of validating and controlling, while agile/predictive/hybrid address the entire project approach. B is incorrect because governance is about the decision making, change control, and escalation approaches. C is incorrect because procurement is a process that may take place, regardless of whether an agile/predictive/hybrid development approach is chosen.
16. Which of the following can help unstable requirements move to the point of being stable and well defined?
A. Lean techniques
B. RACI chart
C. Project management plan
D. Root-cause analysis
A is correct because lean, agile, or other adaptive techniques are a tailoring approach for moving unstable requirements to stable, well-defined requirements.
B, C, and D are incorrect. B is incorrect because a RACI chart is about roles and responsibilities of stakeholders. C is incorrect because the project management plan is not a technique focused on stabilizing requirements. D is incorrect because the question does not indicate an underlying problem that must be resolved.
17. When examining the validation and control mechanisms in place for the current project, what should a project manager be looking to tailor if appropriate for the project?
A. Governance approaches
B. Control-related policies, procedures, and guidelines
C. Change control for requirements
D. Matrix management
B. This is a tailoring option to modify the validation and control processes by adapting control-related policies, procedures, and guidelines.
A, C, and D are incorrect because none are directly related to the validation and control processes.
18. Which of the following is considered a primary purpose of a project’s WBS?
A. Clarify the responsibility for project tasks.
B. Communicate with all stakeholders.
C. Define the business need for the project.
D. Detail the dates for the work packages.
B is correct because the WBS serves as a communication mechanism to and from project stakeholders.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because the WBS does not show responsibilities for tasks. C is incorrect because the business need is defined in the project charter. D is incorrect because dates are based on more detailed schedule planning.
19. Project management office support deliverables should be considered which of the following in the WBS?
A. Top-level milestone
B. External deliverable
C. Work package
D. Project management artifact
C. The effort to create project management office support deliverables is indeed work and therefore should be represented in the WBS as a work package. A work package is a group of related tasks within a project. Work packages are the smallest unit of work (typically 8 to 80 hours) that a project can be broken down into when creating a work breakdown structure (WBS).
A, B, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because a high-level milestone is a deliverable or major event to be achieved on a specified date. B is incorrect because an external deliverable is a product, service, or result delivered to a customer outside the company. D is incorrect because project management artifacts are created when carrying out the work packages in a WBS (e.g., user stories, class diagrams, Unified Modeling Language models).
20. Your project requires that you hire multiple third-party vendors, and you are considering elements to include in the procurement management plan for the project. Before completing the procurement management plan, you should first:
A. Review project assets on procurement
B. Develop activity cost estimates
C. Prepare a prequalified seller list
D. Review the WBS
D. The procurement management plan is a part of the overall project management plan, and the WBS is the best predictor of the success of a new project, including vendor assets. By reviewing the work breakdown structure before you prepare the procurement plan, it is relatively easy to determine what procurements are needed throughout the life of the project. The WBS identifies items to be procured, and the procurement plan defines the items to be procured, the types of contracts to be used in support of the project, the contract approval process, and decision criteria.
A, B, and C are incorrect. A is incorrect because you are not at the point that assets for procurement would be available. B is incorrect because you prepare activity cost estimates after you create the WBS. C is incorrect because a prequalified seller list is prepared in conducting procurements, which follows the creation of the procurement management plan.
21. What does the 100 percent rule refer to?
A. The ratio of requirements that need to be implemented for the project to be a success
B. The sum of quality tasks in a project together with the administrative tasks
C. The presence of all product and project work in the WBS with nothing left out and no extra work included
D. The ratio of stakeholder engagement required for the project to move to the Executing phase
C. The 100 percent rule refers to the premise that the WBS represents all product and project work with nothing left out and no extra work included.
A, B, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because there is no steadfast percentage or ratio of requirements that lead to project success; instead, stakeholder satisfaction is the guide. B is incorrect because the focus on just quality tasks and administrative tasks misses all the product development tasks. D is incorrect because moving to the Executing phase of a process is not dependent solely on the engagement of stakeholders; many other items are important, such as completing the project management plan.
22. Which of the following is a generally accepted business practice used in creating a project’s WBS?
A. Structure it so product scope and project scope are easily managed.
B. Set it up to show the complete scope of the work to be carried out on the project.
C. Use it to define the management control points for each of the major deliverables.
D. Define the solution to the problem in terms of a product, service, or result.
B. The WBS is the total and complete scope of work to be done on the project—in other words, what is in scope.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because product scope is the features and functions of the product. The WBS is the work performed to deliver the product and provides the framework of what must be delivered. C is incorrect because management control points are normally key review points, such as end of design, or a major management review, such as a review performed after the release of the risk management plan. D is incorrect because the “how,” or solution to the problem, is left to the technical team after the business team has described the “what,” or purpose of the product, service, or result.
23. Your team has chosen a user story to prototype for an area of high risk in the project. Which of the following best describes the process in which you are involved?
A. Calculating the total duration of the project from the start
B. Counting the total number of work packages in the project
C. Allocating responsibilities for the project work to individuals in the team
D. Subdividing the project work into smaller, more manageable components
D. The Create WBS process subdivides the major project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.
A, B, and C are incorrect. A is incorrect because the WBS does not concern project duration. B is incorrect because determining the total work package count is not a function of the Create WBS process. C is incorrect because the allocation of responsibilities is not a function of the initial WBS.
24. In an agile project, who decides who will perform the work for the next period’s defined scope?
A. Product owner
B. Project manager
C. Scrum Master
D. Team members
D. In self-organizing teams prevalent in the agile/adaptive approach to projects, team members decide who will do the work required for the iteration/period/sprint to complete the identified scope for that period.
A, B, and C are incorrect. A and B are incorrect because the product owner and sometimes the project manager identify and prioritize the scope for an iteration/period/sprint but will not decide who performs what work within the project team. C is incorrect because the role of Scrum Master is specific to the agile Scrum methodology and is only in charge of ensuring the sprint follows Scrum guidelines properly.
25. Which of the following allows agile teams to see what they’ve accomplished and shows changes in scope during an iteration?
A. Product backlog
B. Burnup chart
C. RACI chart
D. Control chart
B. The burnup chart shows changes in scope during an iteration and allows teams to see what they have accomplished, helping the team proceed to the next piece of work.
A, C, and D are incorrect. A is incorrect because a product backlog shows the entire set of work still to be done for the project. C is incorrect because a RACI chart is specific to the roles and responsibilities of project stakeholders. D is incorrect because a control chart is used as a data representation to perform the Control Quality process.
26. In developing project scope, one approach is to:
A. Describe scope in user stories
B. Determine scope through high-level infrastructure
C. Use the project’s budget to set a financial baseline
D. Include nonfunctional requirements for products, services, or results
A. In the adaptive approach, you are more likely to create a scope statement as project requirements in terms of user stories, as compared to a functional requirements document created as part of a predictive lifecycle project.
B, C, and D are incorrect. B is incorrect because the high-level infrastructure is determined as part of high-level design (HLD). Scope will drive the design. C is incorrect because the project’s budget is used to set a cost performance baseline. D is incorrect because nonfunctional requirements (speed, maintainability, robustness, etc.) are classified as solution requirements and are documented when collecting requirements.
27. You have made the decision to control risk through planning on your current project and therefore conclude that your scope management approach should be:
A. Predictive
B. Adaptive
C. Iterative
D. Lean
A. In a predictive (plan-driven) lifecycle, the three major constraints (scope, schedule, and cost) are determined ahead of time, and not just at a high level, but in detail. This is where the high-level planning is done for the entire project, but the detailed planning is done only for the work that needs to be done soon. In a plan-driven life-cycle, the detailed scope of the project is determined right from the start.
B, C, and D are incorrect. B and C are incorrect because the adaptive lifecycle is based upon the iterative and incremental process models and focuses upon adaptability to changing product requirements and enhancing customer satisfaction through rapid delivery of working product features and client participation. D is incorrect because lean is also an adaptive lifecycle approach and controls risk through rapid delivery of small amounts of working product.