HI5029: IS Project Management

To develop a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, Holmes Software Technologies engaged the SCRUM methodology which is a project management framework using the Agile principles, adaptive, iterative, and flexible. But while other project management approaches tend to see lower project scope changes, the gained popularity of SCRUM projects, e.g. including ERP projects, has raised the scope changes themselves more. This has caused some of the clients to raise concerns about how often changing the scope of the project may affect the projected results that the project is expected to produce, primarily regarding time, cost, and resource management. This report attempts to clarify these concerns by studying scope change management methods used on SCRUM projects. The objective of this report is to present a comprehensive review of the literature on scope management in SCRUM, explore the problem of frequent scope changes, and recommend best practices for scope control. ERP solutions are the focus due to the fact the complexity of these systems can lead to scope adjustments. One of the main purposes of this report is to present concrete advice and recommendations for Holmes Software Technologies to reduce the risks that arise with changes in the scope of its ERP project. Utilizing existing research and practices this report hopes to offer a road map by which to control project scope while retaining the flexibility that SCRUM offers.

Literature Review

Overview of Agile and SCRUM

Software development practices popularly referred to as agile project management are a way of life based on flexibility, collaboration, and fast delivery. Traditional Waterfall methods differ from Agile methods in that Agile methods allow a team to deal with change in requirements while traditional which support the same team to succeed but not in the case of change in requirements. The other most popular agile framework is SCRUM which uses iterated cycles called sprints. The agile framework is iterative and incremental in this model delivery of the software is in increments known as sprints (Akhtar et al, 2022, p81(2)). We have to stand up in the morning on SCRUM and then we sprint review them at the end of the week and everybody’s self-organizing. This will run in a loop a feedback rule, a success factor of the SCRUM rule. Customer interaction coupled with software, works best on scope, all in an extroverted way, SCRUM will concentrate on this. For the SCRUM project, the scope is big enough, flexible, and big adjustment.

Scope Management in SCRUM vs. Traditional Methods

The traditional project management methods are linear and predictable project planning that involves that is designed to achieve a fixed scope within the defined time and budget achievable set of objectives (Gemino et al, 2021, p2(8)). Since any scope changes can trigger major upheavals in the whole scheduling of the project, these procedures discourage any scope change in all but the earliest stages of the development project. An inverted view of this is that SCRUM allows for changing project scope at any given time. Operation with this much flexibility in a largely dynamic environment poses a tremendous challenge to scope management, however, it is essential to the operation. The product backlog is always increasing in the SCRUM new requirements come and customer feedback. This means going to have scope changes and they need to be handled well to meet time or budget. Compare this to where lock scope early with traditional methods, and here we are always reprioritizing and adjusting, which can become scope creep if not watched carefully.

Challenges of Managing Scope in SCRUM

The dynamic nature of SCRUM projects makes managing scope inherently more difficult than in a traditionally managed environment, where a heavily process-based way of working remains the norm (Baxter & Turner, 2023, p1255(1)). It is one of the major concerns that the customer requirement changes so often. Since SCRUM is all about feedback, project teams constantly have to be ready to react to new features or changes in every sprint cycle. Such flexibility can also create a scope creep for the project where the project will increase progressively outside its initial goals. This second challenge is finding the correct balance between flexibility and the requirement to deliver on time and budget. SCRUM enables changes but the change must not deteriorate the project. In SCRUM, strong project management, development team, and stakeholder interrelationships are necessary to make scope changes carefully considered and assessed before a change.

Scope Creep in SCRUM Projects

Scope creep is when a project scope expands continuously with no changes to time cost or resources it is adversely related to the success of the software projects (Althiyabi & Qureshi, 2021, p48(1)). It’s a bad thing when working with scope creep in the SCRUM methodology because it’s iterative. A lot of times, the sprint review adds new requirements to be accomplished, and the backlog becomes unmanageable. For example, add in new modules or features that weren’t initially part of the original plan in an ERP project like the one Holmes Software Technologies is working on. It’s flexible but potentially more delays, more costs, and worse products, cannot be measured or verified. This must be prevented by having the SCRUM team with a clear and prioritized product backlog and committing to changes that are closely aligned with the project objectives.

Impact of Frequent Scope Changes on Project Outcomes

An issue faced in SCRUM projects is change in scope, which can materially affect project outcome time, cost, and resource allocation. The more work you need to work into the sprint cycle, the more you have to work into the scope of the sprint, and the risk of delaying the work increases. For instance, a change, regardless of its size, may create a wave of change in the project for ERP projects with systems that have many interrelated components. It’s another major concern. Adding increased labor costs usually happens because teams take more time to develop and test new features with frequent changes. Also, scope changes can often require more resources, resources as new software tools or hardware. It also becomes important for each change made by the SCRUM team to conduct a survey and evaluate that the scrum has improved the score of knowledge sharing and collaboration (Bhavsar et al, 2020, p843(1)).

Role of Product Backlogs in Managing Scope

SCRUM is based on a product backlog, which is an important element contributing to managing project scope, product backlogs, sprint backlogs, and product increments are the core scrum artifacts and they are visible results, i.e., the value of entire team works (Grebi?. & Stojanovi?, 2021, p42(3)). A backlog is a dynamic list of features, enhancements, and fixes that the team needs to get involved with over the life of the project. The team works before other teams are permitted to pull to prioritize based on stakeholder input and business value, focusing on the 1st most important features first. Scope management is using the product backlog to control new requirements entering your system flow of new requirements. Regularly updating the backlog and keeping it well prioritized allow a project manager to keep track of scope changes and if they take place, to do so efficiently. Especially in ERP projects, not being able to maintain control over scope is dangerous, since it will mean that the system cannot be delivered according to the client’s needs while staying within time and budget constraints.

Sprint Planning and Scope Control

Sprint planning is another major tool that SCRUM has, and it starts working with the backlog items based on their priority (Zayat & Senvar, 2020, p10(3)). Before each sprint, the project team meets to look over the product backlog and determine what tasks can be combined in the following one. The other way is it will not let the scope creep and will only have a manageable number of tasks. It's also a moment to keep track of those fresh new requirements along with any changes that perhaps occurred since the last sprint planning. With SCRAM you have much more control of the scope of your project by breaking it into short terms that you can manage. If there are so many high-priority tasks for which the teams concentrate during each sprint the project will be able to react to changes but not drown.

Client Involvement and Expectations

In SCRUM projects, Client involvement has to work, but it does not have to be scope-changing requirements and it identified that the system is suitable for the intended development as the user's expectations (Ahmad 2020, p7(11)). The SCRUM gives the stakeholders frequent communication with the development team, at the end of a sprint process, the clients can add, change, and use the product the way they want. This is important though, since it allows us to understand what the client's needs are, but if not handled properly, you are left trying to fulfill random changes in scope all the time. Controlling the clients’ expectations is controlling the scope. The project manager needs to tell the clients what negative changes would cost and compensate the clients in dollars if the new or newly changed features are added to the project. The product backlog of a SCRUM team that has prioritized its products can deal with changes in scope driven by the client and set realistic expectations.

Techniques to Handle Scope Changes in SCRUM

There are several techniques to control the scope changes in the SCRUM Projects. Maintaining a clear prioritized product backlog is one of the most important. Regular review and updating of the backlog will make certain that project managers prioritize the most important tasks first and delay less important changes to come in future sprints. Another way of achieving this is with time boxing. SCRUM teams limit scope creep by restricting the amount of time allotted to each sprint of their projects. Timeboxing tricks the teams into focusing on completing the most important tasks in the allocated time and staying focused away from putting new features or changes in mid-sprint. These techniques this type of techniques are implemented on practical tools like scheduling, to-do lists, and timeboxing can help structure and optimize the usage time (Yadav et al, 2023, p6(8)). Managing scope changes requires finally, regular communication with stakeholders. SCRUM teams also help to manage scope changes by being able to keep clients on notice regarding the progress of the project and the change of its outcome.

Recommendations for Managing Scope in ERP Projects

Managing the scope of an ERP project requires an even higher complexity because of the complexity of systems to be managed in these projects. One can recommend from the literature how to manage scope changes in those types of projects. Before the project can stay on track though, there first needs to be a development of product backlog in a controlled state. Project managers can keep scope change from disrupting the overall project plan at all by making sure they deliver the most critical things first, and that scope change goes through sprint planning. Carefully choosing which tasks to start in the sprint prevents teams from letting scope creep lead them into being over budget and behind on time. And that’s where you need to communicate regularly with stakeholders to manage expectations and stay away from scope changes. To avoid this, the SCRUM teams involve the clients in the review of Sprint and also let them know how the change will affect the scope because the SCRUM Teams are working on a single product backlog to build an integrated increment that meets a goal (Wi?ska & D?browski, 2020, p106(1)).

Discussion

Methods to Handle Scope Changes in SCRUM

This paper overviews a relationship between change management techniques and agile project management approaches, regarding the transcription of scopes managed by the SCRUM. This part underlines the importance of stakeholder management concerning handling scope change issues via the product backlog. The product backlog is a never-exhaustive list of activities a team performs, scheduled according to the business value and feedback from its users. This is useful for project managers who can then group work making sure that urgent changes occur with each cycle while less urgent changes are done later in successive cycles. Another thing associated with the management of scope is sprint planning. In the planning session, the working team or scrum master decides on which backlog item should be delivered in the next sprint, thus controlling the scope creep. It also makes the degree of SCRUM more manageable as these tasks are broken down into smaller frequent cycle steps change is thus easier to make without having a steep effect on the project. SCRUM is also important for changes of scope within SCRUM. Sprint reviews are beneficial as they let the stakeholders get a word in and ask for change, but if performed sloppily, it may result in scope creep. Appropriate management of stakeholders is capable of ensuring that organizational goals are met by SCRUM teams to do the project without the need to add or change the project’s scope.

Challenges in SCRUM Scope Management

The second research question, this paper has demonstrated that, though SCRUM which is a software development framework- is helpful in the management of the scope of ERP projects, there are many difficulties in the adoption of the framework. The advantage of Scrum is that feedback and collaboration as much as possible, therefore there will be scope changes and scope creep. This should however be possible achievable with the summative deadlines and the budget which in most of the complex ERP projects are crucial to be met. To illustrate how it operates this elaborated on how minor issues can develop into major issues with increased cost and time, including if they originate with basic errors. The third topic relates to the management of the expectations of a client in SCRUM projects. Because there is often a large amount of unpredictability, a high frequency of scope changes can occur during Sprint review sessions or when a client suddenly has a new feature they would like to have included. In response to this, the project managers must ensure they do not let these client changes slide without their knowledge of how this will affect the amount of time in the project and the cost. Scope changes originate from the client side and due to inadequate communication and\/or absence of adequate reports, it is difficult to manage.

Effective Scope Management Strategies

The following strategies shall be adopted by SCRUM teams to work with the scope changes This one deals with the ability to contain some level of the product backlog and this includes prioritizing some changes and going to the first sprint and or adding/removing some changes that are so significant or insignificant and other sprints. Sprint planning helps in being good time and other resources since it indicates which task to perform during the specific sprints. Sprint length defines how much work is provided for each sprint so that a lengthy project does not run to confront issues of scope. Change in scope is also quite common, therefore communication with different stakeholders is always an issue. Such an overwhelming influence of scope definition occurs through the continuous reporting to the clients, and the changes integrated into the project. The members of the project stakeholders use the Sprint review meetings to give their feedback and make recommendations as to the changes that should be made, check on the time frame, and well as the financial needs that the project may require.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Holmes Software Technologies is adopting a large-scale ERP implementation project using SCRUM, an iterative and lightweight framework. But one must admit that managing scope creep in SCRUM projects is quite problematic because it easily undergoes some changes. When it comes to managing risks, scope is very efficient when properly managed. Four broad strategies for managing changes to scope in SCRUM include improving the prioritized product backlogs, s and ensuring that no communication gaps exist between the stakeholders. They assist in controlling the problem of scope expansion and good control of scope changes. It is possible to apply these strategies in Holmes Software Technologies to regulate scope changes meeting the overall objectives of the firm while adhering to the ERP system’s rigidity and being flexible in project delivery. This way overall organizational goals of a project are met and the changes to the scope are managed.

References

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