In the early stages of any project or initiative, effective collaboration with clients is crucial to set the project's boundaries. This scoping process aims to establish a shared understanding of what the project will and won't include.
During this phase, business analysts play a key role. They analyze both the current state and the desired future state to create various documents, such as a business case, functional decomposition, and scope models. These documents help crystallize and capture the project's scope, providing a clear framework for everyone involved.
However, despite these efforts, misunderstandings can occur. Even after approving detailed documents, stakeholders might still assume certain elements are part of the scope when they're not. So, how can these situations be handled?
The solution lies in a simple yet effective practice: alongside defining what's included in the scope, it's equally important to explicitly state what's not included. By documenting these out-of-scope elements and ensuring all key stakeholders are on the same page, we can prevent misunderstandings and misaligned expectations. This approach minimizes the risk of differing interpretations and ensures a smoother project implementation.
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