Practice Guide for Scoping & Planning of Large-scale IT System Development Projects
1. Purpose
This document provides a set of practices for scoping and planning of large-scale and complex IT system development projects.
2. Scope
This guide is applicable to the scoping and planning of IT system development projects with focus on the Initiate and Plan Phases of the project management lifecycle.
3. Overview
It complements the Practice Guide to Project Management for IT Projects under an Outsourced Environment ("PGPM").
This guide helps to identify areas of complexity and risks for IT system development projects of large scale and high complexity, and suggests practices to mitigate the identified risks. This guide consists of:
- Project Scoping – To determine and document a list of specific project goals, project boundaries, deliverables, tasks and deadlines.
- Project Planning – To estimate project budget, and devise schedule to come up with a project management plan according to the defined project scope.
The following key activities and practices are introduced in the guide:
| Phases | Process | Key Activities and Practices |
|---|---|---|
| Initiate | Assess Project Complexity | a. Conduct Complexity Assessment b. Assess Complexity Assessment Areas |
| Identify and Document Stakeholders’ Involvement | a. Conduct Preliminary Stakeholder Analysis b. Define Roles and Responsibilities c. Ensure Business Stakeholders’ Early Involvement d. Identify and Involve External Stakeholders |
|
| Perform Scoping and Planning Activities | a. Define Project Scope b. Elicit High-Level Requirements c. Estimate Project Effort and Resource d. Conduct Project Decomposition and Requirements Grouping e. Prioritise Sub-Projects f. Develop High-Level Project Schedule g. Define Sourcing Strategy h. Estimate Project Budget |
|
| Plan | Refine Preliminary Estimates and Findings | a. Refine Project Scope b. Refine Sub-Project Grouping c. Refine Project Effort and Resource Estimation d. Refine Project Schedule e. Refine Project Budget |
| Prepare Project Management Plan | a. Define Issue Management and Escalation Process b. Define Communications Management Process |
