Activity: Manage the Scope of the System
This activity ensures that the requirements for the system are clear and establishes a manageable set of requirements work for the iteration.
DescriptionWork Breakdown StructureTeam AllocationWork Product Usage
Purpose
The purpose of this activity is to make the scope of the system being developed as explicit as possible, and focus on a manageable body of requirements work for a development cycle.
Relationships
Parent Activities
Description

This activity addresses:

The scope of a project is defined by the set of requirements allocated to it. Managing project scope to fit the available resources (time, people, and money) is key to managing successful projects.

The System Analyst role is responsible for determining requirements attribute values of priority, effort, cost, risk values etc., from the appropriate stakeholders, which are collected in the repository of requirements attributes. These will be used by the Project Manager role when planning each iteration and will enable the Software Architect role to identify the architecturally significant scenario's or complete use cases, which will help define the Use-Case View of the architecture (see Prioritize Use Cases).

Properties
Event Driven
Multiple Occurrences
Ongoing
Optional
PlannedYes
Repeatable
Staffing

The people involved in this activity should all be members of the architecture team.  The architecture team will facilitate a session for various team members to discuss how to best prioritize the requirements. 

It is also helpful for team leaders to be trained in negotiation skills and for the project to have a champion in the organization, as well as on the customer side. Product/project champions should have the organizational power to refuse scope changes beyond the available resources or to expand resources to accommodate additional scope.

Usage
Usage Guidance

This activity should be performed continuously throughout the project.

Key Considerations

Using Requirements Attributes, such as priority, effort, and risk, as the basis for negotiating the inclusion of a requirement is a particularly useful technique for managing scope. Focusing on the attributes rather than the requirements themselves helps desensitize negotiations that are otherwise contentious.