Thursday 17 October 2013

Define Scope - PM Process for a Bachelor/Bachelorette looking for a date

Define Scope for Dating


The scope is to date someone who fits your constraints like budget, time period in hand etc.

So, how do you define the scope for this process? Or, in other words, you have a vague idea
that you need a date but then there are too many requirements making rounds in your mind. So,
you need to prioritize and come up with a trimmed list that will fit your bill and can give a quick solution for the situation on hand.

As a first step, you need to clear how you will go about defining the concerned scope. What kind of person will suit you. So, you must have a plan on hand before defining the scope.

The plan anticipates all kinds of problems how will you handle those. This particular plan is called scope management plan. In our case, it is dating management plan.

The next valuable input would be to be sure about what all you need. It is nothing but out-of-the-box thinking. You think wild to come up with the most exhaustive list of requirements about your date. For girls, it might be something like having Billion dollars in bank, looks like Tom Cruise but as tall as Amitabh but then can play soccer like Beckham etc. Now, this is too exhaustive and this is your requirement documentation. It goes blah blah... very wild thinking indeed. You don't care if all requirements will be met but you just go about collecting requirements! So, (dating) requirement documentation is an input to the define scope process.

Now, your plan is ready and your list of requirements is also ready. Now, you need a roadmap. Think this to be a set of values. You  have accumulated a set of high-level expectations about your date as such and these have been passed on by the way you have grown up over a period or blame it on your friends and the books you read, videos you saw!
In other words, You vaguely have an idea of what kind of person will actually fit you. This might not be a perfect fit for the guys because we are ok with anything that comes our way! Anyway, to nail this, this input is nothing but a high-level idea of different impacts or risks, money you are willing to spend etc. This is nothing but your dating charter. It becomes project charter in PM context.

Now, you might have some previous experience - failing or succeeding in a similar context. Some people might use friends who have failed many times in such situations and leverage their experience. How sadistic? but then anything for a girl. These friends are called as consultants (yes, uncle) in project management context. These people are definitely assets. So,  in project management context, they become organizational process assets.

Now, let us derive the tools and techniques from the above process:
Expert Judgment: Whether you will get beaten by a girl if you approach in a particular way, the capability to tell that - This is called expert judgment. This might come from your friend who is full of scars or, it might be your own talent.

Product Analysis: Sorry to make the date an object but we are here with a goal. So, you spend a lot of time analyzing the product err the date. This will help you define the date better so that you are better equipped the next time you try because we don't give up just in one attempt and this is called as progressive elaboration since we get to know the person better as we put more effort.

Alternatives Identification: This is perfect for a dating scenario. You keep multiple options as backup. What if one fails to turn up, so, you always need to have a couple  of alternatives maybe a bit of a costlier option but then the goal matters rather than anything!

Facilitated Workshop: Sometimes you pull your friends, next house old man and first street uncle to understand the context and see what approach will be better. This is nothing but cross-functional team - people totally unrelated to each other sitting in one room and brainstorming just because you gave then 5 chips packet and one full bottle of scotch whisky!

Now, the output of this process (hopefully!) is a defined scope written in a scope statement. If your scope doesn't get defined here, then blame on the consultants and their so called expert judgment! Anyway, at the end of this process, you have a scope statement that has the following details:
- product characteristics: yes, guys can relate to this very easily!
- Exclusions: What features or characters you specifically DON'T want. This is too much of a specification and this is what annoys the boys because girls have too much of preferences
- Assumptions: As with anything, You assume certain things about the product and its features!
- Constraints: Too many brothers?
- Acceptance Criteria: You fairly get an idea as to what is the chance of being accepted. So, do you still want to proceed with the concerned project on hand?

Project Document Updates: Might want to update more requirements. Some more? Maybe even God would fail fitting the bill!

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