This master’s thesis provides a solution for defining and tracking the scope of a project in a standardized way by utilizing measurable quantities. Quantities in this thesis mean amounts of items, for example pumps, motors or building square meters. Quantity trending system aims to solve problems in defining and communicating scope and noticing scope changes in time which were the main reasons for conducting this research. Research question of this thesis was, “How a project based firm can utilize quantity information in managing scope in the context of pulp and paper industry projects?”
Defining and tracking the scope of a project is crucial for project success. Scope acts as the basis for negotiations and planning, but it also ensures that all project stakeholders aim for the same solution and know expectations towards them. Changes in the scope during a project can lead to, for example, cost and schedule overruns. Detecting changes in the scope and possible overruns in advance gives project participants time to react and conduct mitigative actions. Problems in defining and tracking scope are very common for large projects according to project management literature. In the case company there was no clear process for defining scope or tracking it. Scope management methods in the case company were project manager specific and developed by project managers based on experience. Differentiating scope management methods between projects complicated the scope communication and disabled comparability between projects.
Research was conducted in an engineering company operating in pulp and paper industry. This research draws from a cross sectional single case study. Qualitative data was collected by interviewing project managers and engineers inside the case company. Quantitative data was collected from engineering tools and documents produced during design and implementation phases of reference projects. Qualitative data was analyzed by coding the notes from interviews under detected topics. Quantitative data was used for validating the quantity list and the solution by calculating correlation between quantities and project characteristics.
As a result of this research, case company’s current scope management process was visualized based on the qualitative data analysis. Current scope management process acted as the basis for developing the new quantity trending process. In quantity trending the scope of a project is defined, validated, controlled and saved by collecting standard list of quantities and short qualitative description seven times during project life-cycle. Quantitative way of defining scope makes the changes easily detectable and enables visualization of the scope, which benefits scope communication. Standardized format of scope enables data collection and benchmarking by making the projects comparable. Comparability between projects and the possibility to use data from completed projects can lead to more accurate estimates about scope and needed working hours for future projects. Quantity trending gives a warning about possible scope change in time if the estimates are done properly. Main findings of this thesis were that the scope of a project can be defined by using quantities, and quantity based scope can be used as a baseline for tracking purposes.
Quantity trending system is not directly transferable to other industries or companies. The process of quantity trending needs to be modified according to company’s scope management process, and the list of items to be tracked needs to be modified to describe the scope of specific industry. This research describes the steps required for creating the quantity trending system for other industries as well
