Assignment 2
Information Technology Project Management
MGMT8770 - Winter 2025 - Section 1
Nithya Rajendiran - 9007171
Andrea Murray
Feb 22, 2025
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1. What is involved in project scope management, and why is good project scope
management so important on IT projects? (0.5 mark)
Project Scope Management creates definitions to determine project contents alongside implementing
control methods to keep projects within specific boundaries. The management approach verifies essential
tasks for achieving project goals through eliminating unneeded work. Project scope management
implements several essential processes to guide its activities. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.) (Kissflow, 2025)
Planning Scope Management - The first process of planning Scope Management involves
developing procedures which manage project scope from start to finish.
Collecting Requirements - The process of gathering stakeholder needs serves as an essential
step during which needs get both formally documented.
Defining Scope - Creating a detailed project scope statement.
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - Breaking project deliverables into smaller
components.
Validating Scope - The process of Validation Scope involves checking that deliverables fulfil
requirements along with receiving official acceptance confirmation.
Controlling Scope - The project team needs to actively monitor project scope modifications to
prevent scope expansion. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.) (Kissflow, 2025)
The successful execution of project scope management remains vital in information technology projects
mainly because:
IT project requirements experience frequent modifications that result in scope expansion across the
project lifecycle.
Project deliverables achieve clarity through this method which builds a common understanding
between all stakeholders.
The practice prevents needless work activities which results in both cost and project delay
reduction.
Resource allocation becomes more efficient through this system in addition to superior risk handling
capabilities. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.) (Kissflow, 2025)
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2. What is involved in collecting requirements for a project? Why is it often such a difficult
thing to do? (0.5 mark)
The process of requirement gathering serves to obtain both stakeholder needs along with their expectations
through documentation methods. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.) (Brown, 2024)
This process includes:
Interviews - Engaging key stakeholders for insights.
Feedback - Structured feedback comes through survey and questionnaire methods.
Focus Groups and Workshops - A combination of focus groups together with workshops allows
stakeholders to take part in collaborative discussions for defining requirements.
Observation - Analysing current workflows.
Prototyping - The development of early prototypes serves to improve requirements definition.
Benchmarking - Benchmarking provides benefits by evaluating projects that share similarities to
determine practical approaches. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.) (Brown, 2024)
Challenges in collecting requirements:
Unclear Stakeholder Needs - The stakeholders experience difficulty in expressing their needs to
system developers.
Conflicting Requirements - The stakeholder groups from different departments frequently maintain
different expectations about the project requirements.
Changing Requirements - The requirements of IT projects frequently alter because information
technology projects normally undergo development changes.
Lack of Engagement - The project experiences poor engagement from stakeholders because of
insufficient involvement which creates information gaps.
Technical Complexity - System constraints remain difficult for users to grasp because of their
insufficient technical understanding. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.) (Brown, 2024)
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3. Discuss the process of defining project scope in more detail as a project progresses, going
from information in a project charter to a project scope statement, WBS, and WBS
dictionary. (0.5 mark)
Project scope definition develops in the following stages.
Project Charter - The high-level Project Charter serves to authorize formally the project through
definition of goals alongside stakeholders and beginning requirements.
Project Scope Statement - The Project Scope Statement delivers complete deliverable
descriptions alongside acceptance standards along with limitations and basis for operation.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) takes the project scope
into separate smaller work components that are easy to manage.
WBS Dictionary - WBS Dictionary functions as a tool which details every WBS component
alongside descriptions of work together with assigned teams along with deliverables and
acceptance standards. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.)
The different steps lead to clearer definitions of project scope which enables stakeholders to verify that
project requirements match their expectations. (eConestoga Week 5, n.d.)
4. Consider the following table. All duration estimates or estimated times are in days, and the
network proceeds from Node 1 to Node 9. (3 total marks)
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a. Draw an activity-on-arrow (AOA) network diagram representing the project. Put the node
numbers in circles and draw arrows from node to node, labelling each arrow with the activity
letter and estimated time. (1 mark)
b. Identify all of the paths on the network diagram and note how long they are, using Figure 6-8
(also available in the slide deck) as a guide for how to represent each path. (1 mark)
Path 1: A → B → E → H → K
Duration: 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 days
Path 2: A → C → F → H → K
Duration: 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 12 days
Path 3: A → D → G → I → J → K
Duration: 2 + 4 + 6 + 5 + 1 + 2 = 20 days
Path 4: A → D → I → J → K
Duration: 2 + 4 + 5 + 1 + 2 = 14 days (eConestoga Week 6, n.d.)
c. What is the critical path for this project and how long is it? What is the shortest possible time
needed to complete this project? (1 mark)
The critical path is defined as the longest sequence of activities that determines how long a project will
take to complete.
Critical Path: A → D → G → I → J → K
Total Duration: 20 days
Shortest Possible Time to Complete the Project: 20 days
Time delays affecting any task on the critical path (20 days) automatically result in project-wide delays.
(eConestoga Week 6, n.d.)
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References
Brown, L. (2024, January 17). Invensislearning. Retrieved from How to Collect Requirements to Meet Your
Project Objectives?: [Link]
eConestoga Week 5. (n.d.). Retrieved from
[Link]
eConestoga Week 6. (n.d.). Retrieved from
[Link]
Kissflow. (2025, Jan 1). Retrieved from What is Project Scope Management and Why is it Important?:
[Link]
