Clarification Of Vague Scope Definition In Messq Project

MESSQ project is an information corporate portal with the functions of project management and corporate document circulation. It is a long-lasting project with a wide scope of work. At the initial phase of the MESSQ project, scope was fixed by a document called "Project Task". This document had 80 pages and consisted of vague and unclear definitions.

Our current principles proclaim that software requirements shall be correct, unambiguous, complete, consistent, verifiable, modifiable, and traceable. So the old style document became an obsolete document for scope management. But when we tried to modify the MESSQ "Project Task", we found out that direct transforming would take from MESSQ the cost of 100-120 hours, and this was not appropriate so completing the project would be unsatisfactory.

Our decision was to write a new software specification, which would consist of requirements in the type of software "defects" for the time being. In other words, specification was built from inconsistencies between current the software product and the project task: one "defect" -- one requirement. So we used a type of gap analysis in order to compare and document actual project performance with its potential performance. The main attention was paid to the customer's opinion on scope integrity. Writing the new specifications cost 30 hours, which led to a cost savings of 70-80 hours.

This described approach allows us to avoid risks related to vague requirements and save on cost and money. The joint work of project participants became dramatically easier after establishing the new type of specification. This document has 7 pages of clear and non-vague requirements. Consequently, working on each requirement for the software product (deliverables of MESSQ project) we met all of the customer expectations. The MESSQ project was successfully finished in time and even with a budget savings.