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Project Boundaries Essay

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Essay: The Importance of Planning Project Boundaries

By: Camila Ferrari - 09175130

1 - Introduction:

“Project management is a series of activities embodied in a process of getting things done” (Cleland, 2007, p.51). What stages would be involved on defining the ‘series of activities’ and what needs to be ‘done’? Would a complete definition of the project and its boundaries be directly linked to the project success?

This essay will critically analyze the following statement: “The First step in making project management work must be a complete definition of the boundaries across which the project management must interact” (Kezner, 2009 p 381) by: detailing the importance of planning, the importance of defining boundaries, and …show more content…

Illustrating this definition I quote: Mochal (2004) with the following example: if you think scope as a box, boundaries will be used to define the size, shape the characteristics of the box, and the requirement would fill up the inside of the box.

Project Managers will obtain a holistic view of the project and the detailed definition of project boundaries will integrate and enable consideration of technical organization, personnel and marketing objective in the project, in other words all aspects around the project. (Cleland 1994)

The Boundaries of the project are measurable and auditable, and it is closely linked to project objectives. Defining Project boundaries should indentify the project ‘domains’ and provide a clear understanding of what belongs to the project and what doesn’t, for example, team, resources available, timeframes, departments involves, other projects involved, the area of the project and etc. Project Managers will then, have a clear definition of the project’ limits and a clear understanding of its interaction and relationship with other projects. (McDonnel 2010)

The clear definition of the project boundaries will prove to be important for all phases of the project management, such as: managing and controlling the

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