University/SME collaboration. Universities and research centres can help form so-called systems and networks of innovation.
SMEs collaborate with systems of innovation on regional, national or even international levels, dependant on their knowledge and competence needs. SMEs that innovate through science-driven R&D (e.g. in biotech) tend to collaborate with partners across the world in search for new and unique knowledge. SMEs that innovate through engineering based user-producer learning tend to collaborate with nearby partner. Here, innovation often involves the application of existing knowledge or new combinations of knowledge. Collaboration with universities and research institutions can also consist of creating of special centres in form of business incubators to support business activity for start-up initiatives, especially in innovative sectors. Please read: • Best practice of collaboration between SMEs and Universities. What is project scope? Project scope is the part of project planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines.
The documentation of a project's scope, which is called a scope statement, terms of reference or statement of work, explains the boundaries of the project, establishes responsibilities for each team member and sets up procedures for how completed work will be verified and approved. During the project, this documentation helps the project team remain focused and on task. The scope statement also provides the project team with guidelines for making decisions about change requests during the project.
It is natural for parts of a large project to change along the way, so the better the project has been "scoped" at the beginning, the better the project team will be able to manage change. Please note, a project's scope statement should not be confused with its charter; a project's charter simply documents that the project exists. How to define the scope of a project. As a project manager, you'll need to define project scope no matter what methodology you choose to use.
Defining what is needed is the first step toward establishing a project timeline, setting of project goals and allocating project resources. These steps will help you to define the work that needs to be done - or in other words, define the scope of the project. Once this is defined, you'll be able to allocate tasks and give your team the direction they need to deliver the project on time and on budget. Read more in project management Understand the project objectives In order to define the scope of a project, it is necessary to first establish the project objectives. DANGER: Scope creep. If budget, resources, and schedule are increased along with the scope, the change is usually considered an acceptable addition to the project, and the term “scope creep” is not used.
Scope creep can be a result of: poor change controllack of proper initial identification of what is required to bring about the project objectivesweak project manager or executive sponsorpoor communication between partieslack of initial product versatility Scope creep is a risk in most projects. Most megaprojects fall victim to scope creep (see Megaprojects and Risk). Scope creep often results in cost overrun. A simple tool to measure scope definition is available. See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit] Seven steps for avoiding scope creep. Nearly every project falls victim to scope creep.
Programming consultant Shelley Doll shows us seven things we can do to avoid (or at least control) this project killer. By Shelley Doll The expansion of a project outside of the planned objectives, commonly known as scope creep, is an inherent part of IT development. Scope creep can originate from several sources and is a leading cause of project failure when handled poorly. You must take measures to control project embellishment and to ensure that you and your team don’t fall victim to its unsavory results—deadline delay and budget shortage.
Fortunately, there are a number of strategies you can follow to keep scope creep from derailing your projects. Horror storyWhile working at a consulting firm, I witnessed the scope struggles of our sister company during an in-house development effort to deliver a Web-centric desktop environment to users. If this sounds like a nightmare, it was—and still is.