Practices for Scope Management in Change Programs

Abstract

As an organization’s environment changes, the organization needs to implement changes to achieve and maintain its competitiveness. When implementing changes, the needs and expectations of the organization’s customers as well as other stakeholders should be considered. These changes frequently include implementing ICT (information and communication technology) systems using programs and projects to support and improve the organization’s existing working methods or develop new ones, establish a new structure to capture value, realize benefits, and achieve strategic goals.

A change program’s scope describes the values and benefits that can be expected from the program, enables to limit and clarify the efforts needed from the program and its parent organization, and helps to define the program structure and resource requirements. A well-defined scope helps manage the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with a program, as it clearly describes what needs to be done, which systems, functions, and departments of the organization would be impacted, and what the magnitude of the changes is. The scope also specifies the projects and activities needed to implement the changes and achieve the strategic goals for which the program was established. Defining and managing the scope of change programs is particularly challenging as their goals may be vague, complex, and inherently tied with the parent organization. There is a need for more research on how a program’s scope is defined and managed during program implementation and how the relationship between the change program and its parent organization evolves over time.

This study aims to offer a new understanding of the practices used by program management teams to manage the scope of change programs during their implementation. To this end, this study focused on two program scope management episodes: scope definition and the management of its evolution during program implementation. In addition, this study investigates how the relationship between a program management team and the parent organization develops during program implementation to ensure the success of the program.

This study is a qualitative multiple case study, and, for its primary data, 37 interviews were conducted with individuals who managed a program’s scope at its front-end and during implementation. The results are based on the findings from four case programs, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, representing two different focal companies in the energy and telecom sectors, and different program types.

As key findings, this study presents a framework of practices a program management team uses to collaborate with an organization’s stakeholders and manage the program scope during program implementation. These practices include conceptualization, alignment, engagement, integration, decomposition and sense-making, decision-making, and benefits realization analysis. It was found that the nature of the practices changes from sense-making during scope definition to sense-giving during scope evolution. This helps align the emerging projects and activities with the program purpose and the organization’s strategic goals. The practices were also analyzed and classified based on their timely usage, the level of knowledge about the practices before they were used, and their contribution to the program’s scope management. It was found that the program management team uses practices differently based on the program type.

This study also demonstrates how the relationship between the program and its parent organization develops during program implementation to manage the program scope. The degree of engagement of a parent organization’s different management levels changed over time. The program management team established a reference group and a program’s own management office to isolate itself from the parent organization and maintain its autonomy. The program management office facilitated the creation of new knowledge and lessons learnt, which were used to improve the existing working methods and program practices and develop new knowledge to be applied in future programs.

The changes that happen in the parent organization’s context impact the program scope, and the nature of this impact depends on the degree of alignment of the changes proposed with the program’s strategic goals. Since this study focused on intra-organizational change programs, future research could study how the scope is managed in inter-organizational change programs and how the different stakeholders and different management levels of the parent organization facilitate or inhibit the evolution of the scope during program implementation.