Two Major Elements of Project Scope

Defining scope is perhaps the most important part of the initial definition and planning process. If you don’t know what you are delivering and what the boundaries of the project are, you have no chance for success. If you have not done a good job of defining scope, managing scope will be almost impossible.

Most people understand what scope means, but many struggle trying to actually define the scope of a project. It is easiest if you remember there are two major aspects of defining scope on your project – deliverables and boundaries.

·  The deliverables. All projects produce deliverables. (These are sometimes called the "products" produced by the project.) Even if you are not sure what else to include in your scope definition, you should always include your deliverables. Understanding the deliverables you are building goes a long way to understanding the scope of the project. There are many deliverables that could be listed, but you should focus on the final deliverables of the project - not necessarily the internal deliverables produced as a part of delivering the final solution.  

·  Project boundaries. The scope boundary statements are used to define what is within the boundaries of the project and what is outside those boundaries. The more boundaries you can identify, the better off your project will be. You would not need to state that some aspect of the project was in-scope unless you could also contrast that with some aspect that is out of scope. The nature of a true boundary statement is that there is both an in-scope and a relevant out-of-scope counterpart. For example.  

o        The major life-cycle processes that are in scope and out of scope. For instance, your project may include the Analysis Phase only and not the Design, Construct or Test Phases. Or perhaps your project is performing research, but you are not going to develop the results. These would be examples of using boundary statements to clearly state what your project is responsible for, and what is out of scope. 

o        The organizations that are in scope and out of scope. In some cases, the organizations involved in the project help to define the boundaries. For instance, your project may be applicable to the Human Resources and Accounting Departments, but the Manufacturing Division might be out of scope. Or perhaps your project is only impacting the corporate office while the field offices are out of scope.

o        The major functionality that is in scope and out of scope. This might be a good boundary if you were delivering less than full functionality. For instance, decision support and management reporting might be in scope, while overnight batch processing might be out of scope. Or perhaps financial reporting is in-scope for your project, but Human Resources reporting is out of scope.

What do you need to remember? First - scope is defined as deliverables and boundaries. Deliverables are the things you build during the project. Boundaries are statements that describe the project in terms of in-scope and out-of-scope. 

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Define and manage scope on your project - plus much more. Get your project started quickly with a pre-built set of great project management templates. 

How to Work More Effectively

With more teams working in different offices, travelling and working at home these days, the chances are that some of your team members don't work in the same building as you from time to time. This can present a challenge: how can you work with them when you can't meet them physically?

Online collaboration tools are the easiest way to work effectively with people on a project, wherever you are. There are even benefits if you are all based in the same office space. So here are 5 tips to help you...

Tip 1: Keep all your discussions online

One of the most effective ways of working is to move everything online. Online collaboration software can help you do this, as it is designed for running projects on the web. The benefit of having all your project information and discussions online is that everyone can see the latest status at any time. You can even move your emails online into the software that you are using so that the whole discussion trail is in one place.

Tip 2: Use instant messaging

Instant messaging is great for getting the answer to a quick question, or checking if one of your colleagues is available for a longer discussion. You can archive your messaging trail securely online so that if you need to refer to it later it's there in your project files. It's faster and easier than email and once you start using it you'll never look back.

Tip 3: Share pictures

Do you know what all your team members look like? That might sound like a silly question, but if you are working with colleagues overseas or even in a different office, you may never have met them. Even if you have met them, chances are someone on your team has only ever talked to them on the phone. Upload photos to your team area so that you can see each other. It's easier to collaborate if you can put a face to a name!

Tip 4: Upload files

Stop sending huge email attachments by uploading all your core project files to a central online location. Using a document repository like this means that everyone always has access to the latest version, which can be a massive time-saver. It also means that people don't get frustrated looking for the latest copy and your IT department will be very happy that you aren't using your inbox as a document store!

Tip 5: Share calendars

It can be difficult to collaborate with team members if you don't know where they are. Sharing calendars means you can check if they are on leave or out of the office, and schedule meetings appropriately. You can also put key project milestones in the calendar so that everyone knows what is coming up without having to look at the project schedule. Make sure that you keep your own calendar up-to-date as well and include all the national holidays that are appropriate for your international team members, so you know when their offices are likely to be closed.

Using the collaboration features of ProjectManager.com is the easiest way to work effectively with your project team. Start discussions, share files, allocate tasks to each other and use instant messaging. As it is all online, you can store the conversations securely in your project files.

Take a Free Trial now.

How to Use XML File to Store Data and Retrieve Data Using ASP.Net With C#

Introduction: This article explains how to use a XML file to store and retrieve data dynamically using ASP.NET with C#.  This article will also help to create child nodes in a XML file using ASP.NET. 

Use the following procedure to create a simple application (BookStore) for storing data to and retrieving data from a XML file.

Step 1: Create an ASP.NET project add one web web form and add the following controls:

Control Id	Control	Purpose
tbTitle	TextBox Control	To enter the title of the book.
tbAuthor	TextBox Control	To enter the Author Name of the book.
tbYear	TextBox Control	To enter the publishing year of the book.
tbPrice	TextBox Control	To enter the price of the book.
btnSubmit	Button Control	To Submit the data.
gvBookStoreRecords	GridView Control	To display data of XML File

I have designed my aspx page like as in the following:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>  

<!DOCTYPE html>  

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">  

<head runat="server">  

    <title></title>  

    <style type="text/css">  

        .auto-style1 {  

            text-align: right;  

            width: 75px;  

        }  

    </style>  

</head>  

<body>  

    <form id="form1" runat="server">  

        <div>  

            <br />  

            <table style="width: 100%;">  

                <tr>  

                    <td class="auto-style1">Title:</td>  

                    <td>  

                        <asp:TextBox ID="tbTitle" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>  

                    </td>  

                </tr>  

                <tr>  

                    <td class="auto-style1">Author:</td>  

                    <td>  

                        <asp:TextBox ID="tbAuthor" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>  

                    </td>  

                </tr>  

                <tr>  

                    <td class="auto-style1">Year:</td>  

                    <td>  

                        <asp:TextBox ID="tbYear" runat="server"></asp:TextBox> 

                    </td>  

                </tr>  

                <tr>  

                    <td class="auto-style1">Price:</td>  

                    <td>  

                        <asp:TextBox ID="tbPrice" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>  

                    </td>  

                </tr>  

                <tr>  

                    <td class="auto-style1"> </td>  

                    <td>  

                        <asp:Button ID="btnSubmit" runat="server" Text="Submit"  />  

                    </td>  

                </tr>  

            </table>  

            <asp:GridView ID="gvBookStoreRecords" runat="server" CellPadding="4" ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None">  

                <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" ForeColor="#284775" />  

                <EditRowStyle BackColor="#999999" />  

                <FooterStyle BackColor="#5D7B9D" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />  

                <HeaderStyle BackColor="#5D7B9D" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />  

                <PagerStyle BackColor="#284775" ForeColor="White" HorizontalAlign="Center" />  

                <RowStyle BackColor="#F7F6F3" ForeColor="#333333" />  

                <SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#E2DED6" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="#333333" />  

                <SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#E9E7E2" />  

                <SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#506C8C" />  

                <SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#FFFDF8" />  

                <SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#6F8DAE" />  

            </asp:GridView>  

        </div>  

    </form>  

</body>  

</html>

And as in the code above I designed the page as in the following:

Step 2: Add an XML file within the project solution, provide it the name BookStore.xml. Create a root node in it as in the following:

<?xmlversion="1.0"encoding="utf-8"?>  

<bookstore>  

  

</bookstore>

  

Step 3: On the click event of the btnSubmit (Button that we have placed at aspx page) write the following code:

protected void btnSubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{  

    // creating object of XML DOCument class  

    XmlDocument XmlDocObj = new XmlDocument();  

    //loading XML File in memory  

    XmlDocObj.Load(Server.MapPath("BookStore.xml"));  

    //Select root node which is already defined  

    XmlNode RootNode = XmlDocObj.SelectSingleNode("bookstore");  

    //Creating one child node with tag name book  

    XmlNode bookNode = RootNode.AppendChild(XmlDocObj.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "book", ""));  

    //adding node title to book node and inside it data taking from tbTitle TextBox  

      

    bookNode.AppendChild(XmlDocObj.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "Title", "")).InnerText = tbTitle.Text;  

    //adding node Author to book node and inside it data taking from tbAuthor TextBox  

    bookNode.AppendChild(XmlDocObj.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "Author", "")).InnerText = tbAuthor.Text;  

    //adding node Year to book node and inside it data taking from tbYear TextBox  

    bookNode.AppendChild(XmlDocObj.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "Year", "")).InnerText = tbYear.Text;  

    //adding node tbPrice to book node and inside it data taking from tbPrice TextBox  

    bookNode.AppendChild(XmlDocObj.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "Price", "")).InnerText = tbPrice.Text;  

  

    //after adding node, saving BookStore.xml back to the server  

    XmlDocObj.Save(Server.MapPath("BookStore.xml"));  

  

    //Calling grid view binding method.  

    gridDataBind();  

}  

Step 4: Create a gridDataBind Method to retrieve the data from the XML file:

public void gridDataBind()    

    {    

        DataSet ds = new DataSet();    

        //reading data from the BookStore.xml...    

        ds.ReadXml(Server.MapPath("BookStore.xml"));    

        //Adding dataset ds as a datasource of the grid view...    

        gvBookStoreRecords.DataSource = ds;    

        //binding data with grid view...    

        gvBookStoreRecords.DataBind();    

    }

     

Step 5: Now run the project and you will see the following outputs:

1.  When the project loads the first time then:

After adding some data: