#08 - Will / Won’t, What is in scope and what is out of scope?
What is in scope and what is out of scope?
Once I have captured the feature stories that capture the key features as outlined in my previous post:
I move onto the eighth area, the Information Product Will / Won’t.
In the Will / Won’t area, we describe what will and won’t be incorporated into the Information Product.
What is in scope and what is out of scope?
These statements set the scope boundary and high-level acceptance criteria for the delivery of the Information Product.
The Will / Won’t statements outline the scope and acceptance criteria for the Information Product, balancing stakeholder requirements with realistic delivery constraints.
In any delivery of an Information Product, there will inevitably be desired features that can’t be included due to constraints like time, resources, or technical limitations.
By explicitly identifying and agreeing these items with stakeholders, we can prevent future misunderstandings and dissatisfaction.
We often find it more valuable to identify what won’t be included, as stakeholders generally assume their requirements will be automatically met.
This area may need multiple iterations, potentially requiring the data team to undertake research to identify high-effort or high-risk features.
Involving stakeholders when deciding on exclusions ensures they understand and agree with the reasons for these decisions or the postponement of certain features to subsequent iterations.
These Will / Won’t statements help manage stakeholder expectations and concentrate the data team’s efforts to deliver value quickly.
Our goal is to ensure that building the Information Product is feasible.