6. Adding Scope Elements

Welcome to step six of the getting started guide, Adding Scope Elements. If you missed part five feel to search 5. Create a Project & Project Info Tab.

This guide pertains to adding scope elements for any work that needs to be done or tracked within your project.

When you first log in to InScope you will likely land on the projects screen. If you're not already there locate the Projects tab in the top navigation bar as highlighted below.

The projects screen contains your list of projects. As previously mentioned in this getting started guide, you can create a new projects from the projects screen or select an existing project from the list of projects already created.

Once you select a project, the project you selected will appear and you can start creating and editing your project scope.

Notice the SCOPE columns grouping contains 3 columns: ROW #, WBS and NAME. The SCOPE column grouping and these three columns are always visible on your project page.

To create or edit project scope elements, click the empty box in the Name column under your project name and type in you scope element. For example, lets call this first scope element Analysis. Once you type in "Analysis", just click out of the box or press enter. InScope will create the scope element "Analysis" and give it a WBS code of 1.

Now lets enter two child scope elements under the Analysis scope element. Add the child scope element row by right clicking the Analysis scope element and select New Child Row. InScope will create a new row under Analysis as WBS 1.1. Select the new child row you created and enter your shild scope element. For this example, type "Alternative Analysis" in the scope name column under the Analysis scope element. This will create an indented element and relate it to the Analysis scope element you already created.

Lets create another child scope element named Location Analysis. To create the 2nd child element, select the box below the Alternative Analysis scope element, type "Location Analysis", and hit enter or click out of the box. You will see both are child elements as they are indented and have been assigned a WBS of 1.1 and 1.2 in the WBS column.

Lets create two more non-child scope elements, Team Meeting and Project Work, and then see how it looks. Click on the empty scope box and type "Team Meetings". Then for the last one type "Project Work". If it put these as indented child elements, simply right click them and select outdent row. You'll know it worked because the WBS for these last two scope elements will be listed as 2 and 3.

Lets see how it looks.

Now we can add detail to your scope elements by using the DETAILS column grouping.

First, lets quickly review column groupings. You can expand the grouping to view all columns or collapse to view only the columns you want. We call these column groupings "SOCKETS". The DETAILS socket has 10 columns. To expand or collapse the details socket, click the arrow icon in the Details Socket header to the right of the word "DETAILS". You can also re-order columns inside the socket by selecting the column header and dragging and dropping the column to your preferred location inside the socket.

Lets start adding details to your scope elements beginning with type. Type is a label you can use to describe what type of work a scope element is as task, phase, stage, milestone, or action. Assign or change the type of scope element by clicking the type field next to the scope element and selecting the type from the drop down menu.

The Program column lets you assign one of you company's programs to scope elements. Assigning a program to a scope element to inherently chooses which users will be able to access the scope element or report to it based on which users are assigned to the program. If you have questions on creating a new program or assigning users to programs, see the Getting Started Guide 4. Programs.

The Status column lets you assign one of you company's scope statuses to scope elements such as To Do, Doing, or Done. If you have questions on creating or modifying company scope statuses, see the Getting Started Guide 1. Company.

The Work % Complete column provides a small percentage bar for each scope element that you can click to input what percent complete work is. Just click in the blue 0% bar in the same row as the scope element you want to edit.

Activity Code allows you to assign your company's activity code to each scope element, such as billable, non-billable, etc. Simply click in the activity code field in the same row as the cell you want to edit and choose an element from the list. If you have questions on creating or modifying company Activity Code, see the Getting Started Guide 1. Company.

Agile Scores allow you to assign your company's agile score to scope elements, such as extra small, small, medium, large, extra large. Simply click in this cell in the row of your scope element and choose the agile score that best fits your scope element. If you have questions on creating or modifying company Agile Scores, see the Getting Started Guide 1. Company.

Chargeable is a very important field, this tells the system whether users can charge to a scope element in their time sheets and expense reports. All scope elements are automatically checked as chargeable in InScope. You would want to uncheck this if you did not want employees to charge their time and expenses against this scope element. Simply click the check box in the same row as the scope element to remove the scope element from chargeable.

Notes is a field for you to enter any notes related to the scope element. Notes can help you communicate with your team and better track any follow ups or details related to your scope element. Just enter them in the notes column in the same row as your scope element.

Description / Narrative is the final field we will discuss in this guide. The Description / Narrative field provides a detailed description of the scope element. Click the edit indicator in this column next to the scope element you want to edit to enter the full background, Narrative, description of this scope element. Using a rich text editor.

You've done it, that concludes the add scope elements starters guide. As you can see all the scope elements and types, programs, statuses, Work Percentage complete, activity codes, tags, Agile Score, Chargeability, notes, and descriptions / narratives.

These will all be things that will help you track your scope elements as you are planning them or if they are in progress.

Our next recommendation is that you navigate to our next starters guide. The Getting Started Guide 7. Schedule. There we will talk about creating a schedule for your scope elements.