Clearly defining your project’s scope helps to effectively manage stakeholder expectations and ensures that all of the project’s elements are aligned with the objectives — increasing the chances of success. Here’s what you need to know about defining project scope.

Project scope is a detailed outline of all aspects of a project, including all related activities, resources, timelines, and deliverables, as well as the project’s boundaries. A project scope also outlines key stakeholders, processes, assumptions, and constraints, as well as what the project is about, what is included, and what isn’t. All of this essential information is documented in a scope statement.

The project scope statement is a key document that provides all stakeholders with a clear understanding of why the project was initiated and defines its key goals. Most project scope statements will include these elements.

Properly defining the scope of a project is the key to successfully managing your project. Here are the steps you can follow to define your project scope.

Let’s say you are a project manager defining the scope for a content marketing project. A very simple project scope statement might include the following.

This content marketing project is being undertaken for XYZ company for the purpose of creating an article to be posted on their site to create brand awareness.

This project will include research, content strategy, writing the article, and publishing it on XYZ’s website under the XYZ blog. It will also include sharing the article on social media for the month of April 2020. All activities will be conducted by Joe Smith of ABC company.

Project deliverables will include one well-researched written article of up to 1,000 words to be delivered by email to [email protected] no later than ___ date.    

Jane at XYZ company will review and approve the final article version before publishing.

This project will not include payment to external vendors for research or outsourced services.

Constraints may include communication delays, changes in scope, or technical difficulties.

Once the project scope statement is complete and approved, and a project is underway, the project scope will need to be carefully managed to avoid scope creep.

Scrope creep refers to a scenario whereby changes occur after the project has been started and the changes are not defined or anticipated within the scope statement. When scope creep occurs, it can negatively impact the project timeline, deliverable quality, resources, budget, and other aspects. Managing the scope of your project can help avoid unwelcome surprises.

In addition to the ongoing review and monitoring of project activities, there are steps that should be undertaken to manage the scope of the project to avoid scope creep.

The Introduction provides a high-level overview of the project.

State the scope of the project. This should include what the project does and does not include. This will help to clarify what is included in the project and help to avoid any confusion from project team members and stakeholders.

State the planned deliverables for the project.         

Define the acceptance criteria. What objectives will be met, and how will success be measured?

What is not included in the scope of this project.

Provide any constraints on the project, hard dates, staff or equipment limitations, financial or budget constraints, or any technical limitations. 

Developing a solid understanding of a project’s purpose and clearly defining, documenting, and managing your project scope, you can ensure that you are well-positioned to deliver a successful project without having to deal with scope creep.

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This story, "What is project scope? Defining and outlining project success" was originally published by CIO.