PROJECT SCOPE and Project Scope Management
It is important to know the difference between PROJECT SCOPE and Project Scope Management.
PROJECT SCOPE is the overall or total work to be performed in order to meet the client’s
requirements or expectations of the project. It includes the work required to create the products of the
project and the processes used to create them (i.e. the functional and non-functional requirements). It
necessarily implies identifying the boundaries of the work for the project, by determining what tasks
will be included in the project and those that will not be included.
Project Scope Management: refers to the processes involved in defining PROJECT SCOPE, and
controlling the performance of all tasks identified (i.e. those needed to successfully complete the
project within the PROJECT SCOPE). It ensures that all stakeholders have the same understanding of
what the products of the project will produce and what processes the project team will use to produce
them. It also ensures that, for the duration of the project, only those tasks defined by the PROJECT
SCOPE are undertaken, and that those outside the PROJECT SCOPE are not undertaken.
There are numerous processes involved in Project Scope Management:
1. Scope planning: involves deciding how the scope will be defined, verified, and controlled; also
how the WBS will be created. The scope management plan (SMP) is the main output for this
process. The SMP is a document that includes descriptions of how the team will prepare the
project scope definition, create the WBS, verify the completion of project deliverables, and
control changes to the PROJECT SCOPE; this plan will be defined as part of your Project
Management Plan (PMP). Refer to the textbook for details of the PMP and SMP.
2. Scope definition: typically, the output of scope definition is the project scope statement. A
scope statement should include:
A description of the project including:
Overall objectives and justifications
Detailed description of project requirements
Characteristics and requirements of the product
Specific success criteria
Scope boundaries, constraints, assumptions, milestones
In this unit, much of the information for the scope statement is obtained from the
Requirements and Analysis (R&A) Document. Refer to the textbook and the seminar slides
for details of this document.
3. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): involves subdividing the major project requirements into
smaller, more manageable components. All requirements identified in the R&A document are
hierarchically decomposed until only atomic tasks remain. It is important to organize and divide
the tasks involved in meeting the requirements into logical subdivisions based on how the work
will be performed.
A WBS can be depicted in numerous ways, such as: a task-oriented hierarchical tree (similar to
an organizational chart); in tabular form, using sub-layers of numbered bullet points. There are
numerous software products that are available to help in the representation of the WBS. As the
WBS should be directly utilized in the project scheduling process, typically using a Gantt chart,
Microsoft Project (or Planner in Linux) is a very handy application. Otherwise, Excel and Word
can be used. Refer to the textbook and the seminar slides for details of this deliverable.
