SCOPE MANAGEMENT PLAN GUIDE

<PROJECT NAME>
AUTHOR: ______________________ DATE: _____________
INTRODUCTION
The Scope Management Plan clearly defines who is responsible for managing the project’s
scope and acts as a guide for managing and controlling the scope.
This plan documents the scope management approach; roles and responsibilities as they
pertain to project scope; scope definition; verification and control measures; scope change
control; and the project’s overarching work breakdown structure.
SCOPE STABILITY
How likely is it that you will receive change requests, how frequently, and by how much will the
changes requested be?
Think about who your stakeholders are and what this project is about. For example, consider the
following:
• Projects with a diverse group of stakeholders are more likely to receive change requests
due to the differing perspectives and opinions.
• Projects delivering an output for the first time (e.g. a unique project, one that hasn’t
happened before, a new innovation or product being delivered) are more likely to receive
change requests as the stakeholders start seeing the project come to fruition for the first
time and wish to incorporate improvement upon improvement (such as more bells and
whistles, for instance).
• You may have worked with specific stakeholders before and are aware through
experience that they commonly request changes.
SCOPE STATEMENT
What? = Project Objective/s
Why? = Project Outcome/s
How? = Project Outputs
When? = End of Project date
Going by the above, your scope statement will look something like this:

This project will [insert Project Objective/s] by [insert End of Project date].
We are delivering this project to [insert Project Outcome/s].
We will achieve this by [insert Project Outputs].

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PROJECT SCOPE BOUNDARIES
IN SCOPE OUT OF SCOPE
e.g. Delivery of… e.g. Ongoing operations and maintenance of the
project outputs/deliverables beyond the project
end date.

SCOPE MANAGEMENT APPROACH

There will be changes throughout the project. Some changes are a result of a risk event
occurring or a project environment change, some are based on developing a deeper
understanding of requirements, and others are due to customer requests or other reasons.
Therefore, project managers should prepare a process for adapting plans throughout the
project. This may take the form of a change control process, reprioritising the backlog, or re-
baselining the project. Projects that have a contractual element may need to follow a defined
process for contract changes.
It is important that the approach to managing the project’s scope be clearly defined and
documented in detail. This section provides a summary of the Scope Management Plan in which
it addresses the following:
• Who has authority and responsibility for scope management
• How the scope is defined (i.e., Scope Statement, WBS, Business Case, Meeting minutes,
Statement of Work, etc.)
• How the scope is measured and verified (i.e., Quality Checklists, Scope Baseline, Key
Performance Measurements, etc.)
• The scope change process (who initiates, who authorises, etc.)
• Who is responsible for accepting the final project deliverable and approves acceptance
of project scope
For this project, scope management will be the responsibility of
 the Project Manager, supported by the Project Officer/Assistant
 the Project Sponsor, supported by the Project Manager.
Proposed project/scope changes may be initiated by
 any project stakeholder
 only internal stakeholders (e.g., inhouse staff, project team)
All such change requests will be submitted to
 the Project Officer/Assistant
 the Project Manager
 The Project Sponsor
 Anyone on the Project Team
Project Scope Management Plan – Guide (version 2: 26/04/2023) Page 2 of 3
who will record it and forward it on to the
 Project Manager
 Project Sponsor
who will then evaluate the requested scope change (analysing the impact of the scope change
request on the rest of the project).
Upon acceptance of the scope change request this person will advise of acceptance
(alternatively they may advise of rejection of the change request, giving appropriate reasoning
for their decision).
Upon approval of scope changes all project documents will be updated and communicated to
all relevant stakeholders. The person responsible for updating the project documentation and
communicating the project change to all relevant stakeholders for this project is:
 the Project Officer/Assistant,
 the Project Manager
SCOPE VALIDATION
Scope validation discusses how the deliverables (also referred to as outputs, products and
services) from the project will be formally accepted by the customer/client. i.e. the acceptance
criteria, the specifications which must be delivered.
e.g.,
As this project progresses the Project Manager will verify the project deliverables against the
agreed project scope.
The scope baseline for the project is the approved latest version of the project’s work
breakdown structure (WBS) 1.
Once the Project Manager verifies that the deliverables meet the requirements defined, the
Project Manager will meet the client for formal acceptance of the deliverables.
SCOPE CONTROL
Scope control is the process of monitoring the scope of the project throughout its lifetime –
recognising and avoiding scope-creep is the key goal here.
e.g.,
The Project Team will work together to control the scope of the project.
The project team will refer to the WBS to ensure that they perform only the work described to
achieve the defined deliverables.
The Project Manager will oversee the project team and the progression of the project to ensure
that this scope control process is followed.

1
You may determine that instead of the WBS, the latest agreed version of the Project Management Plan may
instead provide the scope baseline, or a Requirements Management Plan, or even this Scope Management Plan
document. A baseline can be changed only through formal change control procedures.

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