Project Scope

• Product requirement

• Process requirement
• Often organizations know what they want in terms
of high-level project deliverables, but have not
gotten down to the nitty-gritty stuff 
 What is project scope
• Project scope is the part of project planning that involves
determining and documenting a list of specific project
goals, deliverables, features, functions, tasks,
deadlines, and ultimately costs.

• it is what needs to be achieved and the work that must be

done to deliver a project.

• It is important to pin down the scope early in a project’s life

cycle as it can greatly impact the schedule or cost (or both)
of the project down the track.
 Define the Product Requirements

• Before we determine what will be in the project’s scope,

you must be very clear about what are the product
requirements, otherwise known as product scope.

• In other words, what are the functions and features required

for the website, application being developed?

• Is there anything specifically that must be built into the

design? Must it follow a specific set of branding guidelines?
The list goes on.
 Define the Process Requirements
• Process requirements describe how people interact with a
product and how a product interacts with other (often
existing) business processes.

• When you discuss how data gets moved and how business
transactions flow from one point to another, you are
describing process requirements.

• For example, the requirements for billing transactions within

a website, how such transactions link to invoicing and
accounts, and at what point can staff view and alter the status
of orders needs to be detailed.
 Involve the correct stakeholders

• For a project to be delivered successfully, the correct

stakeholders from the organization commissioning the
project must be involved very intimately at various
stages of the project scope.

• When this does not occur, assumptions begin to be

made (which are generally subjective) and
stakeholder confusion can occur as the project goes
on.
 Identify the limitations

• Perhaps even more important than what is in-scope

for a project is what is out-of-scope for a project.

• Often it is crucial to document what will not be

done, especially when it comes to software
development – otherwise people will assume that
certain things are to be executed that were not
budgeted for or included in the project timeline.
 Change Management

• It is natural for parts of any large project to change along the way.

• While it is always best to avoid scope creep (a situation in which

one or more parts of a project ends up requiring more work),
sometimes it is unavoidable due to the changing nature of any business.

•  In order to avoid disagreements and changes to a project’s scope by all

stakeholders, both client-side and agency-side, it is best to have strict
change management processes in place. 

• Once scope is defined, it must not be changed without the appropriate

change management functions taking place,
• At its very basis, effective scope management
requires good communication to ensure that
everyone understands the requirements of the project
and agrees upon exactly how the project’s goals will
be met.

• Once you have this bedded down, you have the

foundation to commence and hopefully successfully
complete your project.
 How to define the scope of a project

• Defining project scope requires input from the project stakeholders, who together
with project managers establish the key elements of budget, objectives, quality
and timeline. 

• To determine a project scope, project managers must collect requirements for

what the stakeholders need from the project 

• this includes the project's objective or the project's deliverables, when the project
needs to be completed, and how much they can pay for it.

• The goal is to gather and record precise and accurate information

during this process, so that the project scope effectively reflects all requirements
and thus improves the chances for project leaders to deliver products that meet
stakeholder expectations on time and on budget.
 Writing a project scope statement

• A project scope statement is a written document that

includes all the required information for producing the
project deliverables

• The scope statement also provides the project team

leader with guidelines for making decisions
about change requests during the project.

• Better the project has been scoped at the beginning, the

better the project team will be able to manage change.
• The project scope statement also establishes what is not included in
initiatives, either implicitly or explicitly. 

• Objectives and tasks not listed in the project scope statement should be
considered out of scope.

• Project managers can also list specific work that will not be part of the
project.

• As such, this statement establishes the boundaries of each specific project.

• Project leaders need to take those requirements and map out what should
happen and in what order those items need to occur. 

• This generally leads to the creation of a work breakdown structure (WBS).

• As the name states, the work breakdown structure
breaks down the totality of planned work into smaller
portions and required tasks.

• Stakeholders for the project should have the

opportunity to review the project scope
statement, revise it as necessary and then approve it.

• Once a project scope is completed and approved, project

managers can effectively allocate tasks and give their
teams directions on what they each need to do to meet
the target timelines and costs.
 Project scope vs. product scope

• Cont.. Next lecture