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Understanding Project Scope

What is project scope?

A project scope defines everything you need to do to get from objectives to the results. If you change the project's scope, it's likely to have implications for the project's cost, time, and quality.

Project scope is all the work required to complete a project's deliverables. By making it clear exactly what is required, you also make it clear what's not required. So project scope is like a boundary around a project, with everything required to complete it on the inside, and everything else outside.

If you don't draw a boundary clearly, too little may be put into a project and it will fail to meet requirements. Putting in too much could lead to schedules not being met and costs getting too high.

Like a project that is undertaken to build a product, the product itself has a scope. It's defined by all of the components, functions, and features the product must have to meet requirements, but not to exceed these. Project scope is the work required to deliver the product, so project scope is based on product scope.

The causes of scope creep

Scope creep is what happens when the scope of a project changes, without the change being managed. Often these changes can seem minor. Over time, unmanaged changes add up and can have a major impact on project costs, schedules, and quality.

The main causes of scope creep are:

• unexpected scope-related issues – Unexpected scope-related issues often arise during a project and these can change the project's requirements, or raise its complexity.
• perfectionism – Perfectionism can change the scope of a project, and end up costing too much time and money.
• placating stakeholders – Stakeholders may make requests that are beyond the original scope of a project. If you just try to avoid conflict by doing what they ask, it can change a project's scope. This may lead to delays and over-spending. Instead, you should discuss each request and consider how it will impact scope before going ahead.
• misunderstandings – Misunderstandings can change a project's scope if they affect what work is done, how long this takes, or how people on the project team understand requirements. So when you define scope, you need to be especially careful to avoid ambiguity or unclear statements. These can lead to conflict and costly delays or changes later.

Project scope is all the work required to complete the deliverables a project is intended to produce. If either more or less work is put in, it's likely a project will suffer. Product scope identifies the required features and function of a product, and may be one aspect of project scope. Scope creep occurs when changes to scope aren't detected early enough or managed. Causes of scope creep in a project include unexpected scope-related issues, perfectionism, placating stakeholders, and misunderstandings.