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Project Scope Statement

The purpose of the scope statement

The main output of the Define Scope process is the project scope statement. This is like an official agreement among all of the project stakeholders. It explicitly identifies what will and what won't be included in a project's deliverables.

The project scope statement has four main purposes:

1. defines the work – The project scope statement defines the work that will go into a project through progressive elaboration. This means it refines and expands on what the team already knows from the project charter and requirements documentation. It's also what feeds into the process of creating a detailed work breakdown structure, where further progressive elaboration occurs.
2. guides the project team – The scope statement makes it clear to the project team what will and won't go into a project. It describes the deliverables that must be created and the work effort and methods required to do this.
3. sets a baseline – The scope statement is one of the documents against which progress and change requests will be evaluated. It forms part of the scope baseline for a project.
4. sets stakeholder expectations – The project scope statement makes it clear to stakeholders what they can expect to receive, and what they can't, from a project. It's against these expectations that success will be measured.

Identifying important exclusions to include in the scope statement involves expert judgment. You should probe stakeholders and draw on the specialized knowledge of experts. The goal is to identify things that might reasonably be expected of deliverables but that don't actually fall within a project's scope.

Components of the scope statement

A project scope statement should have six main components. Together, these ensure everyone involved knows what falls within the project's scope. They also form a basis for determining how to manage all remaining activities in the project's life cycle.

The product scope description identifies all the attributes a deliverable must have to meet requirements. The product scope description is an important input for later processes. You use it to guide the development of a detailed work breakdown structure. You also use it as a baseline for later quality assurance activities, like quality testing and scope verification.

A description of project deliverables is another important component. This makes it clear what stakeholders should expect to receive, throughout a project and when the project closes. For example, deliverables might include documents for review at specified stages, completed components, and an end product or service.

A project scope statement should include product acceptance criteria. These are the standards stakeholders and the project team agree to use to judge whether the project's deliverables have met requirements. The criteria play an important role at the close of a project or any of its phases. They're used to verify scope and to confirm completion and acceptance of deliverables.

It's important to detail product acceptance criteria. Otherwise, it's possible that not everyone will agree that a requirement has been met, or even that a project is successfully completed.

As well as defining product acceptance criteria, the scope statement should identify project constraints. These include any factors that could limit the success of the project or pose possible risks. Describing constraints often helps make it clear why certain scope exclusions were made. This makes it more likely that stakeholders will understand and agree to the scope statement.

A final component that's important to define in the scope statement is project assumptions. This serves as a reminder to stakeholders and the project team. It's a risk that the documents won't arrive on time, in which case the project could run late.

As well as the project scope statement, the Define Scope process results in updates to project documents. Documents you may update are the stakeholder register, requirements documentation, and the requirements traceability matrix.

The process of analyzing all the components that go into the scope statement can make it clear where new requirements – or changes to existing ones – are necessary. So the two outputs of Define Scope are the project scope statement and updates to project documents.

The main output of the Define Scope process is the project scope statement. This statement progressively elaborates on the work of a project. It guides the work of the project team, sets the expectations of stakeholders, and provides a baseline for evaluating whether requested changes or additional work are within or outside the project's boundaries.

The project scope statement should include a product scope description, product acceptance criteria, and details of a project's deliverables, exclusions, constraints, and assumptions.

Another output from the Define Scope process is project documents updates.