Project Management

[ Project Management Topics ]

Scope Statement

The written scope statement identifies both the project deliverables and project objectives. It provides a basis for confirming or developing common understanding of project scope among the stakeholders.

The scope statement should include the following information:

  1. Strategy: An overview of the customers business needs in relation to the project and the business need the project was undertaken to address.
  2. Product of the project: A summary of the project deliverables.
  3. Project Objectives: Quantifiable goals in terms of time, money and technical quality that the project must achieve to be considered successful.
  4. Supporting detail: Description of all assumptions and constraints considered during the development of the scope statement.
  5. Scope Management Plan: A description of how the project scope will be managed and how agreed changes will be incorporated into the project deliverables. There is usually a separate document describing the change control process and a cross reference to that document should be included in the scope management plan.

The scope statement should be reviewed and approved by the project sponsor. The scope statement also should be approved by the customer. The customer’s version of the scope statement will not contain any supplier confidential information, e.g. budgeted costs.

The scope statement is the basis for further processes in the scope planning phase of the project, including scope definition, scope verification and scope change control.

Information taken from http://www.projectmagazine.com/sept01/scope1.html

Scope Statement Outcomes

Outcomes from scope planning should include a scope statement. A scope statement provides a documented basis for making future project decisions and for confirming or developing common understanding of project scope among stakeholders. This should include the following

General things often found in scope plans

Sample scope statements: